Highlander Pedagogy

I have not been personally educated much about the social justice movement much past the basic information like what you would learn in school. Like the marches and the boycotts put on by Martin Luther King Jr, as well as all his speeches. I have never heard of a place like Highlander, and honestly when looking back on the time period I could hardly believe a place like that even existed because of all the hate surrounding that community. Looking back on all the readings and the documentary that we watched in class there was a lot of information about the early social justice movement and I just wished that our education system cared a little more to implement some more information into the school curriculum. The fact that there were several grouped of white people in the south that were helping out the black community during this time was new information to me and it made me smile honestly. The whole idea that a community like highlander being an outlier in the south was crazy to me I would have thought that there would have been more communities like that in the south. However, after watching the documentary and seeing how the people in the community were treated, I am not surprised that they were not. What surprised me the most was the determination and perseverance of the people of the social justice movement. Especially when it came to punishments like going to jail and getting sprayed by a firefighter hose. I personally do not know if I would be able to keep marching for something if every time I did march or work towards the movement I would be harassed and bullied by everyone in my town. I also envied the boldness of the marchers who stood up to the police who told them that they could only have two marchers in an area and then the marchers just went about their business like nothing ever happened. I wish to be that bold in my life whenever I face my own personal struggles.

How to Listen

Coming into this class I thought that this class was just gonna be a classic poetry reading class where we read poetry and try and find meaning in it. However, in the first week of classes my professors told us that we were going to be listening to peoples stories and writing a monologue and performing it. The idea of having to write a monologue on someone else was very daunting to me. As the semester progressed we read and watched videos that taught how to actively listen to people, and my professors especially gave good instructions on how to be a good listener. I learned that an active listener mostly just sits in silence and looks like they are active in the conversation with the person, and does not try and interject into the persons story. My professors have also taught me to put myself in other peoples positions and try and remove any biases that I might have. I have been able to use this information in my everyday life especially in my romantic relationships this information has helped a lot.

Storytelling

My experience telling stories before this class consisted of simple campfire stories that had little to no meaning. So, coming into this course and learning that I would have to write a monologue on a person's life story. Especially a persons story that was not an easy or peaceful life. The stress of having to represent someone that was not not me as well as having to try and put their thoughts and emotion into writing was intense.

However my professors in my Dramatizing the Data course this semester really helped me to read peoples stories and put myself in their shoes. This idea encouraged me and inspired me to write a good monologue that represented the person I was listening to. Putting myself in others shoes also helped me when it came to performing the monologue. Every time I would practice the monologue I would think how would this person be feeling in this moment and how would this effect how I should be acting during the performance. This idea also gave me a lot of confidence and helped me stand up and perform in front of the audience. I will definitely use this knowledge in the future whenever I have to perform of write a speech that is not about myself.

A New Style of Teaching

When it comes to education I think that our current system is severely lacking in making education involved and making an environment that makes students want to learn. Right now our education system is more like a bank system teachers just poor information into students without giving students a chance to ask why are we learning this or how does this benefit my life. This form of education is very hard on students mental health and creates a lot of strain on students livelihood because they are constantly memorizing new things and never having honest conversations with their teachers.

This past semester I learned a lot about engaged pedagogy and how this style of teaching drastically increases a students interest in learning. Engaged pedagogy gets students involved in class by creating an environment that is more of a conversation and less of a lecture. Engaged pedagogy puts the students education first and therefore makes the students more willing to learn. I have experienced several classes in college that just felt like someone was just dumping information into my brain and then walking away and I hated those courses. However, I have also been in courses where I can tell that the professor is passionate about a subject and really want their students to learn. This passion created an environment that made me want to go to class every week and participate.

Engaged Pedagogy

Before taking this course with Anne and Peggy, I had had really minimal experience with an environment of engaged, critical, or collaborative pedagogy in a classroom. In a small class like we had with only 10 students and 2 professors. At the beginning of this course and more throughout the course, we talked about the communicative and collaborative efforts of the course in ensuring that all voices of the students, guests, and teachers were equally heard, included, and valued. I am incredibly grateful for this dynamic within the classroom as it allowed me to open up to others and be someone they could open up to.

