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Month: May 2016
Year in Review
This year has brought countless changes and new experiences, and when the world changes around you, you have to change yourself to adapt to the world. Aside from the obvious of leaving home and living in a completely new city in a new room with completely new people, I have tried to take this opportunity to alter my life for the better.
For starters, taking responsibility for my own food and exercise choices has been a rollercoaster. The freshman fifteen hit me like a ton of bricks, thus bringing insecurity over body image to the forefront of my mind. I’ve always had issues with my body — obesity and diabetes run in the family — but I had usually been able to keep those problems on the back burner. I tried to stay healthy by exercising in bursts, but I knew that my behavior was not sustainable. I knew my eating habits were not healthful nor were they making me happy. I knew I wasn’t physically active enough. After watching my body change before my eyes upon coming to college, I visited to Nutrition Counseling. I started to work out on my own, but I quickly lost interest. Eventually, I started attending fitness classes, particularly yoga. Starting at one class last semester and building up to three this semester, yoga has been my saving grace, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.
Unfortunately, when I’m swamped in terms of stress and homework, exercise is the first thing to go. This especially happened when I started working on a show within the Department of Theatre here at OSU. Next semester, I’m hoping to craft a plan/schedule of yoga or working out that allots for exercising at least three times a week while still giving me time to work on another show as well as get my homework and sleep a reasonable amount. Once the show, Marisol, closes, I’d also like to try Wellness Coaching at the RPAC.
From the world around me, I’m taking OSU resources, such as Nutrition Counseling, Counseling and Consultation Services, fitness classes at the RPAC and Women’s Field House, and opportunities within the Department of Theatre. With these, I’m giving back my work and energy in the shows I work on, I’m giving back academic effort, but mostly I’m giving back me. I cannot be a productive and helpful person to others if I’m so hung up on my own problems that my vision is cloudy. If I can make myself better, then I can be there for others as they try to make themselves better.
My Earth Month Action Plan proved unforeseen challenges, particularly concerning how I define my personal ethical codes. For my topic, shark finning, I felt that I was ill-equipped to say that another culture should stop a practice that had been with it for hundreds upon hundreds of years. Upon further research, I learned that even within that culture, there is discourse. For me, that pointed to a further truth: there is a truth. There are certain ideas held universally as true, and while we could always be wrong about them, I can look at something and know in my heart that it is good and right or damaging and wrong. This is not to say that the world is black and white; in fact, almost all situations and experiences are shades of grey — they have aspects of both good and bad within. But this realization does allow me to take a stand and gives me the freedom to try to change the world for the better.
This next semester, I will likely need to take a break from the issue of shark finning in order to focus on different aspects of my life, namely working on a show and improving my physical and mental health. This does not mean I’m giving up — quite the contrary — it’s just means that I can care about something while knowing that it’s not viable to dedicate a lot of time to it at this point in my life. I’d like to further my investigations into shark finning by communicating with local restaurants about their menus and where their ingredients are coming from and coordinating with organizations such as Shark Trust to combat the inhumane practice.
Columbus To Do List: Part 1
For my Columbus To Do List, I have chosen the Ice Cream and Desserts. I’m hoping to taste some local flavor and try new things, food that I would never have tried otherwise. This assignment will also be helpful in learning to navigate the COTA system outside the boundaries of the immediate OSU area (i.e. getting away from High Street and the Short North). Already, with my good friend, Amy, I have tried Jeni’s Ice Cream, Whit’s Frozen Custard, and Rocket Fizz. I have been to Jeni’s a few times now, but I am still astounded by their diversity in flavors and, quite simply, their creativity in coming up with such strange concoctions/mixtures. A few personal favorite flavors of mine are Lavender and Sweet Cream. The ice cream is expensive if you look at it in terms of quantity, but you don’t go to Jeni’s in order to gorge yourself. You go for an experience — and Jeni’s truly delivers. The prices may be high, but so is the quality, so in occasions of great celebration, I would highly recommend this establishment. At Whit’s Frozen Custard, both Amy and myself got the Buckeye. Positive note about Whit’s: the portion sizes. A single scoop had to have been the size equivalent of my fist. While admittedly not the best frozen custard I’ve even had the honor of bequeathing to my taste buds, it’s a still a pretty good place for a sweet snack. I would recommend it to anyone who was looking for a quick late night treat, as the prices are decent and, as mentioned earlier, the serving sizes are superb — the custard itself is also pretty good, although not to the competitive level of Jeni’s. Rocket Fizz is the nostalgic’s dream. Candies from the turn of the 20th century (or earlier) to today. It’s the kind of shop that lets you choose your own adventure. Quality-wise, the flavor is in the tastebuds of the beholder. The flavor and quality is highly dependent upon what you choose as your treat, and that applies to the pricing as well. I have never seen so many different types of soda in my entire life. I didn’t even know there was a Sweet Corn soda! It’s a good place to go if you’re looking for old favorites that you cannot find anywhere else. Now, enjoy this picture of Amy at Whit’s!
