Blessing

To use what I have learned from my family
that the calling is sacred and came from god
for my light that I have shown forth
For my valiance
for spiritual strengths that I have not recieved yet
for knowledge that I will find
for success in school
for success in the RS
be a blessing to the president of the RS

Tortellini Soup

2 cartons of chicken broth
heat to a simmer
add chopped onion
2 tbs parsley
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 c grated carrot
simmer for 10 min then add
1 pkg of fresh cheese tortellini
bring to a boil
tortellini will float to the top when it's ready

essays

I had a cool experience at the beginning of the semester. I entered my Organic Chemistry class and realized that I was not friends with anyone in the class. That poses two problems. First, I don’t know who to sit with, and second I don’t have anyone to study with. I found a few faces I recognize from my Chemical Engineering courses and braved an introduction. I introduced myself and asked if I could sit with them. They of course agreed and I started making friends with other Chemical Engineers.

Later on in the semester there was an introductory MEP activity and two of my new friends were discussing their potential attendance, and this sounds really childish, but I got excited. I literally thought “They are just like me!” They are Chemical Engineers who are a part of the Multicultural program as well.

I guess it is pretty easy to feel lost in the sea of people in any kind of organization, especially in a large educational institution such as OU. I was realizing that even though there are so many people it is very possible to find people that you can connect with. There is another side to this discovery, I would like to get more involved with the program, but I am pretty “white” compared to most the kids in the program. This causes me to be a little hesitant in involvement, but I found friends to help me get the nerve to be more involved!

The moral of this story is that this organization is important because it helps us find people we can relate to, and we can find people that become collaborators in our studies. I think it is very important for us in our education to find friends. It helps us build on our abilities and leader, collaborators, and team workers as well as helps us study.

In our engineering courses we are given real world problems that we have to solve. We have to use the formulas and examples we have learned in our course work and apply it to a new situation that may be different from our examples we have come across before. We take our information that we know and apply it to this new problem that exists in real world parameters. We take our formulas and write an equation that explains this problem. It explains the forces and parameters that we are dealing with. We then take this information and use it to build and create.

The problem with this function of one person solving problems is that one person cannot see everything. We observe with only our own understanding, which our own understanding is based off of what we see and what we know. However, we cannot see everything and know everything at one time. This is why we need teams. This is why we need leaders, and this is why we need to collaborate. This is what diversity is.

Diversity is not just a difference in appearance, diversity is a difference in the way we see the world. We need diversity in everything, because the world is not monochromatic and our real life engineering problems and not contained in single variable ideal situations.

Diversity helps us learn and it helps us move forward. We need to have differences in understanding and opinion to progress. If we did not question things in life, or our engineering situations, then we would not have a trigger to help us move forward. We take our questions and begin to explore then and expand our understanding. In doing so we are able to solve questions, find answers, and help progress. This is what diversity is, it is not just the language we speak, the food we eat, or the places we grow up. It is the way we see the world, and how we can collaborate to grow.

I have had a number of diverse achievements in my life. I have always been very goal oriented and strive to always be working on improving. After I finished my first marathon I learned a very important aspect of achievements and goals. A goal is something that we want to do. It is an action that is very different from something that we do in our normal lives. Most the time this action that is our goal takes a change, it could be an emotional, spiritual, mental, or physical change. Change takes time and consistency.

When I finished running the marathon I was tired, but it was a tired I had experienced before. I was able to go to a dance afterwards. I had trained my body that even after running for five hours I still hand strength. Obviously this is not possible without training. Running the marathon was pretty cool, but it wasn’t really the goal. It was each and every day that I ran that was the goal. Running those 5 hours was not a big deal that day because I had trained my body to do it. Overcoming the goal was each and every morning that I got up for six months, even when I was too tired to think, or it was so cold that the air froze my breath inside my lungs. Overcoming a goal is actually overcoming the smaller hurdles that happen every single day. Each goal has an aspect of discipline that we must develop.

Engineering is not an easy field to go into. Course work is not really a simple battle to handle. It takes learning a new way of thinking. However each day I get up and tackle the assignments and tests like I did when I was running. I may not be the fastest, I may not be the smartest, and there are some days that I will fail. I will fail just like when I hurt my ankles running, or I tripped and I was out of commission for a couple of weeks. However, I know that I am building the strength and determination so that in the end I can do it.