Feedback Thoughts!

I actually like receiving feedback on my work, whether it be on my writing or on my duties as an Exec member of my organizations. I like knowing HOW I am doing in my work. If I am not doing what I need to be doing, or if I can make what I'm doing better, I'll embrace any feedback coming my way! The only thing that bothers me is when people give negative feedback instead of constructive feedback. If people type something out that comes off as rude, I often get a little upset, but try to fix the issue anyway. However, if people use words like "hey maybe this will work better!" or "hey that looks good but try this!" I don't mind at all - in fact, I love it.

Source: My only request when it comes to giving feedback. (kind of a biochemistry related pun, but it applies)

One of the articles I read was The Psychology of Comparison and How to Stop. I liked this article because I tend to compare myself to others all the time! I often used to compare myself to my sister, who is 6 years older than me. If she made an A in a certain course, and I was struggling in it, I would wonder why! I wouldn't want to disappoint my parents by making less than what she had made. However, I soon realized that although my sister and I may look exactly alike, our personalities and brains are definitely different. Now, I find myself comparing myself to others who are also studying for the MCAT with me. Some of my friends are ahead of studying than me, and I keep doubting my abilities. However, I sometimes need to step back and realize we have different study habits and way of learning things, so I should just keep my head in the game and "be a racehorse" (as the article says) and not focus on how others are doing, because that will only bring me down. 

The second article I read was 6 Bad Mental Habits That Sabotage Your Success. This article was also helpful by putting things in perspective for me. I definitely doubt by abilities all the time, especially if I don't do as well on a test as I would like, or if I am struggling in a class even though I do all my work and study a lot. Everyone has their weaknesses and strengths, though, so I shouldn't berate myself for my weaknesses; rather, I should learn how to make those into strengths. I also second-guess myself on many things, which I know I shouldn't do, but I can't help it! I naturally worry about a lot of things, including my choices and if I made the right decision. I think I have recently gotten a little more confident in myself, but I still need to work on it.

Topic Brainstorm!

At first, I thought brainstorming for ideas was going to be really difficult, since it is only week 2 and we haven't read all the stories yet. However, I looked through the Project Ideas Index and found so many options! All at once, different ideas came flooding to me. 

#1) One of the listings on the page was Supernatural Characters of the Ramayana. My mind immediately went to Doctor Who. It is so intriguing to learn about supernatural creatures so I looked at some of the stories listed on the page. They mentioned rakshasas, which I am a little familiar with only because I know Ravana is considered a bad demon. However, I do not know much about the other rakshasas, especially the female ones. I would like to learn more about these creatures and how they are involved in the Ramayana. I like this past story, called Ravana Diaries, because it gives Ravana a voice and we finally get to see the situation from his point of view. I have a few ideas for this story, but I'm not sure which will write better yet. One of my ideas is writing it in first person, where I am the companion to the Doctor in Doctor Who. We would go to the place that Ravana held Sita and help Ram and Hanuman fight off Ravana and the other rakshasas. Another story I could develop is having good rakshasas in the mix, and us trying to figure out which ones are good and bad while trying to fight them off. Another idea I had was giving Ravana or another rakshasa a background story, so that we can see WHY a lot of rakshasas are bad. 

#2) When I saw the listing for Animal Characters of the Ramayana, I thought about the Lion King (which may partially be due to the fact that I am wearing a Lion King shirt as I write this). I am thinking of making the story set in Africa and replacing Simba with Lord Rama, Scar with Ravana, and Nala with Sita. I would like to add Hanuman in there, but Timone and Pumba are a perfect duo so I might add Hanuman as a monkey in the jungle that befriends them before Simba comes along. I want to learn more about the animal characters that assist Rama or Hanuman in the many battles they encounter. I feel like there is a ton I could write about this in the Lion King setting, because Rama was exiled for 14 years, and Simba also left his home for years. Each one encountered many things in the forest, so I could potentially write many stories about different animals they came across and how they helped. Two resources that I found pertaining to animal characters in the Ramayana were Campfire Animal Tales and a Wikipedia page about Nala. I thought it was very interesting that there is a character named Nala in the Ramayana and in the Lion King!

#3) Another listing in the Project Ideas Index was about Nagas and Naginins. Obviously, knowing me, my mind went straight to Harry Potter because Lord Voldemort's snake was named Nagini. In Harry Potter, she was an evil snake, since she carried one of Voldemort's horcruxes with her. In the Mahabharata, snakes, or nagas, are seen as evil also. I was thinking that in my stories, I could make Nagini a good character. I know that Lord Shiva carries a snake on his shoulders, so maybe Nagini could be his pet instead of an evil person's. Snakes in my culture are seen as auspicious and many people pray to snakes and give it milk, as they believe killing snakes would be offensive to Lord Shiva. I would like to learn more about snakes in the Ramayana and Mahabharata and see why some are portrayed as evil and maybe even turn that around.

#4) Finally, I had a few ideas about the Festivals and Holidays listing. My family celebrates a lot of festivals in our home so it would be fun to learn more about each one, the historical background of each one, and be able to turn it into another story. I was thinking I could talk about Diwali, since it is believed that this holiday celebrates the return of Lord Rama after his 14 years of exile. I could combine a few of my ideas by including a re-tell of what Lord Rama encountered in the forest, but also exiling him to the African forest where Simba went in the Lion King. Then I could have Nala, or Sita, come and help him on his journey back once the 14 years were over. I'm not really sure about the other plots as of yet, but I'm sure once I read through the entire Ramayana and Mahabharata, I can combine and mix-and-match some characters to make a story out of this! I also love celebrating Krishna Janmashtami, which is when Krishna is born. I could provide a back story of how he was born or even the stories of when he is a little kid and his first battles. Another resource I could use for this one would be the small stories I have about Krishna as well as many other Gods and Goddesses. (see the picture below)

This is a personal picture that I took of all the little stories and information I have about some of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. I'm hoping to find inspiration for my stories through these.

