Week 7

Thursday, October 1st, 2020

We did the usual thing by starting off with the quiz as always. I was not home so I could not attend class but I did finish my quiz so that is all that mattered. I have been doing my school work from the hospital so I had to do my quiz without being in class. This week was still focused on spotting a bad mentee. Also, we talked about the nine motivations that can influence someone to become interested in becoming a leader or taking on a leadership role. The first motivation is a sense of duty or obligation. This could mean the person feels as if they have to repay someone or they feel like they owe the community to help out and do their part. The second motivation is to be in control or to have power. This means the person feels obligated to take control of the situation because if they do not then nothing will get done or, it will not get done correctly. This kind of person is organized and might feel weird if someone else is in charge. The third motivation is domination. This kind of person strives to be in charge of others to feel worshiped in a way. They want others to look up to them. This person will bully others into submission so they can be in absolute control. The fourth motivation is honor, motivation, and recognition. A person using this motivation will want to be glorified by the community for the work they do. They might ignore other’s work or accomplishments because they think it will make their own accomplishments not seem as great. The fifth motivation is prestige. A person using this motivation wants to stand out amongst their peers. This person will want to be recognized for their achievements and be awarded a medal or an event that revolves around them. The sixth motivation is the love of design. This person will enjoy planning, writing rules, etc to make sure everyone can work together happily to get the job done. They will welcome challenges and deal with them happily. The seventh motivation is the love of humanity. This person will be happy to help others. They want to see others be happy so they do the work for the well-being of others. They also have no personal gain from doing the work they do. The eighth motivation is nurturing concern. This person will be a caring person, such as a parent or caregiver. They pay attention to details and will care about your every need. The final motivation is profit. This person wants material items such as money or any kind of compensation for their time.

Tuesday, October 6th, 2020

This week we are focusing on advocating for others. The reading for this week is by Larry Kramer called The Normal Heart. This is a play about the AIDs epidemic amongst the gay community in the early 1980s in New York. One of the main characters is Ned Weeks which is somewhat based on Larry’s life. Part of the assignment was to answer a few questions which are related to the play. The first question is “Reflect on three times in your life you’ve chosen to take a chance by speak up about a problem that you feel is a problem with your organization, your community, or the world more generally. How did it go? Were you well-received? Did your speech change anything? To what extent was your speech timely, relevant, clear, and compelling? Was there any discrepancy between how you felt the speech went and how it was received?” One of the times I chose to speak up was when I was a second lieutenant in Air Force JROTC. We had to organize a blood drive twice a year. The first blood drive did not go as planned so the Cheif sat us down and was asking for ideas on how to make the second one better. Everyone had their opinion but it would not have helped anything. So I laid it out “play by play” to make sure everyone knew where it went wrong and what options we had to make it work. For the most part, it went well. I think it was well-received because no one really opposed my ideas. Some people even added on to my ideas with their own which made it work better. The speech did help because the next blood drive went much better than the first one. It was short and sweet, it was very relevant since we were asked for feedback. Another time I spoke out is when I was doing community service for my Delta Gems organization. We were speaking to younger kids about what it meant to be part of a community. Everyone had to give a small speech about how they felt to be involved in their community and how it impacted the community. I spoke about feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving and giving toys to children at an orphanage and how it made me feel about my community. I also talked about how it made me feel to be able to help out others in need. It made me a lot more grateful for what I had. We were talking to a group of 13–to 16-year-old so if the information was well received is kind of unknown. Kids in that age range are not really focused on helping their community. I would like to think that our speeches got to them and they helped out in the community a little bit. The last time I spoke up was when I was an officer of a club at my school called the International Club. We studied and appreciated the different cultures of the world. We were planning a trip to Hawaii mainly for the seniors. We started planning this trip in 11th grade and at some point, it started not going good so someone had to step up to get everything organized. Everyone had got unmotivated to finish planning the trip because we hit a bump in the road. I had to find a new travel agent because the one we had disappeared with a lot of our information. I had to sit them down and give them a motivational speech about not giving up and staying focused. They took what I said to heart and they got motivated to finish planning the trip. We finished planning around the end of 11th grade so by senior year all we had to do was pay for the trip. Unfornutaley, we could not go on the trip because of COVID19.

Another assignment I had to do was answer the questions at the end of the reading. The questions are, “ What are the traits and behaviors that can get in the way of you being a better advocate for others? How many of these traits and behaviors of Ned do you see in yourself? Identify one or two of these traits that you feel you could improve upon and announce either to a group or privately to a trusted friend your intention and your plan to work on these traits. If necessary, ask them to give you advice or at least hold you accountable.” The traits and behaviors in the way of me being a better advocate for others are, me being shy and not like talking to people. I need to be more open and put myself out there enough so that when the time comes for me to speak out, I will be heard. I see a few of the traits that apply to Ned, also apply to me. One of those is that I expect too much of myself. I hold myself to a higher standard than everyone else. I expect myself to be at 100% all the time because if I am not then that means other people can take my place and I do not want that. Another trait we have in common is that I do not want to come off as weak. I want to seem as if I am strong mentally and physically so it is very rare that I will ask for help. The last trait we have in common is that I can not work with people that I do not respect because I will not give my all into the assignment. I will hold back just simply because I know that I do not respect them as a person. I really want to work on expecting too much of myself and not wanting to ask for help. I Have reached out to a good friend of mine who said they will help me work on those traits. He will hold me accountable and responsible for my actions.

The last set of questions are, “what have been the issues in life you have cared about most so far and have even advocated for? How did you come to care about these issues? Do you feel satisfied in your advocacy at this point? Are there any decisions you could make right now, in order to become a better advocate or get behind a better cause? Which of the following statements best characterize how you see yourself?” One of the main issues I have become passionate about is stroke awareness. My brother died from a stroke and he was my best friend so I have tried to bring more attention to strokes. I have done my research on how to identify when someone is having a stroke and what to do once you realize a person is having a stroke. I feel like I have done a good job bringing awareness to the situation but, I feel as if I could be doing more to bring much more attention to it. So by working on the traits mentioned above, I will hopefully be able to bring much more attention to the topic. The statement that I feel applies to me the most is, “I care deeply about a lot of issues but I find it difficult to advocate for them.” I do care about a lot more than just that one topic but, it is harder for me to find the motivation I need in order to fully advocate for it.

In class today we had a full class about discussing the questions on the textbook. We spent the beginning of class talking about politics. We discussed the President having COVID19 and being released from the hospital 3 days later. We also talked about the upcoming vice presidential debate. After this, we talked about the play for how it related to the other stories we have read so far. At the end of the class, we took a survey to talk about the traits Ned showed and how they applied to us.