Assignment 14

1)     I’ve developed better feedback skills for my peer reviews, making sure to try to prove something for the other person to think about for the future rather than simply providing them with my agreement and experience. I’ve learned that rather than everyone personally criticizing me when giving feedback, they are doing the same thing I strive to do, making ourselves better and providing food for thought.

2)     Recently, I did my first elevator pitch. I felt like “giving up” and skipping the assignment or doing it as quickly as I could. I wasn’t confident in my ability to speak. I got frustrated at myself for not being able to remember my pitch, since I knew I was passionate about the issue. I set my expectation high for the assignment but in reality, it is just a first pitch. No one would expect perfection, but I’ve suffered with that my whole life and I’ve recently just started to understand that I can make honest mistakes and that having something to be better at is a good thing.

3)     Three tips:

-        Remember the purpose of this class and your UF education overall. You’re here to learn to prepare yourself for the future, not just to float by your coursework. It should challenge you cause the world will challenge you.

-        If you are working hard and you’re still “failing,” learn from your mistakes. Don’t blame others or other forces in the world for something you can try to work on. There are plenty of people to support you. But also, don’t beat yourself up either. Life is a journey.

-        Have a vision and a purpose. Even if you don’t necessarily know how to get there, I think it’s better to see the end of the path and find different directions rather than going in different directions trying to figure out where you want to go.