Journal #18

Journal #18

Journal # 18: Amy Cuddy focuses her Ted Talk on ways to become something you are currently not by pretending.   For this journal, identify 2 concrete moments from the semester where you felt to be pretending to fit in or where you faked knowing what to do in order to succeed.  What were the

11 thoughts on “Journal #18

  1. At the beginning of the semester when I first entered English 122, Professor Drown and Miller were talking about how we would no longer be using the high school format of the five paragraph essay. We would be using first person and would learn new ways to write essays and develop our old habits. This first scared me and I kinda faked the idea of knowing how do this. I thought I would struggle with the concept and never learn how to develop my old writing. When beginning my first essay I did struggle on how the essay was written but Professor Drown helped me through it during tutoring. Professor Miller also helped in class when questions were being asked.
    Another time when I was faking it in order to succeed was when I was younger and I struggled with reading. I was a such a lower level than everyone else throughout school and I struggle with pronouncing words. I hated reading out loud because I stutter and I still do. I tried to get away without reading but soon my teachers realized I needed extra help. After receiving extra help I was able to improve my reading.

  2. Alex Smyth:
    One of the classes I attend at UNE is public speaking. I don’t like talking in front of big audiences, but the point of the class is to talk in big audiences. I know how important speaking is but I don’t like doing it in huge crowds. For my first ever presentation, I had to make a narrative that I had to present in front of the class. Despite my lack of confidence, I had to fake my way through the presentation, like I’ve done this multiple time. I simply just lied to myself that this was a piece of cake. Nothing will go wrong. I made myself believe that public speaking would be my easiest class and by the end of the presentation, it had seemed like I had practiced for something I didn’t practice for.  I had faked it till I made it. I am still taking this class and, while I don’t like public speaking still, presentation have become easier.   

    During my high school AP biology class, we were thrown into groups to talk about photosynthesis. Just as a heads up, Biology was my worst class from high school, but nonetheless I had to pretend I knew what I was talking about. I used fancy words like photo systems, excited electrons, H2O, etc. to get through that group work, but talking it over had help me understand the topic when listening to others. I started by faking what I knew to actually knowing the topic by the end of our conversation. I had become someone who knew what the topic for that unit was and ended up doing well in that unit.

  3. One time during this semester I had some issues with some girls in a different building and they were accusing me of some things that they really did and I felt that I couldn’t be myself or anyone around them because when I did I would be screamed at and told to shut up or something else. I felt excluded and I couldn’t show them who I was and show how I am. In a situation like this I wish I could have stood up for myself and try to fix it but at the time I wanted to fit in as much as possible and not get down about what they would say.
    When I was on my rowing team in high school I learned how to be a coxswain by faking it until I became it just like Amy Cuddy discussed in her ted talk. I found myself pretending to know certains drills to instruct the rowers to do but I didn’t so I ended up following what other coxswains did till I was able to do it on my own. I also would fake my age for my team becauyse as a minor in a women competetion team I could race but I wouldn’t be able to metal so I would do a lot of preparing for nothing so I decided to use a different year of my birthday and I would be able to metal.

  4. One of my fake it until you make it moments was in my junior year of high school and it was honors pre-calc class and my teacher was not very nice. She was teaching a new topic and I didn’t understand so I asked some questions well, maybe multiple questions and she got quite mad. So at that point I just sat down at my desk faking like I knew what I was doing until I actually figured it out on my own.

    Another way that I faked it until I made it was when I first got here I acted like I knew where was everything was and like I knew how to be a college student but I don’t and I did fake it. who knows I could still be faking it, because I don’t know if I made it yet or not.

  5. It was freshman year of high school. The year everyone had finally been waiting for. Finally High School! Little did I know about the things to come… it was my first project ever for history class. You know the presentation type where you stand up in front of everyone and speak. It of course was a partner project and I had created the powerpoint all to what the rubric was asking for and I had made note cards to speak because we could not read the board so I made some note cards for each slide with what to say. Little did I know that my partner had gone in the night before and re did the entire project without telling me. They added their own work in and took all my work out. And I did not know this until the day of presentations when I pulled it up on screen. I had no idea what to do so the first thing I did was I faked it. I faked the entire project. I did a quick skim before I spoke on the slides I was speaking for and made sure that I sounded confident with my voice flections and everything. At the end I spoke to my teacher and told him that I had faked the whole presentation because my partner had gone in the night before and changed it on me. He told me that he didn’t even know I was faking it, and he did not take any points off for me even though he knew that I had faked it.
    It was my first year of softball ever. My friend had told me to try out for the town team because the numbers were down that year and they had needed more people to try out. She thought that I had played some form of baseball but the only thing I had under my baseball/softball belt was T-ball and thats barely anything. It was the day of tryouts for the teams and honestly I was really scared. I had no idea what was happening and what to do with myself or where I should say I played. So I just said I played 3rd base. The coaches hit the grounder to me I mess up on the transfer and make a semi decent throw to the first baseman in which my friend was playing. She kept giving me positive comments. So I try again and this time I fielded it perfect and make a hard perfect throw. It was the end of tryouts and she runs over to me to tell me I did a great job, and I tell her that I had never played softball in my life and I had no idea what was going on. And she told me that to looked like I knew what I was doing and that she was surprised that I had even said that because I played as if I had played for a few years like her. Now I am this CAL player of the year in my division and I am a well rounded Short stop. Personally I would never had told anyone that I had faked it the very first time of my playing softball I would make up an elaborated lie that I was always good and I had always known the rules but that would be lying or in this case me faking the truth of how my abilities and knowledge was from the beginning.

