My name is Sofia Serres and I am a freshman here at the University of Miami. My current major is criminology and I have ambitions of going to law school. Although law is my main area of study, I also take health and wellness courses known as kinesiology. Personal well-being is a topic that I have always been passionate about and I am my friends’ go to “is this healthy?” girl!
A hobby of mine that I have been practicing for some time now is painting. I often believe that I have nothing left to learn, but after reading “Approaching Life with a Beginner’s Mind” I understand the falsity of that statement. I often paint objects or landscapes that are similar to one another because that is where my mind automatically goes, which can be stressful for me because I don’t enjoy repetition. “…instead of worrying about what might happen, you can open yourself up to being curious about what will happen, let go of your preconceived ideas about the outcome and instead embrace not knowing…” This statement makes me realize that sometimes the unknown can be useful and it is an important part of the beginners mind. The next time I get in-front of a canvas I will be sure to explore new colors and stokes.
I would say that when coming to college I used the beginner’s mind. I had taken similar classes in high school, but I knew that college would be different. I cleared my mind of all the ideas I had of school in order to pick up new techniques to succeed in my new environment. I would say the effort I put into my work has definitely changed for the better.
