SCRABBLE

This week, I participated in Game Night. I played Scrabble with two other Rose Scholars. I had seen them at other Rose Scholar events previously, but I never interacted with them. They had never played Scrabble, so I explained the rules to them. Game Night was a really nice little break from my week that’s regularly filled with problem sets and studying. It was also a nice opportunity to interact with people outside of engineering, more specifically, people in Rose. Although I go to Rose Scholar events, most of the events I go to have been individual activities like Sip and Paint. I also haven’t played board games in a really long time, so it was nice to relax and take the time to do something I haven’t had the time/ people to do it with in a while.

Painting

One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is paint. Although I don’t always have time to do so, when I do have the time, I typically paint alone/ with friends. We almost always paint on canvases. GVA hosts free painting sessions a lot, where you can explore painting on various sizes of canvases. This Sip-N-Paint session was unique because there was a vast variety of “canvases” we could paint on. There were your typical canvases, but there were also mini cardboard boxes, wooden letters, and picture frames. I painted an ombre of blues on wooden letters that spelled out my name. The abundance of materials encouraged people to be creative with their paintings. It was really amazing seeing how different each person’s master piece was.

First Time Pumpkin Carving

I’ve never pumpkin carved before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. We decided to carve a C in our pumpkin for Cornell. Surprisingly, carving pumpkins is a lot easier than I thought it’d be. We first took out the insides of the pumpkin and then carved the C out.

Growing up, I never did many fall related festivities like pumpkin carving, but I’m really glad I tried it. Activities like pumpkin carving gives people the opportunity to take time of their days to bond over working on a common project.

Best by Oct 2021

In high school, I would volunteer at soup kitchens every other weekend, so I was very excited to volunteer with Feed My Starving Children, which shares similar motives. Because I wasn’t feeling too well due to my allergies, I couldn’t participate in the food packaging portion. Instead, I labeled the packaging with expiration date labels for two hours. Something I found really surprising is that the food we were preparing that day could last until October 2021, which is the year most of us graduate. I hadn’t heard about Feed My Starving Children before this event, but I think it’s incredible how science can be used to formulate food that provides enough nutrients for malnourished children and can also be kept for so long. Something that was emphasized at the event that a mere 23 cents could provide a meal for a child. I think it’s really important for us to always understand how privileged we are and how we are capable of giving back to our community whether it be through manual labor or small donations.

God’s Own Country

When I first saw the title of the movie, I, for some reason, thought it was a war movie. My assumptions couldn’t have been more wrong. The movie was about a troubled young man who felt unhappy with his life because he gave up his youth to work on his family’s farm after his father suffered from a stroke. He would indulge in alcohol and casual sex with other men. He continued to live this way until he met Gheorghe who showed him how to be in a relationship and care for others, including his farm animals.

When discussing the film, someone mentioned that they initially thought the film was a “porno,” but realized the movie had a lot more depth and symbolism. For the most part, I was very thrown off that the movie wasn’t, in fact, a war movie. The discussion after the movie made me pick up on details and character growth I hadn’t noticed while watching the movie. For example, Johnny’s relationship with men are mirrored by his relationship with his farm animals. When he would just have casual sex, he didn’t care for his animals and let some of them die. Once he fell in love with Gheorghe who taught him how to care for others, Johnny bought antiseptic for the ill animals. The movies also show how relationships vary depending on socioeconomic statuses.

Although this is one of the few LGBTQ films I’ve seen, I realized after the discussion how important representation in media is and how I should branch out when choosing films to watch.

Dressing Professionally

Sabrina and Shiv taught us the importance and what it meant to dress professionally. Something they mentioned that hadn’t previously crossed my mind is dressing professionally doesn’t necessarily mean dressing blandly. There are still ways to personalize professional outfits to make them stand out and show hints of your personality like Shiv’s paperclip tie clip. Although it’s subtle, it’s still unique and catches the eye. This makes for a good conversation starter when networking. I don’t normally like dressing professionally because I think it removes individuality, but Shiv and Sabrina explained how subtle details like a tie clip or socks can be quirky and personalize generic professional outfits.