I can’t speak for everyone in the class, but the style of the class ensured that I felt I was valued equally to everyone else. It was an awesome way to pull the valuable things each of us brought to the course and allow us to be receptive to the things we may not be super proficient in yet.

Performing Poetry

As a theatre major I am very used to being in front of people, performing, speaking, and acting. I have never really performed in this way before, though. It’s very emotional and poetic and to be honest at first I was really uncomfortable in this acting style, but through working with and being coached by Peggy and Anne, I feel really comfortable and overall really honored that I have the opportunity to learn and grow in a new acting style while also getting to share a powerful and meaningful story of a beautiful person. I learned new techniques and really leaned into the poetic elements of what I was performing.

Performance Reflection

The performance was an experience that I don't think I saw coming. I knew we were going to do a good job since we had practiced a lot, but I didn't know how much we were going to touch people through our monologues. After we finished, we had countless people come up to us with tears in their eyes and say how incredible of a job we did/ how beautiful the performance was. It meant a lot to see how moved the crowd became throughout the performance. I loved sitting on the side when I wasn't performing and being able to watch the audience reactions. Giving the monologue was an especially unique experience for me because I'm a theater major and have performed many times, but I had never done this type of poetic acting - it pushed me out of my comfort zone. In addition, the person that I interviewed was able to come and play live music during the performance. She was incredible. She is insanely talented and it touched ME to be able to tell her story and then look over and see her still playing music just like I talked about in the monologue. I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to be a part of this class and I will always look back on this experience fondly.

Serving Those Around Us

One of my favorite parts of this class was learning how to serve those who came to share with us. Trauma is not an easy thing to talk about, and it has so many long lasting effects - effects that are different from person to person. Each person that came to speak with us had a different outlook on what had happened to them and a unique way of sharing their story. It is an extremely vulnerable to thing to do what these incredible people did. As a class, we did our best to serve them by making them feel comfortable in the space - I think that's the best thing you can do for someone who is telling you something difficult. We tried to do this by listening intently to everything they had to say. Another way that we learned to serve them was to ask questions about their lives after they shared with us. It seems to make a person feel so much more comfortable to know that people really do care enough to ask, and it takes them out of the hot seat a little bit when others have follow up questions after the person finishes sharing a traumatic experience. Lastly, we worked hard on the monologues to try and do these stories justice. We wanted to respect the speakers who came into our class, so we took hours to prepare for this performance and do our best. Hopefully the guests felt served through this process, because we definitely were blessed by their stories.

Taking in Someone Else's Trauma

I have also been someone to stress about other people. I am a constant worrier and let other people's struggles sit heavy on my own shoulders. I care so deeply that I make myself sick thinking about the idea that I can't always help everyone I love. This is something that was lingering in the back of my mind the entire first few weeks of this class. Going in knowing that the people that would be telling their stories would be sharing their personal challenges caused a lot of added worry in my head. However, very early on one of my professors, Peggy explained her process of not burdening herself with other people's trauma. She explained that she imagines this invisible tether connecting her to the person she is talking with through their belly buttons. The tether creates a safe place for the person to share and feel heard; however, at the end of the conversation, Peggy can snip the tether and the story is still there but the connection is gone. This stuck with me the entire semester and allowed me to share someone's story without having it sit as a weight on my shoulders. It also let me realize that these people are more than just their trauma. They are beautiful souls who have incredible lives outside of their negative experiences.

Preparing to Perform

As the class nears its end, I find myself reflecting more than I typically do at the end of the semester. To be fair, I usually don't get to take my shoes off in my other classes, so I guess there are already some key differences. I have enjoyed myself more than I thought I would at the beginning. Going in, I was nervous about the performance aspect, especially performing my own work. As someone who would not classify herself as a creative, the idea of presenting my creative work in front of people-my peers, my professors, outside citizens, my interviewee. However, as time has gone on, I have become less and less nervous about the performance and more anxious for other people to get to experience it. I have loved watching my classmates grow and progress in their own monologues, and I can't wait to cheer them on during the real thing. It has been a joy to giggle our way through forgetting lines and awkward movements together. The togetherness of the class has made me feel more confident in my work. Every rehearsal, my comfortability grows as my classmates cheer and affirm my performance. Overall, I am ecstatic to see how the performance continues to shift, and I am very grateful for the community and confidence that this class has awarded me.

