Weekly Post 2: The Sign of Three

Almost three times a week for three weeks I have gained knowledge about various aspects of professionalism, and from day to day I have learnt more about the subtle aspects of the professional world.

For example, this week we worked on the important skill of being able to accept rejection. This lesson seemed the most important lesson of the week because being rejected is inevitable in life. Everyone gets rejected at some point whether it is a job, program, or even a social situation. The brighter side of this is that I have already learnt the valuable art of gracefully accepting rejection. As a Girl Scout who is tossed out onto the streets every January to sell those scrumptious cookies that everyone seems to love, I have dealt with numerous forms of rejection. From my experiences, there are four main ways of rejection. The first is the polite, “I already bought some cookies….sorry!” The second is the simple “no thank you.” The third is the one that is seen more often than one would think which is the “no” with a slam of the door which often leaves us saying “well thank you, have a nice day” to a piece of wood. The last is very, very easy. No words are needed because the strategy is to simply ignore the person while walking quickly to get as far away as possible. You wouldn’t believe it but as a Girl Scout, I’ve seen everything, from people declining your offer to straight up swerving and changing directions to avoid us and to enter the store through a different door. The takeaway from of all these experiences is to keep a positive attitude and accept that not everyone will want your cookies, or in the case of ISM, not everyone will be interested in speaking or working with you. However, there will always be people who will want to discuss ideas with you, buy your cookies, and work alongside you.

The second of three topics being discussed today is all the assignments that have been due this week. The last couple days, we've had ISM assignments due back to back. I've had to turn in a list of contacts, turn in interview questions, and tomorrow, I have a research assesment due! All of this has made me realize that even though ISM is enjoyable, it requires upmost dedication, hardwork and responsibility. Although I don't believe I have been slacking it has reminded me that I must be studious at all times and that any slip in reponsibility can be quite detrimental.

Thirdly, on the home front progress is being made. Last post, I spoke about attending my school district’s Competitive Mock Trial Team informational meeting and promised to update on that matter. The meeting was great! There were a lot less people at the meeting this year than last (last year there was barely enough room to stand let alone sit) which meant that the coach was able to go over things in more detail. We spent a good two hours going over an old case and practicing in the mock courtroom so that the team’s coach and advising attorney could scope out the potential recruits. I think I did fairly well and that I have a decent chance of making it on the team this year. I was asked to question a ‘police officer’ based on her written testimony and I utilized the knowledge I gained from observing the attorney’s question structure from last year. I won’t bore you all by going into detail about how to set up a foundation when questioning today, but I have no doubt that I will do exactly that in the near future. So if you ARE interested in hearing about that, stay tuned for more! And if you aren’t interested in law related information…… Still stay tuned! Because there will be a myriad of fascinating topics discussed!

~ Shrinidhi Joshi

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