I was inspired to write this piece just two weeks ago after I had accomplished a big goal that I had set in my life. The piece is a narrative (though, not a literacy narrative) and it is a reflection on a process that I went through. Please point out either what was effective or confusing (or both) about the piece. What resonated with you? What would have made it stronger (what did you still want to know)? Your response should be six to nine sentences long.
16 thoughts on “Blog Post #2: A Piece by Professor Corva”
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I wanted to say congrats on accomplishing your goal! I honestly don’t think I could cycle 108 miles because I can’t even ride a bike to begin with. After I read your writing piece, I don’t think I should have that mindset about myself. I think what was effective about your writing piece was that you were able to give us great life lessons about conquering our fears even if we take a small step today. I think your message about being kind to ourselves and having a positive mindset when things don’t go our way, was very important to incorporate. The one thing that I was confused about was the definition of what a type A personality was. I had to look up the definition in order to understand the overall meaning of the sentence. What resonated with me the most was the part about how we have to approach every situation with patience instead of with anxiety. This was something that I sometimes have to tell myself when I’m in a stressful situation. What I think would’ve made it stronger was to incorporate the exact moment that you had when you decided to make your goal to cycle for 108 miles. Overall, I think that your writing piece had good advice on overcoming life’s struggles.
I would like to say that my jaw dropped when I read that you cycled 108 miles, I don’t think I would be able to survive that. What was very effective was your overall message about approaching things with patience will help with your clarity of mind and will actually help in achieving your goals instead of having anxiety, and by doing so you were able to completely change your lifestyle. I like how you ultimately tie your biking experience into a life lesson about patience, sustainability and motivation, and even tie it into being a college professor. What resonated with me was the fact that we need to be patient to see sustainable change going day by day battling our inner selves but still choosing to “continue putting on foot in front of the other and to feel and accept whatever it is that we’re feeling.” That is actually very inspiring because there are so many things I want to achieve for myself, but the stress of it always overpowers me, so after reading about your experience it can not only motivate me but anyone who has goals that they are very passionate about. All together it was a very powerful piece, I just think that you could’ve included more of a backstory of your life before deciding to go on this journey.
I felt cool about your accomplishment(s) with the biking. Biking, itself, is an intense workout and activity for anyone, but having 108 miles done is crazy. I have a friend that bikes and he love it for a great workout, but he does not bike as much as you do…Along with the weather disaster while you had biking is terrible, but it became an obstacle for you to overcome and you did. Not only that, you learned lots and that is what I see great. The mental health part is where I felt was important…working out is great for releasing stress within the body. Under bad weather, I would feel more accomplished – you kept biking (to keep the body warm). The differences of jogging indoors and outdoors are big.The ability to sustain while jogging is hard, that’s another accomplishment for you. Good Lucks to you and your future workouts.
I really agree that you said, “moving forward in cold weather is necessary if you want to stay warm.” I also want to say that the rainbow appears after the storm. The summer of 2014, I had experienced student military training for half a month. We dressed up in camouflage clothing and hats, standing orderly on the playground and listening to our drillmaster. We practiced military gestures and ran for every morning under 37 degree Celsius. The sun was burning the ground and our bodies. The last day of our military training, we had to show everything that we learned during that half a month. The final part was every class had to run in a square matrix for one round( 400 meters). When we finished the half round, it suddenly rained. The sky turned to dark as a monster opened his enormous mouth. The rain came out from the monster’s mouth and wetted our hats, clothes,shoes, drop by drop. Gradually, our eyes got blurred and every step we took made splashes. We didn’t stop. We kept running and
shouting out slogans, “ One two three. One two three…” The pitter-patter accompanied by our slogan and those two sounds composed a wonderful tune. I felt that the left half round became so long . But I didn’t want to give up,I told myself “no pain, no gain”. As we arrived at the end, the rain stopped and then the rainbow came out. That was the most beautiful rainbow I have seen in my life. It covered the sky and my exhausted heart.
