Reflecting on Mapping Freedom Week Six

This week was another pretty productive week, and similar to my last blog post, there is not as much to write about since we spend most of our time doing guided/independent work. I also plan to bullet point the things I learned, my accomplishments, and some of the problems that prevented me from doing my best work. On Monday, we continued working on our 3D models (see the last post for context) and also had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Sherita Johnson, an associate professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi, about literature during the Reconstruction era. Dr. Johnson presented the story of Francis Harper and how her literature is important to understanding the way African American abolitionists fought for parity and justice. Personally, this was my favorite guest lecture that we had so far during this program. I have done a good bit of research on Francis Harper and have had the opportunity to work with community organizations that tell the stories of African American figures who fought for equal rights in central Pennsylvania through living history. Francis Harper is one of their characters. To learn more about my project, please click here (for the blog post) and here (for the videos I produced). Later in the week, we also had the opportunity to sit down and have a nice brunch together at the Honors House on campus. We got a visit from Cash Money Honey (pictured above), a Golden Retriever who visits USM often, and I would say this was a highlight of my week. Throughout the rest of the week, we worked on developing our projects further and troubleshooting any issues we had.

Three accomplishments:

1. I began working on my essay. It felt good to start writing! I haven't had the opportunity to do too much history writing recently, so I am enjoying the process.

2. I began working on my map. I worked with Dr. Stan to troubleshoot, adding my points and displaying my selections.

3. I finally finished my Excel sheets. I have over 70 points on my map with various metadata and descriptions. This definitely took a while.

Three things I learned:

1. I learned how to take breaks better and step away from my work when I am feeling overwhelmed. As these weeks continue to go by, I have felt a bit burnt out, so I have made sure to take breaks and exercise each day to decompress.

2. I learned how much work it takes to accomplish each portion of this project. While my main career goals do not necessarily involve academic history, I can appreciate the time and effort put in by historians to work and publish their writing.

3. I learned how important it is to ask for the opinions of group members. I have often bounced ideas and thoughts off the other members of the REU to make sure they sound coherent, etc.

Three things that prevented my best work:

1. One of these is definitely myself. I think I have been pushing myself too hard to work lately, and while I feel it is all necessary, I think I need to relax.

2. Sometimes I have prioritized accomplishing one task over the other, and it has made the work process seem way larger than it actually is.

3. I have also felt like I fall behind on my work because I pay attention to what my group members are doing. I need to focus on my own areas and understand how we are all in different places and work at different speeds.

I plan to continue working this weekend and maybe go to the Science Museum in Jackson.