Career
As a student in the University Exploration major (i.e. undecided), the search for a major and a potential career is not new to me in any way shape or form. Based on this past ENR Scholars seminar discussion about careers, I would be categorized in the “self-assessment” phase of the career exploration process. My RIASEC score was Artistic, then tied between Social and Realistic. According to the O*Net database, the most promising careers based on this score are: Park Naturalist, Theatrical Makeup Artist, Dancer, Sociologist, Counseling Psychologist, Mental Health Counselor, Forest Firefighter, Animal Control Worker, and Library Assistant. In some ways, these options fit my interests, and in some ways they just made the process more cloudy and confusing. Right now, I am working on a Spanish minor, but am going back and forth about a major. Hopefully, the plan is to double major in Theatre with a specialization in Stage Management and something environmental: either Environmental Policy and Decision Making; Forestry, Fisheries, and Wildlife; and Geography with a specialization in Environment and Society. This matches up with the suggested careers with the exceptions of Library Assistant, Counseling Psychologist, Mental Health Counselor, and Dancer. However, mental illness has impacted my life greatly, so the idea of becoming a counselor is not new to me, and I have a love for stories that I could see myself pursuing. Those are things that I am certain that I want to be in my future, but I really don’t know if taking the professional path for those interests is the best use of my abilities and talents. Dancing is just plain out of the question. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a marine biologist so I could work with animals in the ocean, especially sharks, squids, whales, and, of course, dolphins. To this day, I still want animals to play a large part in my life, I just don’t know if that’ll be a part of my profession or another aspect of my life. My biophilia has poured over into the environmental protection aspect of the issue; I even wrote a year-long research paper last year considering the viability of assisted translocation as a conservation method. But all that being said, theatre has had a lasting impact on my life. I started four years ago with being on running crew for the spring musical, and only a few months later, I was stage managing my first production. Since then, I have assistant managed one show and stage managed six productions, including three musicals. In order to explore my seemingly opposite interests, I will be assistant stage managing in the springtime for the Department of Theatre’s interpretation of 7 Ways to Say I Love You and I am taking Biology 1113 and Communicating Environmental and Natural Resources Information to fill my 2nd writing course requirement. I’m hoping to have a better idea of what I’d like to major in specifically upon completion of those courses and the remainder of my general education requirements. As I am in Exploration and have done many of the self-analyzing activities prior to the seminar, I didn’t feel that I learned anything new about myself that I didn’t already know, but it was a nice reminder of the campus resources about how to utilize information such as the RIASEC code in determining good fits for a major. I have found that there are limitations for what the school can do to help me make these decisions — I have to go out and find what I’m looking for myself. No number of workshops, seminars, or survey classes can amount to me seeking out my own experiences. I’ve done this by joining the Season Selection Committee for the theatre and continuing to participate in the ENR Scholars program. I’ve also volunteered with NextGen Climate and have attended production meetings for 7 Ways to Say I Love You. For now, my plan is to simply be patient and decide what I enjoy as the experiences that I’ve planned for come to me. Since I don’t really have a career path or plan, I think patience is the best approach I could take to this.
Artifacts
Time is an incredibly precious thing. One never knows how much they have, and it cannot be given, only used. I was reminded of the transitory nature of life not in some profound, abnormal experience, but in the mere scheduling of an interview of my ENR scholars mentor, Chelsea Cancino, a sophomore Environmental Science major (with a specialization in Ecosystem Restoration) and minor in Earth Sciences — “I like rocks,” she explained with a laugh. Chelsea and I are both very busy people, so we both understand the value of time management and prioritizing the moments you are given. One of the questions I asked Chelsea was: How do you balance academics and involvement? I was impressed by her candid response: “I have a really hard time with this…I don’t get much personal chill time — my chill time happens in about 20 minutes increments. I would say: definitely make sure that you understand that just because you want to be involved with something doesn’t mean that you should be involved with it.” She clarifies, using a current favorite quotation: “Ask yourself if what you’re doing today is helping you get where you want to be tomorrow.” Chelsea gave examples such as deciding whether to be on the equestrian team, but ultimately choosing to dedicate her energies and time elsewhere that would bring her closer to her aspirations of being an environmental scientist. She recognizes that having so many choices has it’s downsides, admitting “It’s such a big university — they try to offer you so much, and that’s great, but sometimes they make you feel bad for not getting involved, so you’re like ‘I’m gonna do this and this and I’m gonna do all this and I’m gonna be the best student, I’m gonna have the best experience — and I really felt like I had an amazing first year and I took advantage of so much, but it was a big transition from high school, because you’re not able to take care of as much. You spend less time in class but you spend a lot more time studying for those classes, and just because it’s hard to realize that that time isn’t scheduled in, that’s time that you have to make for it, so unscheduled time that you’re not in class doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be doing something for that class… you probably don’t have time for six clubs a week.” We proceeded to chat about our schedules for the past week and weeks to come; I remarked that it was amazing how she was able to do so much, and she revealed that she thinks she does it because she “likes the thrill of surviving.” That is something that I can understand very well.