First of all, I am very happy and congratulate you on achieving your goal. This is a very difficult journey. “I learned that moving forward in cold weather is necessary if you want to stay warm.” This sentence resonated with me. I remembered that in a yoga class in high school, the teacher asked us to try a difficult posture. At the beginning, I had no idea what to do. I tried to give up after several attempts. But I told myself that I might succeed if I try again. Finally, when I held that position for four seconds, the teacher praised me. This makes me feel that my efforts are worthwhile.
I love how you used the accomplishment of your goal to bike 108 miles to debrief on your life in many detailed parts such as what the goal meant to you, how it shaped your character, your experience throughout this journey, and many more. This was very powerful because after reading, I started to question how I have been setting my goals and what they mean to me. For example, when I set a goal, I make it something I want to achieve or get better at but even after accomplishing the task, (say create a drawing every day) I don’t look back at myself and think about how this goal as changed me. I may feel proud at the moment but the accomplishment of the goal has never changed me much. Reading the section about your reflection on your thoughts that pushed you further into achieving your goal stood out to me in a way where it reminds me of how I feel when I am reflecting on myself. This piece really grabs the audience by bringing one’s lack of self-reflection into conscious which made it very effective and engaging to read.
I like how you connect exercise to your life and lead to the lesson that you learned, which is change or success requires constant efforts. It is also important to set a goal for yourself. Even if there are difficulties in the process, it is more important to be calm and patient rather than complaining. What resonates with me most is when you said “It happens when we choose patience and empathy as the foundation of our approach as opposed to Anxious Freakouts.” I think in school, we all often encounter problems that we don’t know how to do, but most of the time, we will worry and complain first. But it doesn’t make us know how to solve the problem suddenly, so the right way is to calm down and think about the problem carefully. However, when reading this article, I still have some confusion, such as why you suddenly associate exercise with learning compassion. I think this connection is a bit too sudden and makes me have no club on how these two things can be connected.
I think it is so cool for cycle 108 miles. I can’t imagine how far from this distance and achieve it. I agree with you for setting a goal is important for us not to give when we face obstacles. This summer I also run after dinner instead to sit in front of the electronic devices. The longest distance is around 3 miles with a slow speed and half walking. Actually, I don’t like running because I think it is boring active, but I need to exercise to keep healthy. So the time that after dinner is a hard time for me. I keep finding the excuse for myself like the weather is too hot. After fighting in my mind, I still will go out because running is really helping me at least I can sleep easily.
Thank you for sharing this piece with us, entering college in such special times is very frustrating and I know many of us have experienced anxiety because we do not know how to be patient and take things slowly. I really enjoyed reading this piece specially because of how you made your goals symbolize something greater in life than just biking 108 miles. For me, a great piece is that one that teaches the reader something and it this case I was taught patience, resilience and self-love. I also liked your use of pathos when you talked about the significance your end line had for you because it made me connect with you as a reader and enjoy the story a lot more.
I feel empowered and motivated after reading your writing piece. Setting a goal is easy but whether or not you have the determination on accomplishing it is a whole different story. It takes time, courage, and patience to reach a goal. The process can painful and tough, but the aftermaths and lessons are always worth it. Setting a goal of cycling from Brooklyn to Long Island
(about 108 miles) looks impossible but it’s actually not when you have courage and determination and I want to congratulate you on reaching this challenging goal. This is relatable to me because when I was in elementary school, I received many criticisms on my English skills and I was discouraged but motivated at the same time. Later, I decided to step up and work and study harder. Like you wrote in your writing piece, we need to embrace the moment and the process. We might have mixed feelings at first but after taking the first step, we need to keep moving forward and accomplish it no matter what. Your writing made me reflect on myself and my goals.
I think the narrative resonates with me because of how you have worked your own way out even-though the obstacles are right in front of you. I do not mean that I have the exact same experiences, but I do understand how hard it is to make that single move toward the next phase of one’s life, the feeling of paralysis. I admire how you can deal with it eventually because I am still struggling with pursuing perfect, a critical quality just like how you have mentioned. I truly wish that this piece of writing will motivate me out from my comfort zone; I wish I can challenge instead of following the flow. And because of this, I want to know what is the moment or key point that drives you to act. What makes you continue whenever you have an attempt to give up? What are the steps that form your patience and empathy? Having you ever return to a state of negativity after you have turned positive toward life? I hope I can learn how to achieve what you have achieved step by step.