Life=Making a Cake

One individual struck my this week when we were discussing this experience with each other. They asked me, "How has this experience been for you?" I had thought about the question for a moment and then quickly answered with something like, "Oh, it was eye-opening" or "It was a shift in my perspective." But now actually processing the question, I cannot seem to wrap my head around it, and it seems almost impossible to describe this experience in one adjective.

I came into the first day of class this semester, knowing that more than anything, I wanted to learn something. Not simply obtaining information and then ultimately express that information to others, but learning about myself through the presences and understanding of other people's struggles and triumphs in life. The abstract vision that is popping in my head is like the idea of baking a cake. People going through their life is like mixing the ingredients together, taking every piece of their life and making something that shapes who you are. Choosing to be vulnerable and sharing your story is like putting your cake in the oven, never knowing the outcome. Then decorating and serving the cake is the impact that you have chosen to give people. Eating the cake represents the nourishment that you provided for others, helping them to remember that you are not alone and struggling is a universal term that comes in a tremendous amount of ways.

Life's the making of a cake. You mix it, bake it, and you serve it so that you can provide sustenance for generations to come.

Creating a Show Out of Other People's Stories

The process of hearing stories from our visitors, turning their stories into monologues, memorizing the monologues, and finally acting them out has been a wonderful experience. I have had the privilege of getting to see the story that I wrote come to life, but also the stories of the other people in class. The stories have made a journey from the lives where they came from and are now coming to life in a completely different way.

Performing my person's story makes me feel connected with them and their life, and it makes me feel connected to my classmates because they have seen the process of my memorization and characterization of the monologue. I feel as though my class and I have given the stories new meaning and new life by rewriting and performing them for each other and the person they came from. I am excited to see how the performance goes when we do it for real.

Before the Performance

This blog is to note how I am feeling prior to our performance. To be honest, I think that I am feeling overall fairly confident though there are some traces of nerves and even doubt. I have never performed like this before - the idea of telling someone else's story in front of others is rather daunting and puts on some pressure. My main worry is that my performance won't resonate with the person that it is about, but that is a bridge that we will cross later should it come to it. I know that the best that I can do is to practice as much as possible and to put my all into it.

It is interesting to perform in a way that is so different than what I am used to. Typically, my performances come in the form of presentations to jurors where I get constructive criticism and sometimes even harsh feedback - the architecture and design world really does have some hardasses. I am excited to perform in a way that feels less rigid and structured to me and to instead feel more comfortable in a crowd where I will not be judged so harshly.

Evolving Relationships

As the rehearsals of this class are coming to an end and the performance is approaching, I am beginning to realize how connected I have become with this class and the monologue. I have learned aspects of my life through the class and the writing of my monologue that I have not explored before. The class has taught me how to be vulnerable, which has always been difficult for me to express. The monologue about my interviewee explores topics of mental health struggles and the evolution of self-love, which are both topics that I have struggled with and will struggle with. This monologue has allowed me to evaluate myself, remembering how important it is to be open to change in my life, including changing how I view and love others and myself. Love is abundant, you just have to be ready to fill yourself with it.

Working with our class

I have always thought that more people working together is so much better than one person working by themselves, which is why I have loved getting the opportunity to put this performance together with the whole class. It’s one of the things I love most about theater - the community that results from the performance or show that you are doing. Many brains and bodies being put together tends to create amazing things. I’ve seen how friendship grows so deep as you experience the rehearsal process together since the whole cast learns and grows (and sometimes suffers :) alongside each other. I also think that for this particular performance, the collaboration of telling many people’s stories is just so powerful. I hope to impact everyone in the room with each individual story being told - and this definitely wouldn’t be the same if it was just me doing the performance. Another reason this is so cool is because a lot of these stories are close to home. Several of these people grew up here, in the Chattanooga area, and as someone who is living in the same area, it’s crazy to think that we are telling stories that happened in the same place as I live right now. Overall, the collaboration of working with the class has just been an awesome experience and each person in our class brings their own set of gifts to the table! They are all wonderful to work with

How to find oneself

I know I'm milking my conversation with Marcus for all it's worth, but given that his words are a treasure-trove of lessons and information, I have no shame about it.

