Nicole Silva , March 24

New experiences 

      Over the last few weeks groups in the class have been presenting their topics for the new presentation. Although it is not the first presentation, we've done this semester I like how similar it was to the first presentation but also different. This recent presentation depended on the group, for example, I was a part of group 3. The group that I was a part of focused on self-help, but we also divided and paired up with another person in the group in order to be able to present our subtopics relating to self-help. Personally, I enjoy talking about self-help and the many different ways you can be able to focus on yourself as well as be a better you. For my subtopic, I paired up with Rashell who is also in group 3. I enjoy working with my peers as they are very creative and easy to work with. Rashell and I specifically focused on “social self-care”. In our presentation, we discussed ways you can be able to be socially as well as be able to take care of yourself at the same time and set boundaries. One thing that was different about this presentation is that we were able to interview a person for our topic. If I'm being honest at first, I was hesitant at the idea of interviewing someone at first as I can sometimes be shy. However, the assignment pushed me to put myself out there and express myself as well as communicate with someone new and ask them new things. For our assignment, I ended up interviewing Lisbeth Alvarez, she is a behavior therapist and typically works with kids as well as trying to replace their problem behaviors and help for them to include themselves in the community. In our presentation, we also discussed social media as it is both good and bad. Social media can be good because it can allow you to not only meet new people but also reconnect with old friends or stay in contact with current ones, but it also lets you express yourself online. However, social media can also be a tough place as it also has people called trolls who seem to always be negative and even lead to cyberbullying. It is important that when on social media you respect and treat others well as you never know who is having a hard time out there. Also, it is suggested that time on social media be limited and take care of yourself as it can be a toxic place. In our presentation, we also talked about self-perception and how it is basically how your view yourself, but it also connects to a self-image which is a personal view or mental picture of yourself, Ideal self which is a vision and ambitions of whom you want to be, and self-esteem which is how much worth and value you believe you have. While researching the topic Rashell and I learned a lot about self-perception and how if negative it not only affects your self-perception but as well your self-esteem. Thinking positively will lead to increasing all those things, therefore, leading to a happier you, and slowly you will see how your self-esteem as well as other things increase. Overall, I ended up enjoying all of group 3’s topics, they just so happened to be something that really called to me. However, one topic that I enjoyed the most was physical self-care which was presented by Melany. She talked about the importance of exercise and physical health which can be overlooked by many people. It is very important for everyone but not many will do it. In the last few years, it's been seen that a lot of people have actually started going, after covid and quarantine a lot of people seemed to get inspired but mostly a lot of women. I have been going to the gym for about 3 years now, at first, it was just a way to stay healthy and go for at least 40 minutes and work on cardio, but as time went on I started to get more comfortable and eventually got into lifting which makes me very happy. Fast-forward to the present time, although I am very busy throughout the day, I make an effort to wake up early to go to the gym daily and make it work and sometimes even invite friends to encourage them and help them get out of their shells. It is understandable that the gym may seem like a very scary place to many as you typically think it is going to be filled with muscular big men or you feel as if you're going to be judged because you're new. Most people don’t even realize it is a way to let out their frustration, and the advice I give people is if you're scared or if it's out of your zone you don’t have to go the gym. There are many ways you can be able to exercise whether it is biking at a park, going on walks with friends, or even trying new things like rock climbing. Exercising doesn’t have to be painful or exhausting it can also be fun, you just must find your preference, but you’ll never know until you try. When doing these presentations, we don’t even realize we are encouraging others and influencing them to take care of themselves. In each presentation given, I learned a lot. With this class and this assignment, we’ve been encouraged to build our own presentations and present in whichever style we like. Everyone has expressed their creativity differently and I enjoy seeing how every student's slides are different. It is a great experience that has led more students to be comfortable while presenting even if it’s through a computer.