I have to say that your piece is great motivation for me especially the new college stress on top of everything else comes rushing towards me. I have never been a great fan of exercise but saw it becoming more and more unavoidable as I started to lose shape. Your re-approach to fitness leading to the realization of “less thinking; more feeling, less rationalization; more intuition” is what many of the people these days, including me, are lacking as we tend to aim for perceived perfection. I could only hope that I can face my fears and imperfection like you did with running outdoors. Embarrassed to say, I still do not find myself exercising as much as I would like to, never sticking to my plan for more than 2 weeks. Here, I would like to ask if you have any advice for exercise motivation.
In addition, I am very glad and surprised you mentioned climate change in your narrative. The environmental issues and the changes I see happening terrify me; yet, not knowing what I can do to. It seems like not enough people acknowledge this fact and not many talk to others about it.
At the beginning of reading your piece, I was a little confused on where it was going. The part where you mentioned seeing movies in the movie theater threw me off as to what the piece was really about. This might just be me…:D However, as I continued reading, I saw the connection you made with your journey to bike there and life lesson you found.
I think your piece was quite motivating, and I enjoyed reading about your journey to improve yourself. At first, I thought this piece would be boring and long, but I was wrong. My mind was drawn in to reading your stories and overcoming your obstacles. It made me reflect on myself as I was reading. I made many goals but haven’t achieved it because I lack the courage and will to do it. But reading your paper makes me want to take the step forward and work hard as you did. I liked how you mentioned specific things you did like the marathon, bike ride, and exercise. Reading about those experiences and explaining how your mindset changed made me drawn into your writing, and it lit up a spark in me to try to improve myself. Something that resonated with me was that the people need to change first internally. I agree that to face the world’s changes, people need to change themselves for the better to face it. I love the message you give too about how people should empathize with yourself and the advice you provide towards the end. It made me think I have too high expectations of myself, and it’s not something I am happy with. I am trying my best to be ok with not being perfect also. Overall, this piece was very enjoyable to read and inspiring.
I liked the stride it took to reach 108 miles. I’m only a little confused about the sequence between paragraphs 2 and 3 but other than that it is great. I like the self-reflection of what conditions can happen to a person as they approach the middle age. There elements of understanding the process itself as if the lengths taken were being effectively analyzed. I like the process of realizing the problem and then trying to take action to solve the issue. There was I believe more than one lesson in the piece. It also took some previously acquired traits and utilize them to help the process.
Thank you for assigning your own narrative for an assignment. The part that I really resonated with was the fitness portion of the writing. I personally hate any type of exercising and can not even climb two flights of stairs without dying to catch my breath. Despite my hatred and lack of skill in exercising, I still want to make it a goal to get more into it. This piece of writing has really motivated me to actually make an effort towards something I want to accomplish. Throughout quanrantine, I have made multiple attempts to work towards certain goals but it has never worked out but this narrative has really pushed me, mentally, into a mindset in which I will achieve goals. It is really inspiring to see that you got multiple lessons out of simply stepping towards your goals and accomplishing them. Overall, the whole narrative had a really positive effect on me. More specifically, the part where you continued to follow through with your goal even with the immense amount of obstacles in your way. It takes a lot in a person to continue doing something when it seems like the whole universe is against you.
Congratulations for achieving your goal! I admire you that you set a goal and achieved it. I barely accomplish my goal because I am lazy and sometimes things does not matter most of the time. It is also because I do not set up a big goal because I can never achieve it. I agree with you where it says “Sustainable change does not happen overnight.” I think accomplishing a goal is a process to fight the mind that wants to give up and make little changes everyday. This sentence really inspires me because I always thought if I want to change, then I need to change all of it in a sudden to prove that I succeeded. Also it is pushing me to try new things like overcoming difficulties or doing something that I never tried but want to try. For example learn how to skate.