We all carry different things with us everyday. From our iPhone to our smile, each and every person carries both mental and physical items to help them succeed with any task they may be faced with.
In Health & Career, we’ve all been reflecting on the things we carry. We were assigned to create a short Keynote to display and explain these things to our classmates through an oral presentation (strange for PLP, right?)

I presented on the first day, because I wanted to get it done so I could get ahead in the course. My presentation was pretty good in my opinion, but let me first explain the process to this presentation.

Making a list of the things I carried would probably be the best way to start. My list included things like: 

– iPhone

– Binder

– Smile

– Music

– Optimism

There were ten items in total, but putting them all in a list would be a very, very long list considering I started with way over ten items. I then watched some of the sample Things I Carry projects and added a few more items, and I also took inspiration for my Keynote presentation.

Learning how to use Keynote wasn’t hard, in fact, I got the hang of everything in the first couple minutes. A portion of the overall mark was to include different aspects to show how we learned how to use the Keynote app, like grouping an image or using a “Magic Move“. My magic move was quite lame and after watching other examples of use of the tool I do with I used it better, but I used everything else. The biggest struggle wasn’t the Health and Career work for me, I found it super easy to reflect on tools I use everyday. It was more the technology, because it was difficult to figure out how to use things like the presenter notes.

The more obvious things I carried with me each day were physical. Items like my water bottle, iPhone and smile were things that people would notice quite quickly if they were to come across me in the halls. It was fun to explain why I used these things, for expample sharing that I always had my water bottle with me because it inspired me to be healthy.

I also took back some information from the “Who’s At My Table” assignment. When I described how I carried my inspirations from my role models with me, I went into detail about how when I would fail a math test or get stuck on a problem that I would reflect on Katherine Johnson, one of my role models. She would inspire me so I always carried her on my shoulder wherever I went.

Then I included something I wasn’t necessarily so proud of, like my iPhone. While I was making my list I was reflecting on this object, did I really need to include it? After contemplating, I decided that it was crucial because I always carried it with me wherever I went. Many other of my friends also seemed to be hesitant about including their iPhone, because I think we would rather say we carry empathy or humour rather than a stereotypical 21st century necessity. I decided it was a tool I used for social connection, life management and as a memory tool rather than just a piece of technology that I needed to feel ‘cool’.

In conclusion, I think this project allowed me to reflect on how what I carry makes me who I am as a person and even though I carry many of the same things as my classmates mentioned, the way I carry them and out them to use is what makes me unique! 

Until next time…