Week 8 Growth Mindset: Becoming a Better Writer

(Tree growing out of a book)

In this class, I have been able to discover several of my strengths. I had always thought of myself as being a poor writer. I never thought that I had the creativity needed to write an interesting story. I use to always dread writing essays so I eventually equated that to writing stories. However, as the semester progressed and I wrote more and more stories, I was able to discover that I was actually a better writer than I gave myself credit for. I realized this from the many positive feedback that I received from my peers. Even though writing stories in this class is an assignment, I still found myself wanting to do it. I didn’t feel as if it hindered my willingness to write. I really like how Laura made the class a fun learning environment. The assignments don’t even seem like assignments. She also gives us more than enough chances for extra credit so that we have the opportunity to rest. This helps me a lot since for some weeks, my creativity would be quite low. I will continue to try and practice my writing skills as the semester progresses.

My Growth Mindset

As a student who has experienced our education system, I have become aware of many things. I have seen instructors who aren’t enthusiastic about teaching, I have seen students who lose their determination to do well, I have seen our education becoming less and less important, etc. I have found myself losing interest to learn. Sometimes, I simply feel as if I’m just going through the motions of life without much direction or reason. It’s like you work hard to achieve something that you don’t truly want but you do it anyways because it’s the most conventional thing to do. Before this course, I had never heard of Carol Dweck or the growth mindset before. After watching some of her videos, I found myself really thinking. I would like to believe that I have a potential growth mindset. I say this because I know that with the determination to do so, I would be able to succeed but I find myself being quite unmotivated most of the time.

(A Meme representation of one of  Carol Dweck's Mindset Quotes: This image is from a blog.) 

While I have been at OU, I have seen so many people who I would have never imagined to excel in a course that I had thought I would. This discouraged me. At first I didn’t understand because, to put it blatantly, they just looked like they cared more about partying and drinking than their education. I soon realized the error in my views. I came to understand that unless you truly know the person, you shouldn’t assume their lives for them. That is why one of my personal goals for this semester is to stop trying to compare myself to everyone else. I am my own unique self and I was given the opportunity to be the first one in my family to go to college and further my education and therefore I should work hard to expand my knowledge.