This is the week I found everything intriguing, especially the charm of group work.

Reflection on Group Work

I still remember my confusion about “collective vs. individual reflective practice” in the article What is Reflective Practice, which MAAI students were required to read in week 1 and I asked Elizabeth during tutorials. After experiencing this week, however, I came to know that the unit 2 is absolutely the best practice for the intertwining collective and individual reflections. 

In the reading group session on Tuesday, group members’ different understandings on the carrier bag theory were the most interesting part from my own perspective, empowering our consequent ideas in the group project. The workshop session on Wednesday and our group meetings on Thursday enabled me to amazingly realize how our different life experiences, cultural backgrounds and focuses of interest can contribute to our collective thought developments (care, de-centralization and Jack!). Meanwhile, I found such a group discussion is really a fantastic way to break my information cocoon and approach the information I have never known (for example, Ars longa, vita brevis mentioned by Kyungmin). Happy to cooperate with my knowledgeable teammates!

Reflection on Reading Group, Seminar and Workshop

I would like to list some points which I noted down during these sessions for self-recognition or future use:

· The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction enabled me to shift my sights from heroic narratives to all the subtle elements and helped me reconcile with myself. I used to perceive myself as an anomaly because I am never interested in popcorn movies of world-saving superheroes…

· Everyone’s positionality leads to everyone’s imagination toward future.

· Be aware of stories we tell everyday, and give agency to stories, and change them.

· Pay attention to the canon events of the present/past: what will happen if they are slightly changed?

· For future speculation, think about children.

Reflection on Myself

I neglected the power of my daily focuses. Most of time when I browsed social media pages, hung out with my friends and watched variety shows or drama series, I only viewed them as ways of relaxation or entertainment in the past. However, they are the muses for me to generate ideas and inspirations. For instance, I learned the concept of solopreneur through a small influencer called Jian in a China social media platform which I put forward through our group discussion. Simultaneously, the previous working life which I disliked are the precious experiences to reflect on. It triggers my way of looking forward to the ideal future pattern of work.

There is also some unrelated discoveries of myself hahaha…My mood is quite driven by weather and sleep quality. Weather on Thursday and Friday was super good and it nourished me a lot! At the same time, I finally got better sleep quality after I recovered from a cold. I should take more care of my physical health  and cherish sunny days!

BTW, I escaped from London on Friday. The country landscape I saw in the train was quite healing and I’d like to share here!