T. Velazco
Prof. Jillian D' Alessio
IDS4890
FIU
Butterfly Effect
Discussion 1
Forum Participation Instructions.
Your first discussion assignment will consist of two parts. First, introduce yourself to your classmates and share a butterfly moment that impacted your academic or career plans. What do I mean by “a butterfly moment”? Read Chapter 1 of “You majored in what?” to find out.
You have a lot of choice when picking the courses you need to satisfy your degree requirements however it is quite likely that at some point you ended up taking a class or two that you weren’t particularly excited about. The second part of your discussion post requires you to look back, and share your experience of course that you gained something from despite your initial reservations. Be sure to check out your classmates posts – you might just stumble upon inspiration for the next enrollment cycle.
I have always loved the Butterfly theory since the first day I heard of it. It seems that life is really like that. It can be good or bad. I have been thinking about it a lot lately because of the bridge collapse. I wonder if anyone that died that day woke up and had a tugging feeling to leave 5 minutes later, yet they didn't. Sad to think about but it helps me realize, listening to instincts is extremely important to overall survival.
I have always loved the Butterfly Effect theory since the first day I heard of it. It seems that life is really like that. Although the results can be good or bad. I have been thinking about it a lot lately because of the bridge collapse. I wonder if anyone that died that day woke up and had a tugging feeling to leave 5 minutes later, yet they didn't. Sad to think about, but it helps me realize that listening to instincts is extremely important to my overall survival.
There are so many choices that brought me here today. They may have been meaningless at the time, but they slowly shaped my reality to my present moment. I started school back in 1998. I am now 41 with a self-made career and I am here because I want something MORE. I have read of many people that have had 1-3 careers in their life. I have always loved learning, so to me changing careers meant not being limited by any one path. I like having the ability to change multiple times. I am fortunate enough that I was able to pick something the first time which gave me freedom to explore side ventures. I am a photographer by trade. Being freelance means I have all the time in the world to schedule my shoots at whatever time I want. This gave me the ability to go back to school.
When I first came to school after I had my daughter I knew I wanted to teach. I started taking classes at MDC to become a science teacher. I wasn't able to go full time, so it has taken forever to finish, but I have always thought of that saying "better late than never". I am finally at the finish line 8 years later. One more class and I am DONE. I will have a degree in my hand.
As for the butterfly moments, I have had many, but a few stand out in my mind. Before I had my daughter, I was convinced photography would be my everything. I was going to stay there forever, working where I was and shooting million dollar houses. After I had her, living the life of a starving artist was just not realistic anymore. I would say this was my first step. Sitting there with that baby in my arms, I thought, I want to be someone special. I want to make her see me as the best me that I can be. So I enrolled, and began my long journey.
The second one I can think of came recently. I had been taking science courses to become a science teacher but I was struggling with the math courses. At 40, the chemistry classes were really difficult. I was never great at math, but having no foundation really hurt me in tests. I decided I needed to speak to someone.I went to an advisor at the School of Education and she said, "Why don't you try going to the Liberal Arts Department? You have so many credits already, maybe you can just do the Health and Science track and still do science, but as a Liberal Arts."
I said, sure ok, WHY NOT?
I went that day and I spoke to the Head of Liberal Arts, and he was so funny. He told me, "You need to graduate already! I'm going to help you." He filled out some magical blue paper and showed me I only had 6 more classes! (I had thought I still needed about 21! It was a big deal!) I then found Jillian, our lovely professor. She took one look at my transcripts and said, "Oh I agree, we need to get you out of here!" She worked some of her sorcery and poof, all my old classes were counting, and I had everything ready to graduate within a year. These two moments changed my life! I am now finally graduating with honors and a Bachelors! It's been such a life long struggle.
Sometimes, if you are positive, life puts you in the path of certain people that will help you along the way. This has been my experience. What if I hadn't spoken to the Head of Liberal Arts and left upset? Where would I be now? What if I had found a terrible advisor that wasn't Jillian and wasn't so helpful? I have had a million of those in my school career. What if that day the girl from the School of Education wouldn't have thought about sending me over to Liberal Arts? So many small, seemingly insignificant moments brought me here today.
The butterfly effect is real. Nothing is purely coincidental.
Thank you
Tanya
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