What is it that helps us remember significant moments in time, the periods past that make our hearts race when brought to mind, the phases that cause us to pause in the midst of life’s business? –  it is the music. Music has a way of creating bookmarks, memories, and points of reference in the story of our lives that demonstrate the preferences, similarities, and attractions that exemplify our choice for relationships.

I love music that tells a story, has personal and experiential depth, and offers the listener more than just ‘rhythm and blues’. Likewise, my wife, Amber is the same, a depth-seeker in the music realm. Someone who values storytelling and a song that generates questions towards the pursuit of meaning, origin, and potentially, destiny. Songs can lead us on journeys or leave us right where we are – but we prefer the songs that take us for a ride. I believe this is why Amber and I initially were attracted to one another, and continue to understand each other. Music helps us sift through life’s ups and downs and gives us the opportunity to lose ourselves in what it all means.

This is a screenshot of ‘A Blaze of Feather’s, “Winter”’, playing on youtube. This song is one of Amber and I’s favorite, as it has been a song we tend to put on when life needs a pause, or when we are traveling for vacation. This song has often been the start of reevaluation and often, temporary escape.

*** My Soundtrack ***

Life Outlook: Meant to Be – Florida Georgia Line

My Children: You’re ‘Gonna’ Miss This – Trace Adkins

My Wife: You are the Best Thing – Ray Lamontagne

Me: I Am – Nathanial Ratliff

My Parents: Family Bible – Willie Nelson

My love of Travel: Old Pine – Ben Howard

When pondering the question: “What kind of student am I?”, I immediately consider circumstances, as other people may do as well. Being a student is a beautiful thing, and when focusing solely on that, the idea is simple. However, most, if not all people, like myself, are faced with other responsibilities that make being a student not so simple. Nonetheless, the kind of student we are is not only a reflection of our academic abilities but can be shaped by all the other obligations we must tend to on a daily basis.

I like to think of myself as a well-prepared student that enjoys learning. I am an adult learner who has returned to the formal education realm after twelve years of absence. I graduated High School in 2005 and immediately entered the workforce, completely abandoning formal education due to a lack of mentorship and self-discipline. However, since then, I have developed a lot of structure and learned to organize and practice effective time-management.

I have a lot of confidence in my educational abilities, especially in the communications field. Initially, I entered into higher education learning with the initiative of becoming a nurse. After spending seven years in the Navy as a Mass Communication Specialist (Public Affairs), I decided to try something new. Come to find out, chemistry and biology were not for me. I became deflated and almost gave up. Thankfully, I was able to shift gears and hop back on the communications route. I learned that my niche is in communications and where I belong. I believe I can continue to increase my confidence level if can progressively sharpen my skills, on all levels of communication.

Lastly, my self-efficacy results show that I have confidence, yet have some room to grow. I believe there is always room for improvement and a person should still accept imperfections as an opportunity for sharpening and refining. My results were a 92.5 in Believe in your ability, a 92 in Ability can grow with effort and a 92.3 as an overall score.

This photo is a depiction of me with my result displayed on the screen of my MacBook. I decided to choose this photo to avoid merely posting a screenshot of my survey results.

Upon my first read of the course objectives, I came to the conclusion that this course is designed to be highly beneficial to not only students’ personally, but professionally as well. I believe knowing how psychologists test hypotheses about individual and group behavior will be great information on how and why we behave the way we do. This will also provide insight into the perception of behavior on a clinical level. Furthermore, I believe the course objectives will help me in understanding how I perceive others and why, which will lead me toward effectively compartmentalize my thoughts and also, my communication approach.

I hope this course will sharpen my communication skills by further understanding psychological processes used throughout daily life, whether at home, during social gatherings, or in professional settings. I hope to gain the ability to effectively discern other peoples’ emotions, speech, and actions to be a more effective leader and communicator. Increasing an understanding of the psychological processes we go through can help me detect situational obstacles and lead me to practical problem-solving.

I am really excited to gain formal knowledge in social psychology and to apply the skills I gain in my day-to-day life.

I chose this photo to showcase my technique while working through assignments. I typically have multiple windows up in order to multitask and this offers me the ability to navigate from one platform to the next with ease. I love working on the MacBook featured in this photo and have become very accustomed to spending hours at a time on it while I work through homework and other responsibilities.