  6. One concrete moment where I faked it to make it, which I still do, is in my microeconomics class. In high school I didn’t take this course, or any business course, so my first day I was completely knew to it. Everything sounded Chinese and still does to a sort. I felt as if other kids had background on the class too, so I’d nod or shake my head to concepts pretending like I was giving an actual response like I knew what was being talked about. Acting like I knew it made me feel like I knew it, and then learned a bit because in my head I thought I did. I still struggle in the course and still fake it but am better than I was the first few weeks of school.
    Another concrete moment where I would fake it is during football. In high school all the plays and concepts were simple, in college it was a whole new ordeal of things I had to know. So each day when we would go out and practice what we learned, i’d learn it more on the fly. I’d say I know what i’m doing and then figure it out on the field and that’s how I learned.

  7. Journal 18

    One moment this semester where I felt that I was pretending to fit in was just being a college student alone. I had never been a college student until now and the best way that I thought to go about it was to pretend that I was one. So far I think I’m doing a pretty good job because I been getting a lot of questions about if I was a sophomore or a junior in college. Another moment where I faked knowing what to do in order to succeed was my macroeconomics class. I would come prepared and always look as if I knew what was going on when I really didn’t, and I’m going to keep doing that until I start to catch on to what’s really going on. I feel as though that I’m really good at pretending to know what’s going on or faking that I know because I always find myself in new situations that I know nothing about and the only way to fix that is to just go with the flow until I understand it.

  8. Journal 18

    One moment this semester where I felt that I was pretending to fit in was just being a college student alone. I had never been a college student until now and the best way that I thought to go about it was to pretend that I was one. So far I think I’m doing a pretty good job because I been getting a lot of questions about if I was a sophomore or a junior in college. Another moment where I faked knowing what to do in order to succeed was my macroeconomics class. I would come prepared and always look as if I knew what was going on when I really didn’t, and I’m going to keep doing that until I start to catch on to what’s really going on. I feel as though that I’m really good at pretending to know what’s going on or faking that I know because I always find myself in new situations that I know nothing about and the only way to fix that is to just go with the flow until I understand it.

  9. One time I had to fake it to make it was when i started working at Dunkin’ donuts last summer. They didn’t give me any instruction on how to work any of the machines. Surprisingly working at dunkins isn’t as easy as it sounds lol. I had to fake like I knew what I was doing so I didn’t get fired or something. It was my first job working for someone other than myself so I didn’t know what to expect. Eventually, I figured out how to work y’all the machines to where I didn’t need to fake it anymore, i just knew it. When I first started off now that I think back, I made myself small so I wouldn’t be noticed if i did something wrong. Once I got comfortable I opened up more.

    Another time I had to fake it until I made it was when I went lobster fishing with a commercial fisherman. About two summers ago I went lobstering fishing, with my sponsor for the apprenticeship program I was in, and mind you I had never lobster fished with anyone other than my grandfather. My grandfather and I had no clue how to lobster fish, but the apprenticeship program was a good opportunity to make some money. So I went out with Eddie Foye with his deckhand as well, and we went right at it. I had very little instruction so I had to figure out what to do by watching his deckhand and teaching myself. At first, I was trying not to bump anyone or anything. After about 2 or 3 hours I got the hang of things, but I was still too slow to handle the traps directly out of the water. After about hour 5 I got the hang of the speed as well, and moved to the position of deckhand.

  10. During my senior year in high school I faked it until I made it/become it while doing clinicals for my LNA certification. Sometimes I wouldn’t be completely positive about how to do a certain skill but I would complete it to the best of my ability or ask the teacher to ensure the skill was being performed correctly and safely. I also fake it until I make it/ become it in my chemistry lecture and lab because most of the time things aren’t explained and I will google what’s going on with a certain concept so I become more aware and when people ask me if I know what’s happening I just repeat what the website said.

  11. Personally, I don’t like to pretend to be something that I’m not, but in Cuddy’s talk she explained the definition of her way of “fake it till you make it.”It is to help an outsider to fit in or to adapt the surrounding in a better way. I say her way of faking is a good way of faking, and it has happened to me multiple time. I was in environmental issues class, and I didn’t do the weekly reading subject. However, the teacher wanted us, as students, to talk about it during class. During the talk, I pretended I have read the chapter, gave a little nod to those speaking, and mean time I’m listening and learning. When it comes to my term, i just summarized what i just heard from my intelligent classmate. The other time that I’m pretending to be something else, actually it can’t be counted as a time it happened in a really long time, least around 2-3 years, it Is to come live here coming from a different culture background. Everything is different, food, language, religious, value, and even temperature scale. I do feel i dont belong here when i first come here, but i did what exactly what Cuddy did when she first enter Harvard, i fake it. I see my self as a American, i start to not think burger is gross… Its hard for me to name it all, because the its all about those small thing and there is to many of them i can tell you my story for days. My homestay and 5 of my best friend help me out a lot on that. However, i didn’t “become it” because i know where i’m coming from i know, and i dont wanna become it. The known of combination between together become who i am today. Why you can’t have 2 when you only have one.

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