Marcus has the most self awareness out of any person I have ever met. You might be wondering, as I was, "How does one become so in tune with themselves?" Well, let me share my theory on it.

How to find oneself:

- Lose yourself: Marcus seemed as if his identity was stripped away from him when his parents separated. This led him down the downward spiral of joining a street gang with his cousins. He was at rock bottom, but the only direction you can go from rock bottom is up. It's important to remember that.

- Struggle: Marcus lost his mother, father, and daughter within the span of four years. He saw God's plan through that. As much as it stings, their mission was completed. Their deaths brought him indescribable anguish. That anguish is important though. As the poet Rumi said, "Being human is a guest house, each morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness. Welcome and entertain them all, for each has been sent as a guide from beyond." As David Goggins puts it, "You don't find any answers in the light. We already pre-programmed to live in happiness. The darkness, that 's where you'll find the answers."

- Introspection: Rest and reflection are important. When going through the struggles of life, take time to step away. Rest, sleep, ponder, think. Do what you need to do to keep a clear conscience.

Do these three things, and you'll find yourself.

My thoughts behind Marcus' entrepreneurial success

Marcus Price, the man I interviewed, is not only a motivator and mentor but also a successful entrepreneur. He is the owner of Chosen Pressure Washing and Mobile Auto Detailing, a local car detailing business. As a car buff, I enjoyed seeing the pictures of the newly detailed C8 Corvette and Porsche Taycan on his page. That's a bit of a tangent, though. I want to talk about why I think Marcus is a successful entrepreneur.

If you look at any of his work, you know right away that he is skilled at and dedicated to his craft. The proof is in the pudding. While that is obviously a major factor in the success of his business, I think his good fortune goes a bit deeper than that. Let me explain.

Many in the business world know of a man named Naval Ravikant. I haven't confirmed this with Marcus, but I imagine that he knows of Naval as well. Naval is the founder of AngelList, a platform that allows investors to invest in startups and potential employees to apply to jobs at those same startups. He is also a successful angel investor. An angel investor is one who invests in successful companies early on. Naval invested in several hits early on, including Twitter, Uber, and Postmates. His net worth is approximated to be in the $60-million range.

Naval is prone to Tweet-storms, long chains of Tweets about everything from business to philosophy. Arguably his most famous Tweet-storm is "How to get rich, without getting lucky." In this storm, he Tweets, "You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale."

I think that's where Marcus' success resonates. He knows how to give society what it wants, but does not know how to get. You might be saying, "Most people know how to wash a car."

You would be right, but I don't think this aspect of his success has anything to do with cars.

In the age of dopamine-poisoning via short-term media, drugs, and alcohol, many have fallen short of knowing the truth of their own identity. Marcus used to be in that same boat, but as we all know, he has an incredibly strong sense of self. He figured out how to get that himself. In that sense, he is ahead of the game.

Most people are too busy with their nose in their phones to even give that a thought, but the realization of oneself is still an innate desire, regardless of how much we choose to ignore it.

It's primal. It's ancestral, even.

Now, think about it. Knowing and accepting oneself is a key aspect of confidence. Confidence is a key aspect of charisma. What do good salespeople all have in common?

Charisma.

Marcus knows himself; therefore, he is confident. He now has filled in the biggest puzzle-piece of charisma. Now, he can be more personable to each individual customer.

Therefore, the more of his product (his work) he sells.

All entrepreneurs can learn something from Marcus.

Know oneself. Everything else will fall into place.

Trauma dumping. What is it? What's wrong with it?

When we were tasked with listening to the stories of our classmates one-on-one, both myself and David shared a similar opinion.

"Isn't this trauma dumping?!"

For those who don't know, trauma dumping is, as the name implies, sharing your traumas with another person(s), but there is a bit more specificity to the definition. It comes from the "dumping" part, implying that you are releasing all of your burdens, with or without warning, to someone else that is unproductive, or even detrimental, to both parties.

