Blog Post 3: March 20th, 2022

    After reading most of Daring Greatly, I think the thoughts about 'armor' to protect from vulnerability can be applied to STEM in a lot of cases. A big part of succeeding at university is the mentality of, "I'm an educated person now, I need to be able handle 'x' assignment or 'y' project on my own." Or maybe something along the lines of living up to the expectations that society sets on people who aim to become professionals in a field. If you needed a bunch of tutoring and help to finish an assignment, are you really that good of a mathematician, engineer, scientist, etc? The answer is: yes, it does make you that good to reach for resources when assistance is needed, that's a part of being educated. Students might not see it that way though, they may think, "god, is this really the degree for me if I can't even do this? It's barely a lower-division course, what about the higher division ones?". So they may set up 'armor' in the form of ego or undue confidence, rather than seeking the help that they would need for said project or class.

    I find that I fit into that exact situation when I was still doing my Computer Science major. I felt stupid for not being able to do what I saw others were doing, programming in the class with ease. Instead of seeking proper help to hammer down the concepts needed to succeed in the field. I eventually found out it was not for me and I switched to Environmental Science and...the same thing happened all over again. It felt like everyone was just doing better than me and I felt like I had to put up my 'armor' because I felt ashamed at my perceived lack of competence.

    I eventually learned through both a helpful class I took (Mindset Connections) and through my therapy that getting help is not a weakness. In fact, I think what can make someone competent in a field is knowing 'where' to find help rather than whether they need it or not. Reference books, other experts, your peers, etc. are what you look to because you can't know everything nor should you have to. I think this also kind of plays into the 'interdisciplinary' approach that is important to modern science. In summary, I think the expectations students set upon themselves can lead to vulnerabilities, causing many to don their 'armor' or risk the shame of failing their expectations. This isn't how it should be and I think its an important learning curve, especially in a STEM field.

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