#Crochet

I FINALLY MADE TIME TO FINISH MY CROCHET OCTOPUS PROJECT!!!!!

So a few months ago (before school started) I started a crochet animal but then school started and I didn't have time to finish it until recently.

This is what I made, in a tutorial video! Enjoy.

This is what I made, in a tutorial video! Enjoy.
Also, I've decided I like making these tutorial videos for crochet, and I will be making more in the future. Even though this one wasnt all that great I will learn and get better at making them, because I love doing it.

And this is what I will be making next:

~Birdy

#greek

So today, actually at this moment while I am typing, I am "listening" to a guest lecturer speak on... We'll something. He is saying something about why ancient literature on how Hannibal crossing the Andes mountains is significant for something. In case you havn't noticed I have entirely lost interest in this lecture, mainly because most of it is in greek and latin and partly because I don't see the point in this lecture. He is talking about a man taking an army across a mountain, and the purpose of the speech has nothing to do with war tactics or overcoming mountains.

But more importantly I noticed his method of delivery is dry. Listening to this man ramble on about... something made me wonder why positive psychologists are more entertaining to listen to than ancient historians. Then I thought of my communications class (because that is the subject on which I am pondering, why one communicator is successful and he other not so). Why are historians lacking in communication while therapists communicate wonderfully on average? I suppose I can't generalize that far.

My conclusion is that historians don't try to connect to their audience or to draw them in, they assume if the audience wants to listen they will just automatically listen and follow the historians content. I think therapists overcome this easily by their subject matter. Therapists are always talking about how humans work, and si their first sentence always goes something like, " im going to tell you how you or your friends work," which all of us are interested in and so we listen. Historians don't have that advantage, they should tell us at the beginning what their material has to do with us, either as an individual or as a human race, to attract our attention.

I guess what I really learned today is how important it is to connect with your audience.

~Birdy

#Exercise

Warning: this one is pretty personal and slightly dramatic if you can't respect that then you should not read this.

I cant emphasize enough how important excercise is, and also how important leisure is, to every individual's lifestyle.

These past two weeks have been really hard, I fractured my ankle (I thought I sprained it but I guess not) and so I couldn't run on the treadmill anymore. The first two-three days were itchy, I just itched to workout. The next week I had symptoms similar to depression. One day I sat in my room and just felt awful about everything. I didn't see the bright side of anyone or anything. To be honest with you, sitting around my apartment for that long made me feel lazy and fat. Before you go thinking this is all really dramatic for not working out for a week I want you to know this isnt unique to these past few weeks. Sometimes I do get feelings of depression and hello I'm a girl, I am very concious about whether I am doing things to help me gain or loose weight. But none of these things are ever clinically significant enough to diagnose me with anything. These are just feelings that just happen.

I want you to think about your everyday feelings and really notice where you tend to average, most of us (yes even including me) average around ok. Now I'm telling you when I started working out regularly I started averaging "good" better even, closer to "great." But I didn't notice really until it changed, until I couldn't work out anymore. Eventually I made it to the pool and worked out there instead of running and I felt the difference immediately after I finished. Breathing felt better, I felt happy, I felt good about myself, my stress levels went down, and I felt sexy and heathy. It was fantastic

Exercising is so good for you it makes you feel better and cope better with everything you're facing. It is a small change in every aspect of how you feel that feels like a huge difference. Oh and I think it's supposed to be healthy or something. Please just try it it will make you feel better even if its just for one day, you'll be glad you did!

~Birdy

#Fieldtrip

Yesterday I went to an internship fair/networking event for my major and it was the coolest thing of my career searching experience thus far.

What I mean is there isn't usually booths at career fairs for anything related to my field. So being able to walk into a room with 10+ opportunities relevant to my field was like walking into a candy store.

There were so many places that were genuinely interested in me, places that used adventure therapy and places in provo, places that use all sorts of interventions and serve a variety of populations. I met people who use my favorite things as therapy and they gave me their number to call them. It was super exciting

By the end I didn't have the mindset of struggling to find a place to volunteer this summer, I left trying to plan out how I could intern at two different places both of which I am really excited to work with and with which to gain more experience.

Here's to a bright looking future!
~Birdy