Communicating differently



In quarantine I have:

1. Tried convincing my parents to let me foster a puppy
2. Failed at that
3. Done Yoga almost every day with two good friends
4. Watched a LOT of Bon Appetit videos (been tempted to start making sourdough too)
5. Played guitar
6. Had my summer program canceled and subsequently applied to like 15 jobs
7. Gotten less than 2,000 steps in per day according to my FitBit
8. Introduced my family to ~spices~
9. Deep cleaned my entire bedroom
10. Decreased my resting heart rate by 9 beats per minute by doing nothing (guess its the stress)


I'd taken two CI-Ms before 20.109, neither of them in Course 20 to which most people respond "why would you do that to yourself ?!" They were fun classes OK. In my Course 15 CI-M, I learned how to make engaging PowerPoint pitches, send quick emails to my hypothetical boss, and how to be a better team member. Then came my literature CI-M: a class studying women's role in American society through cookbooks. I wrote 5 papers for that class ranging from the Pioneer Woman and Betty Crocker to racially charged food blogs.
I did well, I pride myself in being good at communicating and now 20.109.... I've written a lot but everything feels wrong. Animated PowerPoint pitches are excessive, and why would I care about the Pioneer Woman! Scientific writing is hard ðŸ˜” There's so much to think about and personal voice is gone. I am grateful to be learning this way though so I don't show up to my next Lab meeting with a colorful slide deck.

My brain is mush and I feel like what I learned this semester I lost somewhere in my excessive two-week-spring-break sleep. The curve is steep to get back up to speed. So here is a meme, not sponsored by my communication classes.




Thank you to the instructors for holding our hands along the way.

- Iris





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