Midterm week! I should not have put an exclamation point after that statement, as this internship has been nothing but amazing for me personally, and the fact that it is coming closer to an end is a bit sad. However, we shall focus on the present, and this week Zoom university won again, as I was not able to attend Dr. Mormino's lecture in Tampa Bay this week, but still managed to attend virtually via Zoom. Also, similar to my Week 2 blog where I had a mini confession/rant episode, this blog will have another one (more on the confession side than ranting). Finally, I will be mentioning my plan moving forward in these final six weeks ahead.
Let's start with Dr. Mormino's "Duckwall Lecture: Dreams in the New Century" presented by the Florida Humanities at the Tampa Bay History Center that happened yesterday (Thursday, 6/23). The event started at 6:30 pm (which was partly the reason I couldn't attend in-person) and finished close to 8 pm. Unlike last week's event, this one had more importance because it was about Dr. Mormino's latest book Dreams in the New Century: Instant Cities, Shattered Hopes, and Florida's Turning Point, which I'll be reading and pulling content from for the eventual interview/podcast. Also unlike last week's event, this was more of a "lecture style" presentation, rather than a Q&A session with two historians. Dr. Mormino went through the most interesting points he made throughout the book, and presented it with an entertaining PowerPoint presentation (how many times you think that has been said about the use of PowerPoint? Yikes.) I took some notes, but not as substantial as I did last week. I honestly got fascinated and entertained with what he was presenting that my attention was gravitated towards that and nothing else. Plus, I figured I would have more detail notes once I go through the book, that I can refer to once I do the podcast with him (more on that later). The few notes I did take were mainly about comments he made after finishing a point (which I'd assume would not be in the book, hence why I wrote it down), and how I would like for him to expand on that when we do the podcast. It was a great lecture that I would have loved to attend in-person, but I am still grateful they had the option to join virtually, so I could attend nonetheless. Like last week's event, I will be referring back to it when I talk to him soon.
Confession time. As mentioned throughout these blogs, I am a very candid person (maybe too candid, some would say), and confessions will be and have been shared here and there. I have struggled with the reading material. Let me clarify. I have struggled with retaining important information from the reading material. Throughout my time in college, I have attempted multiple styles of note-taking for reading textbooks and books. Some worked and most didn't. Since this is the first time I am reading outside of the classroom setting, and I am interning for a first-class historical society, and will be interviewing a prominent Florida historian, I want to do this the right way, no shortcuts. With the help of the amazing professors I have experienced in my time at UCF (I really do mean that), they make the readings from their coursework more feasible because their lectures are encompassing. That is the foundation to any and all readings and coursework that is given throughout the semester. This is different. There is no base, I start from scratch and carve out my own way. Don't get me wrong, I love these types of challenges, but to say I am thriving at the moment, I would be lying. I have such high expectations for this podcast, since I hope it will be my first of many down the road. I am not expecting perfection, but I do expect a certain level of quality and authenticity for it, like I do with the whole internship experience in general. I am not going to mention the other academic responsibilities I have right now, because that will be giving excuses. I knew what my plate would be entering this internship from Week 1 to Week 12. Am I being too hard on myself? Maybe. But I'll tell you what------being hard on myself is what pushed me to be in the position I am today, and to have all the opportunities I have in my life right now, so clearly it works. Identifying the problems/struggles is half the battle. The other half is identifying potential solutions to rectify the problems/struggles. Therefore, I have been in the process of doing that. I have watched several videos on YouTube, that I think are credible, about some note-taking strategies when reading non-fiction books. I will be applying those strategies moving forward. Side note, if I was reading these books for leisure, I would not stress this whole "retain as much pertinent information as possible" situation, however like I have been reiterating, since I am doing a podcast, I want to be as prepared as possible with my interviewee. Continuing with the solutions process, I have streamlined the top priority books I will be reading next week and in the following order to grasp the historical perspectives about the history of immigration in Florida throughout time. The other books that I have in possession from my visit to the FHS (see Week 4 blog), will be on hold for now. If I need more information, I will refer to them, but not read them fully at the moment. The streamlined-priority books are in the following image below, and all are written by Dr. Mormino (one of the criteria for being a priority book). They include most of his books about immigration in Florida, going way back in 1983 (book in the far left of the image) to his most recent publication this year (2022, book in the far right of the image) [side note: I got his latest book this week on Tuesday, as that was the same day UCF sent me an email to pick it up at the library]. This is almost a 40-year career of writing about this topic, and I want to appreciate and like I said do this the right way, because opportunities like this don't come around often. I want to truly understand the historical progression of my topic and reading these books (and taking adequate notes---the whole reason we are in confession time right now) that span almost 4 decades from an historian who has devoted his life to the topic is the way to do so. The final part to this solution process/plan, is that I will be emailing Dr. Mormino next week to set up the interview/podcast sometime in beginning/mid July. Not only will this put more pressure (good pressure) on me to finish the material on time, but also out of courtesy because Dr. Mormino has a busy life, like most of us, and would probably appreciate the heads-up a couple weeks before. Plus, I don't want him to forget about our interaction we had last week that was so sincere and great, and waiting longer to contact him will increase the risk of him potentially forgetting.
Quick subplots that happened this week as well: I continue to be in communication with Holly. This week, I informed her of the midterm evaluation, and she completed it and give it to me Friday morning, for me to turn in via Webcourses.
Were the confessions too bad? I've been taught "honesty is the best policy", and I take that with me in almost everything I do. I can't promise this will be the last confessions because by giving me a space where I can write freely, the odds of me confessing will always be high (hopefully next time a more "positive" confession). I am heading into the final six weeks of the internship, and grind time will be significantly increased, and I understand and accept that. I will also be looking forward to it because I always want to improve my reading comprehension skills in any way possible. In next week's blog, I will report my email to Dr. Mormino and hopefully his response back with a firm date set for the podcast. Also, I will talk about my experience reading the books, while taking notes to prepare me for the interview. And probably something else that will happen next week. I do not know, I am not a prophet! Thank you for reading as always!
SG
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