It can be a slippery slope into codependency and forming relationships held together by the trauma itself. Yes, slippery slope is real. That warrants another conversation entirely.

My initial concern is that it would enable such action within the whole class. That's not to invalidate anyone's specific trauma (hell, my story was about when I almost died at 17 years old), but rather what I could see come up as someone who has "been there, done that". However, I was shocked that it seemed to give the opposite effect. Let me explain.

I shared a story I am extremely comfortable with sharing. I am at the point in the healing process that I do not need any sort of outside help in navigating through that dark point in my life. Quite the opposite, actually. I am extremely proud of where I have gone since then. When hearing everyone else's stories, I got a similar feeling that people shared what they were comfortable with, and that most (if not all) writers were as comfortable as possible with the handling of the monologues.

That's how it should be in this scenario. This is gradual, intentional exposure as part of the healing process, and people in the class are mature enough to navigate it. It teaches that we should not be ashamed of our traumas, but that "dumping" is best suited for those that deserve to hear our stories, those who have been consistent, positive forces within our lives for some time.

What I Learned from Marcus

I've always considered myself a very philosophical person. Regardless of what situation life presents to me, whether I perceive it as good, bad, both, or neither, I am always trying to make sense of what the universe is trying to tell me. I believe in a higher power, but I do not identify with any organized religion. I am very self aware. I know what is good about myself and where I need to take extra care in growing. I'm not pretentious enough to think that I am the only one out there with this same worldview, but I was surprised to meet someone who not only shares that same line of thinking and feeling, but is also far more advanced in his worldview than myself. I was even more shocked that this happened in a class that I half-assedly (I completely made that word up) signed up for to fill a gen-ed. and have a class with my roommate.

I signed up for the ethnodrama class as a "joke" with my roommate. All I knew is that we were going to interview people who were in the recovery community. Though I say I signed up as a "joke", I did not take that aspect of it lightly. I knew that that was serious, and I was genuinely interested in what that process would look like. I say this because I still would not have signed up for it were it not for my roommate, David, signing up before I did. I was surprised to be one of the first people called to interview. I remember Anne saying, "You're going to interview Marcus Price. You'll love him!"

I was sure he would be pleasant to interview, but I seriously underestimated how impactful his words would be to me. Like me, he is spiritual, but refuses to identify with any organized religion. To him, we all have a piece of God within us. He is an entrepreneur; I am a baby entrepreneur (if you want to call it that). We have also both dealt with loss of loved one(s) in our lives. Though everyone goes through that at some point in their lives, he and I share a very specific worldview on death:

"mission complete".

He even said that about his late daughter, who was only two at the time of her passing. Even though the passing of his daughter and parents still stings, as does the loss of my grandfather, we both find comfort in the unknown that IS whatever divinity we believe in and their plan for us and everyone else.

Everyone has a part to play in this grandeur of a universe. One day, your mission will be complete. Live every day like your mission will be complete tomorrow. Stay true to yourself, and you'll be fine.

Learning to Perform

As someone who loves to talk and make people laugh, it has always shocked people when I said that I have never loved to perform. I remember the first time I was expected to perform a solo at my sixth-grade band concert and how anxious that situation made me feel. For some reason, getting up on a stage and talking about research always feels comfortable but the second that I am required to put on a persona or show off a creative skill I have been working towards, I freak out. Knowing this, I am still almost in awe of myself for deciding to go through with this class. I am even more shocked, however, by how much I am enjoying myself. Being able to be a window for someone else's struggle and their build-up afterward has given me new insight into what performing can mean and how it is viewed. I have come to realize that at the end of the day, the performance is really for me and the person I am portraying. It is a way for me to show them how much power they have and how they have created a beautiful life for themself. Also, through watching my peers work on their own performances, I realize that I am not the only one who has nerves around performing and that in the end, we are all still trying to figure out what we are doing. For me, performing does not come naturally, and I doubt that it ever will. However, my perspective on performing has changed, and I can feel the power that it provides both those performing and those viewing.