Sept 17 Exit Slip

Something I never thought I would do in a math class was draw, but doing the sit spot activity today was very eye opening. I chose to sit in front of some small trees propped up by pieces of wood planks just to enjoy the sun a bit as it was chilly. As I sat there, it finally gave me a moment to enjoy the outdoors. In this program, every second of the day has been allocated to thinking about the next assignment or just catching up on readings and sleep, but in that moment, the only thing to do was to enjoy nature. As I started drawing the scene in front of me, I realized that I not only had to know what the object looked like in my mind, but what I saw from where I was sitting. I can't see all sides of the rectangular wooden plank from where I was sitting but in my head I know what it's supposed to look like. So it was hard to draw only what I saw when I knew exactly what it was "supposed" to look like. This activity taught me two values that I forgot about while getting sucked into the hectic school year. One, is to stop living so fast sometimes and enjoy the present. Like a wise master named Oogway once said, "yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that's why it's called the present." I'd like to stop once in a while to enjoy the sunshine again. Two, I realized that nothing is just as it seems. Like the wooden plank I saw, even though I think I know what it looks like, how it works, and how to draw it, from my perspective or where I was sitting, the planks takes on a complete different meaning. I can graph the plank and even write a function for it, but drawing it at the exact angle I was looking at it from, this was harder than I expected. So, I realized, no matter how much I think I understand something, there is always a different perspective that I wouldn't understand, so I need to be more open minded.

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