ATA 5

Assignment 5 was all about spreading kindness to strangers. For one week we had to do five good deeds for a stranger throughout the week, and then write about it. The first good deed I did was at work. I started a new job and tried my best to make my new employees lives easier at work by doing the tasks none else wanted to complete. The next good deed I did was pay for a strangers meal. Going through a fast food drive thru I paid for the person in the car behind me. Then, I did two smaller deeds such as holding the door open for several people and giving out compliments to strangers. The last good deed I did was accidental. A woman’s car wouldn’t start in the parking lot I was in, so I helped her by jumping her car. The biggest thing I learned from this assignment is how much small acts of kindness can improve a persons day. During each of these instances, it made the people I helped go from a frown to a happy smile. If a person is already having a bad day a small kind gesture can give them something positive about their day.

I am currently in a health psychology class. From this class I have learned the huge impact others can have on our life. Having good people around you can greatly improve your quality of life. I think this assignment is a good example of that. Even though the assignment was to help strangers, the positive gesture can help improve a persons day and even life by showing them kindness. I think this assignment was definitely personally relevant to me because it was something I was already trying to do on my own in my life. I was already trying to do random acts of kindness for people because I want to improve a persons day. I would compliment others girls on their outfit or hair. Also, when strangers do kind things for me it brightens my day, so I was trying to do the same for others.

I went to a retreat for a club at ODU. When I was there I went out of my way to compliment a girl on her outfit, and try to befriend her. This picture is the result of that. We became friends and spent the rest of the time hanging out with each other. We started out as strangers, and a simple compliment turned us into good friends.

ATA 4

From the fourth assignment, I learned a lot about the way I love others. There were six categories for the different types of love. My results showed that I scored lowest for the two types that stand for intense emotions, early attraction, and an all-giving and non-demanding love. The low score means I value these the most. I scored average for the other three types that represent friendship, future planning and insecurities. For the last category I received my highest score. It was for the type of love concerning deception and manipulation. I was glad for the results of my scores because it shows that unconditional love is important and lying is less important in my current relationship with my boyfriend.

This assignment was the most personally relevant to me. I am currently in a two year long relationship with my boyfriend. After taking the quiz I learned a lot about my relationship and the way we love each other. I was excited to take the quiz because I wanted to see what kind of love my current relationship falls under. Then, when I received my results I was very excited because it showed that my current relationship is pretty healthy and full of love.

The picture I chose for my visual representation is a picture of my boyfriend and I. I spoke a lot about my relationship in my paper because the love questionnaire relates directly to my relationship since it was about love and the different types.

ATA 3

The third assignment was based off of a youtube video. We watched a video of celebrity Michael Richard go on a racist tirade during one of his comedy shows. He was doing his comedy set on stage and a man in the audience made him angry so he stared calling him names and saying racist things as the man is leaving. For the third assignment, we had to sate our opinion on the matter and say whether we think he was being racist, or trying to say anything to inflict pain. I learned that sometimes you can find out a persons real feelings when they are angry. People can try to present themselves a certain way, especially celebrities, and you wont find out how they really feel until something causes them to express it without thinking.

Earlier in the course we learned about the way people present themselves. Everyone wants to present themselves in a certain way and that is especially true with celebrities. They want to come across as nice so people will like them, and when he went on that rant it shaped peoples view of him negatively. I think this assignment was personally relevant to me because it made me realize that some people will have secret feelings about things and its good to know what kind of people you associate yourself with.

For my visual I chose a picture of my close friends. I try to surround myself with good people and my friends are some of the nicest and most excepting people I have met. This assignment taught me its important to choose who you hang out with wisely.

ATA 2

For the second assignment, after I completed writing my paper I did realize a few things about myself. I realized I value all of the close people in my life a lot. I spoke about about myself as a friend and girlfriend in my paper, and realized I put a big emphasis on making sure the people close to me are happy and well taken care of. I think this is a good reflection on myself because I like to keep a small selective group of close friends, but really pour love into all of them through a good friendship.

In my paper I spoke about my relationships with people, but also with myself. One of the pictures I chose was me bare faced and dressed very casual. I spoke about how i’m trying to learn to love myself more and not be such a harsh critic of myself. This made me realize I have been more confident with myself as I keep growing as a person, and compared to a year ago I have made incredible self growth.

The picture I chose is also one of the photos I wrote about in assignment 2. It is the picture i am bare faced and dressed casual. I thought this was a perfect representation of my assignment takeaway because I wrote about who I think I am and the fact I am trying to love myself just as I am.