Week 2 Story: The Girl Who Gathered Respect

Sofia Hernandez saw her class schedule for the semester, and the first name she saw was Dr. Donald. Her heart nearly skipped a beat. He was the most difficult professor that she had ever heard of. He is known for belittling his students, especially women, because he does not think women should be in the engineering field at all. Her friends who had taken his class both warned her of him and his way of calling out female students on extremely difficult questions, that he knows are hard for everyone. 

Sofia began her first day of the Fall 2017 semester with a happy start and was determined to make the best of this year, whether her professors were helpful or not. Finally, the time for Dr. Donald's class arrived. Sofia walked in and saw Dr. Donald asking student's names as they walked in. However, not all the students' names. Just the male students. When Sofia decided to question it, his response was "you girls won't be in my class much longer, why would I bother learning your names?" When Sofia looked shocked at his rude comment, he replied with "I give it one week. It'll be too much for you to handle." 

Sofia was warned of his crudeness, but didn't think he would be outright cruel in front of the whole class. Nevertheless, she continued with the class and was determined to prove him wrong. She spent hours in her room studying, and when she needed inspiration, she would call her parents and stare at the motivational posters on the wall. She passed the first three tests with flying colors. Dr. Donald was actually shocked at this, and tried finding evidence that she cheated on those tests. Finally, when he couldn't find any (because there was nothing to find), he began to devise a final exam just for Sofia, which consisted of problems that were of much higher difficulty than the final exams that the rest of the class received. 

Sofia, knowing how unreasonable and cruel Dr. Donald could be and knowing how well she was doing in the class, was suspicious of what he may do for her final exam. She began studying a month in advance for her final exam, and spent hours every night going over the material. She read the entire textbook, including material that won't be covered until the next semester. Finally, when the day of the final arrived, Dr. Donald thought she would soon fail the class and have to throw her engineering dreams away. Much to his disappointment, she started working on it immediately. Dr. Donald thought to himself, "Surely she can't answer these questions, even I didn't know how to solve these until my last year of graduate school..." Sofia kept working on the exam until the last minute. When she turned it in, Dr. Donald read through her answers and immediately realized that her intelligence and maturity was far beyond his own. He was fired from teaching the next day, and Sofia received a great job opportunity before even graduating from the university.

Source: One of the many posters that Sofia has in her room.

Authors Note: 

This story is another version of The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses. The original story was about a monkey king named Devadatta who had many sons. He feared they would take over his kingdom so whenever he encountered one, he killed him. Bodhisatta, however, knew of his father's tactics. He went to him and Devadatta asked him to bring him lotuses from a lake that an ogre lived in. Bodhisatta quickly figured out the trick, and ended up befriending the ogre, which killed Devadatta. Bodhisatta was then named the new king. 

I wanted to change the story, but keep the central plot of someone being underestimated and tricked, and having the plan backfire on the villain. I set the story on the OU campus, specifically the life of a female engineering student because I think they are highly underestimated all the time. I replaced Devadatta with Dr. Donald and replaced Bodhisatta with Sofia Hernandez. I decided not to kill Dr. Donald because I think getting fired from such an esteemed position after working so hard for it would be miserable enough.

Hope you guys liked it! Feel free to leave comments/suggestions since this is the first time I've done something like this :-)

Bibliography. Tayodhamma Jataka in The Jataka: Volume 1 translated by Robert Chalmers. Web Source.

Reading Notes: Lotuses and Goblins

Two of the stories in the Jataka Anthology that I liked best or thought I could re-tell in certain ways are: The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses and Goblin City. These two had some pretty neat themes and plots that were interesting to me.

The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses

I really liked this story because it served Devadatta right. I love stories in which someone is seen as weak or dumb or incompetent, and they end up outshining the rest because it gives hope to those that need it. To the people who are seen as weak by their classmates or teachers, even. So seeing how a son outsmarted his father was neat and I think I will use this for my story re-telling this week by changing the setting to a classroom on the OU campus. I won't disclose my entire story here, but it's something that has been on my mind recently and I feel like it would make a good story.

Goblin City

This story was really interesting due to the fact that the females were in charge. I think that is something awesome and something new, because oftentimes people picture men as the ones in charge and so demanding of resources. I like how the women were in charge, although they were not the best creatures. :-) I was thinking of recreating this story into a sort of "Boy Who Cried Wolf" kind of story, or one where the goblins aren't necessary evil. This could go in so many directions and I'm not sure which one I will choose for the storytelling this week!

Source: I thought this picture was really neat because it seems like Buddha is everywhere, always seeing, and always knowing. 

Reading Options

I am really excited to read all the stories this semester! I love folktales and myths so I am interested in those stories and to see how much of them I have heard of already. I looked through the folktales and picked a few that I would be interested to read. One of the ones I picked was How the Jackal Ate the Elephant from the Panchantantra because I have a book at home with Panchantantra tales and I think I may have read or heard of this one before, but I have forgotten those tales now so it would be neat to read them again with a different perspective. I also picked The Brahmin and the Goat for the same reason. Lastly, I picked a tale from Deva/Devi called Garuda: Vishnu's Divine Mount because in the temple during certain celebrations, we pick up a huge statue of Vishnu on Garuda and parade outside. I never learned much about Garuda or how he came to be so it would be interesting to learn that.

I am also really excited to read the Ramayana and Mahabharata books, because I have grown up reading the children's versions of those books, which are probably a lot happier than the real ones. 

Source: A picture of Lord Vishnu on Garuda.