Ninth Post

I was not one of the people who raised this concern in my comments, but I do appreciate having less instructor comments in the forum posts. Maybe instead of replying to the comments, the instructors can just share resources that he/she thinks is interesting and pertaining to the topic?

Due to the stress and heartbreak from the election the day before, I had to exit the room midway through Mihaela Papa's presentation to call my friend. I was having a meltdown before class and was about to have one during class, and had to leave for a break. That whole day I was trying to hold it together and help those that needed more support than me, but I was so tired from staying up until 5am the day before, and so very numb to the nightmare we're in the next four years. So I might have been a little biased, but I didn’t find Mihaela's presentation very interesting. It was probably just bad timing, talking about sustainability and environmentalism in policy when there didn't seem to be any hope in the U.S., at least at the policy level. Although my head was swimming with thoughts and I couldn't pay too much attention, I do believe that she mentioned something about how an international agreement like the Paris Agreement was built to withstand climate deniers' idiocy and greed, which gave me hope. I'm not sure if this was from the presentation or from the plethora of articles I read that day.

Jamie Matteson was very charming and charismatic. I don’t know if it was because I had a great conversation with my friend on the phone right before her presentation, or because of the topic, or the speaker, but I was more engaged with the presentation. Maybe because she was involved with documentaries? Whatever it was, I was more attentive towards her presentation. It was very interesting to hear how she got through the years doing what she does when her government in Australia had a climate denier as the Prime Minister. It was tough, but she got through. Maybe America can too…

My informational interview was really great. I haven't edited the transcript into complete sentences yet, or wrote the essay about it, but I received a job shadowing opportunity through the interview and I'm really excited.