Throughout this PSE unit, we have focussed on self-advocacy, self-knowledge and informed decision making. In terms of what I have been able to develop the greatest, I believe it would be self-advocacy and knowledge. While I have previously done some of the things on MaiaLearning such as the job recommendations quiz and work values, I never really had an allocated class time to consider what these things meant. By allowing myself time to consider the meaning of things such as the Myers-Briggs test and future visualization, I have actually begun to construct an idea of what my future could potentially be like. Of course, it’s simple to just briefly consider the future without consideration of personal values and so being in a setting where I was forced to evaluate my thoughts was very beneficial as it allowed me to both think about my future, and also evaluate upon ideas I previously had about it. This visualization allowed me to consider both short and long-term goals and how to plan for them. What were my long term goals? How would I achieve them? These questions were essential in the formation of my plan. Using the knowledge I had gained from myself from doing the visualization, I updated my post-secondary plan.
In order to improve our ability to self-advocate, we did a variety of activities such as an elevator pitch and a networking activity, in which we assumed different roles and practiced meeting new people. I found the networking to be decent, given that I already knew everyone in the classroom environment. I struggle with meeting and talking to new people so the hardest part of networking wasn’t even a factor in the success of networking. When doing the elevator pitch, I kind of struggled with finding what to say. Obviously, I only had a minute to give a representation of myself. The biggest struggle here came in when I had to decide what was important enough to add, and what would simply be filler details. The pitch itself was good given that I was able to roughly plan ahead about what I was going to say. The feedback I received from this what just that I talked too fast and I should also self-advocate more. The latter of this advice was honestly a bit strange to hear given that it’s generally not wise to brag or overspeak of your achievements. Given that I tend to either speak really fast or slow when nervous, this is only an issue that I will be able to combat with more practice.
All of this together helped me to make informed decisions. Prior to doing any of this, many of the decisions I would have made would not have been properly informed. With consideration of the type of person I am, alongside what I value in life, I was able to make more specific and relevant decisions about my university choices.
Overall, this unit helped me to reflect upon myself and the decisions I have made regarding my future. It allowed me to develop a post-secondary plan that would aid my UAC advisor in my eventual university decisions. As someone that generally procrastinates often, being able to do all of this during class time helped me with completing all of the tasks.