Life skills Assignment

Part 1: Book review

I have chosen the book “Who moved my cheese” for writing this review. I am
so glad to have read this book as it has truly had a profound impact on my life.
The book is about accepting and reacting to change. I truly wish I had been
given this assignment in my first semester as it would have helped me cope
with the sudden change in environment due to a hostel lifestyle better. It is a
book involving four main character, two of which are mice and the other two
are “little people” who are meant to symbolise people in society today. The
little people are sharp beings wanting to succeed in life and having the unique
ability to introspect on themselves. The book follows their lives as they search
a maze to find their cheese which symbolises their desires in life. They finally
find what they are looking for “Cheese station C”. As time goes on the little
people start to get used to their new relaxed lifestyle. They expect the cheese
to always be there and hence build a belief structure around it. The mice being
simple creatures treat each day as if the cheese could disappear at any
moment. Eventually, one day, the cheese gets over. The mice adapt instantly
and set out to find new cheese in the maze. The little people, however, take
time to deal with this change. They are unable to believe that the cheese has
gotten over. The book then goes about describing the experience that all of us
have had when we try to cope with change. The book follows the characters
through their emotions of disbelief, sadness, anger, confusion, fear and
eventually shows the reader how to overcome them. This book despite its
short size can impact lives in a way that books twice its size fail to do. It shows
us that in our lives change is always unexpected. We should always anticipate
change and be prepared for it. It shows us that emotions like fear will try to
weigh us down when we embark on a journey to find new “cheese”, but as the
character Haw rightly tells us that fear is only a state of mind which must be
overcome to achieve success in our lives. Eventually Haw realises that true joy
lies in the journey and not the destination of finding cheese. He let’s go of his
complex belief system weighing him down and adapts to a lifestyle like the
mice. Soon after he realises this, the book ends with him finding new cheese.
The book is truly a masterpiece in the genre of self-help books, a short elegant
story, set in the childish world of mice, with the power to greatly impact the
lives of the readers in a subtle yet profound way.
Part 2: Seniors Talk
I wish these talks would have been conducted live. Life at insti can be
intimidating at first glance since it feels like there is always so much more to
do. It has been quite challenging for me in my first year as I often ended up
taking up too many responsibilities and felt burned out on a monthly basis. I
agree with Ravi when he says that we should build sustainable relationships
with people here. I am introverted by nature and find it difficult making
friends. I managed to make the start the best relationships through small often
meaningless interactions. The friend who I have late night conversations with is
somebody who I talked to because I needed a band-aid. My roommate and I
had a language barrier, which made it so that we couldn’t bond with each
other easily. We managed to build a certain respect for each other over time
through our small conversations we had. It was only during the time of quizzes
when being forced to sit in our rooms for most of the day, did we make an
honest attempt to communicate. It was the desperation of making friends and
making connections that forced me to get out of my bed everyday to try
something new. This led me to rule out so many thing that I realised really
soon was not built for me. I often feel lost in insti as it feels like everybody else
is doing so much. The advice given be so many seniors is often overwhelming
as each one of them has a different club or activity they feel I should be a part
of to be successful. It took me a lot of time to realise that each person can
have their own experience in insti, and still have grown out of it. There is
nothing like the right thing to be a part of. The talk with Pranjali contained
things I did not consider yet. I struggle with time management. I’m a habitual
procrastinator which means that I end up sacrificing a lot of me time before
every major submission. I realise now that I had a lack of a routine in my insti
life, which put a lot of stress on me both mentally and physically. I realise now
that I probably need to come out of habit of procrastinating and live a more
systematic life eventhough I still am not sure on how to go about doing so.
Since I have come to insti, it’s like the world caved in. I have lost touch with the
outside world as I rarely read news, or watch shows anymore. I will hopefully
try to incorporate these tips I learned from these talks in my daily life.

Part-3: Video review