If I would enumerate the troubles I have to deal with that concern this blog, one of those would be working on that 'About Me' section. I am really bad at describing myself. There’s one time I visited different blogs not to read their entries but to see how well they did on that section. “Do I really know me?” I asked myself one time.

Yesterday, right before lunch break, our professor in Leadership and Management came up with an activity that would show how well we know our own self particularly our strengths and weaknesses. It would also showcase our strengths and weaknesses from the view of the members of our group¹. I think this is always utilized in team building, personal development activities and whatnot so others may be familiar with this or may have done this already.

The instructions were:
- form a circle of your group
- get a piece of paper and write your name
- fold the paper into three: column 1, write ‘strengths’; column 2, write ‘weaknesses’; column 3, write ‘areas for improvement’
- for the first entry, you are to write one entry on each column. What do you think is your strength, weakness, and the area or your attribute that you would like to improve?
- when finished, everyone will have to pass the paper to the person on the right and answer this: Pertaining to the owner of the paper, what do you think is his/her strength, weakness, and area/attribute that you would like to be improved?
- continue passing until your paper comes back to you.

So I have my paper scanned and the image is right there on the left. And of course, I would like to react on some entries written.

Strengths:
Of being understanding and patient or, yes, “patientious” – I think have mentioned Miko on some of my posts here. I would like to say that he intended translating pesensyosa that way. He can be so funny at times. Anyway, I think I inherited these two from my father. Most of my friends have never seen me angry. I just hate fights, conflicts, and arguments so I stay away from all of that as much as possible by understanding others’ points and lengthening my patience.

Of being responsible and good leader – it’s like a breath of fresh air reading those entries because it only tells that I’m doing well. Though it’s a bit contrary ‘cause I was so quiet and a little ineffective yesterday maybe because of a deficient sleeping time I had the night before. I reviewed notes that basically weren’t asked during the quiz we had first thing in the morning. Then I was depressed even more.

Weaknesses:
I wrote rejection for the weakness column. Rejection in general, that is. On the very least, one instance is when I see someone I know approaching as I walk by the street or hallway. I will have second thoughts if I should greet the person because I’m worried that the person won’t greet me back. This is one reason why people usually mistaken me as snobbish. Toxic times, CIs (clinical instructors), work overload, and mood changes are parts of being the person in charge of the group. Loneliness/ being a loner are really what I am scared about. Not being able to show real feelings/emotions, as written by my good friend, Rhom, is kind of like my strength and weakness at the same time. Kit is one of those who know how really important my family is for me so I’m not surprised that she wrote “family problems” as one weakness. And boys, if you’ll ask me this time of my life, don’t really bother me. Nice try, Oli! :P

Areas for improvement:
For almost 4 years of living in a dormitory without my family and going back home only on weekends, it’s not enough to tell I have already become independent. The only time I can label myself that is when I stop spending my parents’ money. And I think that time is too early to visualize if I will consider what Maude and Kit have to say on the areas I have yet to improve, that is saving or budgeting. Most of the times I’m in control but some times I’m not. It’s like I’ve been trying to save all my life but it doesn’t seem to work. My bank account deserves a boo considering that I am already twenTEEN² years old. I really have to work on time management. I’m not really good at socialization and public speaking but I love meeting new people. Xtian put “diet” because he’s macho and mayabang. Haha. Jesson, my seatmate, wrote “Improve mo skills mo sa pagpapaputok ng thumb ko,” I don’t know how to explain this but I have a way on snapping his thumb that he enjoys so much. He requests 4 to 5 times a day and I have to do it 4 to 5 times a day on each thumb. Sometimes I tease him that next time I would put charge on it ‘cause, really, if he would pay me for it I would’ve been rich now. Haha

So that’s it. Wow, long entries come once in a blue moon in my blog!
Enjoy the remaining days of November! Isn’t the cold breeze great? :)

---

[1] The group that we have during hospital duties. There are four groups in our section composing of 12 members each.

[2] Give me more time to accept that I’m a teen no more. :)

Labels: Duty, Friends, Nursing, Personal, School