“The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy, we can all sense a mysterious connection to each other.” -Meryl Streep

This week in Hixson Seminar we discussed Cultural Diversity. In lecture a guest speaker, Sylvester Gaskin, spoke about his experiences with cultural diversity and the various conceived definitions of diversity. The following Thursday in recitation we discussed our identities and how we have been influenced by cultural diversity. After evaluating my connections with diversity and dimensions of my identity I came to realize that I mostly have positive connotation with my identities and have not experienced times when it was particularly painful to be associated with such titles.

When filling out a worksheet about the dimensions of my identity I chose American, friend, middle class, Dutch heritage, female, sister, and Christian. I chose these because most describe uncontrollable descriptors of my identity, and the others such as Christian and friend are things by which I chose to identify myself. I believe that other people would agree with these identifiers because most are uncontrollable. I hope that I effectively live in such a way that points to Christ.

I don't remember many of the dimensions that others chose to describe themselves, but most of the girls chose female, and if I recall correctly most of us also chose to identify with being American. I remember specifically that my peer mentor also said sister because she is proud to be the sister of men who have fought in the military for our country. One difference I noticed was when someone said that it is painful at times to be a student because of the financial burden. I disagree, I feel I am blessed to have been afforded the opportunity for education especially with the financial assistance of the Hixson Award.

This week when I see people who are different from myself I will try to be intentional not to first respond with judgement but with understanding and an open mind. When friends or acquaintances are struggling with something I won't think that they are overreacting or just complaining because you never know how many trials and burdens on their heart they're facing at that time.

“Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not - and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation - in its’ arguably most [transforming] and [revealing] capacity it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.” 
― J.K. Rowling

Social Media Week

In the week following Social Media Week, I had so many unfortunate events that I titled it the "Series of Unfortunate Events." Social Media Week feels like it was weeks ago, not just one. Before I blog about what I learned from that week, I am going to share what all occurred this week that has definitely changed my outlook on Social Media Week.

On Monday night on of our friends experienced spontaneous full body paralysis and went to the hospital. On Tuesday some friends and I missed a few classes to stay with her. She is still unable to walk without assistance.

On Wednesday night 4 other girls and I were headed to Cedar Falls for the Salt Company kick-off for UNI. On the way, only about 20 minutes from Cedar Falls I hit a deer with my car going about 70 mph. My car is totaled, but all the passengers are fine! 

Don't forget that I still have a broken arm from the second week of school. 

On Saturday my brother started getting a backache which progress on Sunday morning into severe pain in his neck, chest, and collar bone area. He spiked a fever on Monday of 103 and was in even more pain. I took him into the McFarland Clinic Tuesday to see what it was and we were sent to the hospital for a CT scan and now he has been admitting for test, antibiotics, and pain medicine. He have no idea what it is for now or how long he'll be in the hospital. Last night he spiked a fever of 104.3. So please just keep DJ and our family in your prayers. He'll be poked and prodded quite a bit for the next day or so. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors treating him, and peace for his mind as he is stressing about classes and other commitments.

As you can see, I have had a week of trials that have forced me to surrender to the strength and stability of God. As I sit down to write this blog from my brother's hospital room, I can't find the interest for Social Media Week, but I will try to answer the assigned questions.

I chose to engage in Twitter for Social media week. I learned that if you hashtag the same thing for 20 tweets in a row, people tend to get curious and ask questions. I also learned that if you tweet big organizations they often say thanks for the mention! Whoo. Go AOTA. I already use twitter fairly regularly, and I enjoy that type of social media; however, I did not consider using it to get name-recognition for education and my career. I agree with the article about how twitter can boost your happiness. Through all my trials this week seeing the jokes and prayers sent over twitter and Facebook I have been encouraged and my spirits have definitely been lifted. I think God can use social media. I was surprised that social media can be used for survival. That's crazy! 

Social Media does have an impact on individuals and on populations of people. Its interesting to investigate the various effects of Social Media.