Thursday, July 7, 2016

Listening and Studying

I woke up this morning to see the pouring rain. You would expect it to be super cold with the rain, but it wasn't. It was extremely hot and humid inside the dorms and my room. I was honestly sweating from being inside and couldn't stand it. If I hate anything about Cornell and Ithaca it's the humidity. I miss feeling the cold breeze of the Bay Area. 

The professor finished up on happiness. A very interesting part of this lecture to me was that money matters when it comes to happiness, but the amount it matters will vary depending on your income. If you make less than 75,000 then money will be able to make you significantly happier, but if you make more than that then it doesn't increase your happiness by very much. The theory behind this was that if you are making less than 75,000 then you are not making enough to really be comfortable in life and so you learn to really appreciate all the little things when you do have the money to make your life comfortable. The opposite is true. When you are making enough money to be comfortable you grow very used to all the different things you can buy and it isn't really a luxury, but just something part of your daily routine so you lose feeling towards the benefits money gives you. Therefore, you don't easily appreciate the little things money gets you. We did a review for the quiz tomorrow during the discussion class.

I went back to my dorm after eating at Trillium to start studying for my quiz. Usually when I study I'll make a Quizlet set of flashcards. I really like Quizlet because I don't have to buy any flashcards or store them anywhere in case I need them again. I find that the process of typing out all the information I need to know onto the flashcards is what really helps me understand and learn the information. I understand the information better because I'm putting all the terms and concepts into my own words so that it's easier to memorize. 

At 3:00 PM, I went to my second class where two counselors and the teacher discussed basic counseling skills. We went through listening, talking, what type of questions to ask, etc. I learned that if I'm listening to a friend my body language really changes how comfortable they feel talking to me and that I should ask open ended questions so that they have more to talk about to let out their feelings. After the second class, I went back to my dorm to study more until I needed to go to sleep with the exception of dinner. I'm feeling pretty confident that I understand all the concepts that were covered this week and hopefully I do well. 

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