Next up: “What is one of the most important things you have learned thus far at Ohio State?” Chelsea smiled, responding “It all goes back to time management. I realized that everything that I want to get involved in is something that I need to get involved in…Other things I’ve learned: in such a big university, you need to take advantage of these little groups that you have…there are so many people that you can reach out to and I just think it’d be a shame if you weren’t to do that…I think I’ve learned that it’s important to reach out to others and talk to them and learn from their experiences. The reason I wanted to become a mentor was because as a freshman, you don’t know what you don’t know…It’s like when you’re trying to find a way to get to class — you walk this way because you’ve been this way; you don’t realize that there’s a way that’s probably five minutes faster because you’ve never taken it before. You don’t know what paths are there that you’ve never taken before. That’s why I wanted to be a mentor: so I could help you guys find those paths, so that things are easier.”
Chelsea responded to my next question, “Outside of your room, what is your favorite study spot on campus?”, with no hesitation. “Orton Hall library — it’s where the bells come from — has a library in there,” referring to the Geology Library. “I love the Geology Library and the huge windows upstairs — I always go upstairs and the windows overlook the Oval and there are trees involved and it changes throughout the season…You see people and how they’re dressed and the weather outside, and it’s just really nice.” She advises, though, to bring a jacket because “it can get kinda chilly.” It’s helpful to know some quiet places to get work done, or even just quiet places to be. As an extroverted introvert, an outgoing introvert, finding a quiet place away from lots of people can be quite a challenge. Chelsea mentioned that Morrill Tower is a good place to be for those energy needs given the layout, but the library is always a good option.
The following question was, “What ENR Scholars opportunities are you glad you participated in?” Having seen her enthusiasm on this year’s trip to Hocking Hills, it came as no surprise when she said, “All of the camping trips.” Chelsea continued, “With ENR Scholars, you can camp for very cheap and you’re with people who understand how to do it and pick things up…you learn what equipment is best and you learn how to do certain things and you become a pro, and I think that’s awesome.” She mentioned that in addition to the camping opportunities, “I enjoyed a lot of their smaller things…we painted pots and planted herbs, and we…go on hikes and go apple picking…that’s pretty cool. Opportunities like going to COSI on a day that it’s normally closed for an IMAX movie is pretty amazing.”
“What advice do you have for making the most of the ENR program?” I inquired. “Definitely get involved,” Chelsea responded. “Ohio State does a good job of trying to find a niche for you and ENR Scholars is just going above and beyond that. It’s a group of people who are like-minded, that have similar interests, are interested in doing things that are just adventurous and awesome and you can find a lot of cool friends from there.”
About Me
Hello! I am Leah Kessler, a first year student here at The Ohio State University! I am an ENR Scholar whose passion for the environment and all living things flows freely. In high school, some of my environmental activities included: taking AP Environmental Science; writing a short research paper on the value of saving the oceans as well as a much longer paper on the viability of assisted translocation as a conservation method for endangered species; attending a weekend lab program at the Duke University marine laboratory in Beaufort; and volunteering with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I am also an avid pet sitter and foster parent for kittens (well, up until my family became “foster failures” and adopted two of our kittens). I hope to learn how to live more sustainably as well as how to articulate my knowledge in this area. I was born in Colorado and moved to the Cleveland area about 17 years ago. My hobbies include, but are not limited to, backstage work in theatre, singing, and service projects. I play the flute, piccolo, piano, and am interested in learning guitar. As far as athletics are concerned, I used to be a gymnast, swimmer, and diver. Trying new activities excites me, and I am open to learning about different and opposing viewpoints to my own. Balance, in my opinion, is the key to true happiness in life; I pursue academia with the same enthusiasm that I approach my extracurriculars. While balance is central to my beliefs, choosing my workload is a challenge; I am still learning the nuances of not overloading myself and my schedule. Ohio State was my final choice in high education due to its diversity, not only in ethnic backgrounds, sexual identities and orientations, but in ideas. I seek to live beyond my comfort zone, and I plan to do exactly that through my studies and activities here!
