{"id":42906,"date":"2020-11-02T13:40:41","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T18:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=42906"},"modified":"2020-10-30T16:18:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T20:18:11","slug":"how-i-am-going-to-be-more-actively-participating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2020\/11\/02\/how-i-am-going-to-be-more-actively-participating\/","title":{"rendered":"How I am going to be more actively participating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It\u2019s pretty hard to catch a yawn off zoom classes and nobody\u2019s going to share a Timbit with you anymore. It\u2019s hard to listen to someone and even harder to grasp their body language from just their face or impossible off a faceless avatar. I don\u2019t tap anyone on the shoulder and I miss a good old hug. I preferred when the time between classes was more about catching up and about friends instead of trying to connect to a class session alone before T-time hits. As a non-native, Timbits entered my life soon after I began at UofT. These creations of ultra sweet, cake fluffs each with enough energy to power a small tank, was one of the things that would be shared. And the energy kickstarted conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That form of energy isn't here these days. I miss yawning contagiousness, you know when you look at someone yawning and then you begin to yawn too. Just like you\u2019re feeling now. We lose body language and we slowly lose interaction and our engagement. I have found in adapting to online work, it\u2019s more of the same of the \u2018same old cycle\u2019 each day. I work more hours and go through the motions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/IMG_9590-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"One of the last evening skies of October, and I find going outside and glancing at the sky is relaxing.\" class=\"wp-image-42912\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/IMG_9590-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/IMG_9590-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/IMG_9590-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/IMG_9590-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/IMG_9590-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Aware of this passive cycle, I'm beginning to do other activities with fellow people, with a recent experience with Skule\u2019s community outreach team, SCOre. We have offered a Halloween competition to help get the engineering community involved and offer a chance to wind down a bit. I reach out via Instagram and enlisted the help of the two Skule figureheads in Mr Blue and Gold and Lady Godiva if you have heard of the names. The competition has no monetary prize but was focused on a sense of community. The contest itself also is a chance to share photos from any past Halloween and enter them in as a causal contest for bragging rights. Yet, it\u2019s been really tricky to motivate and ask people, especially the new class, but it's important to encourage them to get involved at a busy time of year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/Screenshot-2020-10-30-at-16.16.57-576x1024.png\" alt=\"Image of the Halloween costume contest for SCOre's contest on their instagram story \" class=\"wp-image-42909\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/Screenshot-2020-10-30-at-16.16.57-576x1024.png 576w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/Screenshot-2020-10-30-at-16.16.57-169x300.png 169w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/Screenshot-2020-10-30-at-16.16.57-768x1365.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/Screenshot-2020-10-30-at-16.16.57-864x1536.png 864w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/Screenshot-2020-10-30-at-16.16.57-1152x2048.png 1152w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2020\/10\/Screenshot-2020-10-30-at-16.16.57.png 1242w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><figcaption><em>Image by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/uoft.score\/\">SCOre, Skule Community Outreach at U of T<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The same thoughts of 'should I talk in this class, or ask that question I really should', or speak to the professor in front of hundreds of students runs through all our minds. Until fairly recently, I was in the boat of <em>I don\u2019t need to<\/em> and <em>if I have a problem in the future I will ask but not now<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A couple of weeks back, as a result of catching up with the class, it just hit me that I should talk, be proactive because life\u2019s too short to worry and wait until next time. We easily fall back into our comfort zone without our close friends and the comforts of bedrooms and homes sometimes put us to a passive sleep where we forget about the bigger picture. I\u2019m just saying make the most of the difficult situation and even though the best day was yesterday, today\u2019s a pretty good day to start.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There's a growing list of things I want to get involved with from various <a href=\"https:\/\/harthouse.ca\">Hart House<\/a> activities that tick boxes that conventional classes can't compete with. I can learn about film development and music creation there while also being able to watch theatre and talk to other students who have more experience but have that open community. It is something that I know people put a lot of effort in and also what I want to work on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nIt\u2019s pretty hard to catch a yawn off zoom classes and nobody\u2019s going to share a Timbit with you anymore. It\u2019s hard to listen to someone and even harder to grasp their body language from just their face or impossible&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2020\/11\/02\/how-i-am-going-to-be-more-actively-participating\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;How I am going to be more actively participating&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2020\/11\/02\/how-i-am-going-to-be-more-actively-participating\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;How I am going to be more actively participating&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":406,"featured_media":42912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,6669,59,62,65,1,69,66,67,12683,68,77],"tags":[15626,1836,341,101,617,10824,9422,1343],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42906"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42924,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42906\/revisions\/42924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}