Mini Project 1

PHOTO ESSAY ON LEARNING IN GOLF AND LIFE

THE 5 AREAS OF GOLF THAT RELATE TO LIFE

1. Putting- When somebody is about to putt, no matter if it’s Tiger Woods or just your average weekend golfer, they will always analyze the “break” of the putt before actually hitting the ball. The break is the curve that the ball will travel on during the shot. When one is analyzing the break of the putt they are determining what direction to hit the ball is the best choice, this can be related to life simply. This is similar to when you are in school and you are taking a test. You will never answer a question without reading it first, so you analyze the question and answers to make the best choice, just like reading the break of a putt.

2. Short Game- The short game is widely known as the most vital part of a golfers arsenal. The short game is considered shots from 100 yards and in; it is so because golfers very rarely take full swings in this range of distances. To have a good short game one must have good vision and selection skills. What this means is one must be able to envision the best path to the hole, sometimes that can be a high shot that stops when it hits the green or a low shot a rolls a long way once it hits the green, and then be able to select which one of those paths is best option. This can be seen in college when someone is trying to major in something. They have many ways to get to their end goal, but it is up to them to determine the best option on how to get there.

3. Long Game- The long game is the hardest part of golf. It takes the most time to prefect and is usually the thing golfers pay the most attention to. It takes a lot of practice to develop a solid long game and mistakes are bound to happen from time to time. The lesson you can take from this is to have the ability to learn from your mistakes. Even the pros hit bad shots every once in a while, but what makes them better than amateurs is their ability to learn from their bad shots. In life we all mess up, we all make mistakes, and we all fail. We can learn something from golf that can help with this, that is to learn from our errors and use that knowledge to try and keep it from happening again. Experience can never hurt, failing multiple times can help you realize what you are doing wrong and having the ability to use that experience will take you far in life.

4. The Mental Game- All great champions associate their success with their mental toughness. The way you mentally approach something in golf is similar to how one should do it in real life. You need 3 things: A decision on what you want to do, a plan executing that decision, and the ability to move on if your plan fails. In golf you decide on what kind of shot you want to hit, you create a plan supporting that shot, and then if it doesn’t work quite as planned you accept it and move on. This is a GREAT way to mentally approach life!! Make a decision on what you want to do, make a plan supporting your decision, and if things don’t work out accept it and move on.

5. Physical Skills- You need discipline and determination to get into good shape. Being in good shape allows your body to perform better. This puts you in a position to succeed on the golf course.  In school it’s not so much physical strength that you need, but you need to do physical things to succeed. An example of this is studying hard so you know the material and that puts you in a position to succeed and do great things.

Meeting with the High School Students

We got to meet some of the high school students that we wrote letters to last Thursday. It was a really nice experience getting to know them and answer any questions they had about college. I remember when I first came to college and how nervous I was, so being able to tell these kids about my experience was fun and helpful for them. Being able to talk to these kids about college readiness was fun and really tied together our class discussion on college readiness.

Response to Class Discussion

In class the other day we looked at some quotes and this is my response to them. I agreed with the quote about how if someone is forced to do something they learn to dislike it. People should be able to choose what they want to do. The other quote was on mental activity and further education and I agreed with it because I believe that a further education is needed to be able to sculpt your own thoughts and ideas.

Master / Little Narratives

In the movie "Remember the Titans" we see examples of both types of narratives. We see the little narrative in the relationship between Gary and Julius. They hate each other in the beginning of the story and learn to get along and put their differences aside. They become best friends by the end of the movie and set an example for their teammates. We see the master narrative in the relationship between the white and black players as a whole. By the end of the movie the players put their differences aside and come together to win the state championship.  

Stay Strong

I believe that in every movie there is some hidden meaning that we can take and apply to our everyday lives. In the movie "Coach Carter" we see a perfect example of how to stand your ground. In the movie, Coach Carter must overcome multiple obstacles to break through to his troubled players. The school board doesn't even support his decisions and they threaten to terminate his employment if he doesn't change his ways. He refuses to do so because changing his ways would kill the message he was trying to send to his players. The message that we need to take from this movie is that we need to be strong like Coach Carter was and stand up for what we believe is right.

How Families Are Portrayed In Film

In my group we talked about the different ways that families can be portrayed in film. We came to the consensus that family can be portrayed in two ways, one being a "healthy" family and the other being "unhealthy" families. Healthy families have good relationships between all of the members, for example , a child could come to the parents to talk about a problem and feel comfortable doing so. Unhealthy families do not have this, the children either do not have good relationships with their parents or the parents do not have a good relationship with each other making a bad situation for the child. Both of these types of families can be seen in the TV show "Friday Night Lights" it can be seen in this show because the main family is an example of healthy relationships and the "perfect" relationship between parents and their children. Whereas the unhealthy relationships can be seen by almost every other family in the show, whether its an abusive relationship between father and son or an unfaithful marriage, it is seen on this show. In sum, on modern day TV we can see all sorts of examples of family. We see good examples and bad examples of how families should function and we can potentially learn from them and apply things we learn to our everyday lives.

The Believing Game Response

What I got from the "Believing Game" is that it is good to go back and analyze your work. Doing so can help you find your identity as a writer and allow you to shape that identity into whatever you want it to be. Analyzing your past writings will allow you to identify your weak points and knowing your weak points is good because it will allow you to work on them and improve them. In sum, everyone should go back and read a few of their old writings and try to identify things that they would like to change. Changing these things will allow you to form your desired identity as a writer.