My role on the Sky research team and in the class as a whole is being a TA (a.k.a. Silkworm). The duties that I have as a TA involve acting as a facilitator and mentor to the team, as well as a liaison between my team and the professors of the course, Zhihong Chen and Eric Mortensen. Apart from the teams, I have the role of participating in the class as a student by doing the readings and taking quizzes and tests. Furthermore, I will be working with the other TAs to pull together all of the information (including writings, pictures, documents, etc.) from the teams into one big compilation map of research. In regards to my position as a TA, I believe that I can best assist my team by being available for any questions or concerns that the team might have, as well as doing my best to help resolve those issues, as they arise, in a timely manner. Furthermore, I can help make sure that the team is meeting deadlines and making adequate progress on the research project by checking in on a weekly basis. My biggest apprehension about being a TA is letting go of the control over the research and over the project itself. I have never been in the role of TA, so I will have to learn how to step back and let my group make decisions, but be available for help or direction.
Concerning the course itself, I am excited about physically seeing and experiencing some of the places and cultures that we are learning about this Fall when I attend the study abroad trip to China in January. For instance, it will be interesting to see the different landscapes that helped shape the Silk Road and helped shape the communities that travelled and/or settled on the land. Furthermore, most of the readings and videos for the course have been extremely interesting. I would say that I have enjoyed the documentary “A Thousand Kilometers Beyond the Yellow River,” and the music that we have been exposed to so far, such as Mongolian throat singing and music by Kitaro. I was also intrigued by the article “The Spiritual Identity of the Silk Roads: A Historical Overview of Buddhism and Islam” by Amir H. Zekrgoo because of his discussions about East versus West, and his clear explanation on how new religions form and can be similar to other religions based off of cultural conditions. I think that Zekrgoo’s discussion about East versus West, and the necessity of balance between the two, has many implications that could aid in an inclusive worldview and aid in helpful approaches to everyday life, in small and large matters.
Additionally, I am just so enthusiastic about the content overall in this course. I enrolled in the class Spread of Buddhism Across Asia my final semester at Guilford and I had a wonderful time learning—mainly for the first time—about Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and the cultures surrounding the creation and spread of those beliefs. It was actually the Spread of Buddhism Across Asia course that made me so eager to come back after I graduated to take the Silk Road course specifically. This Silk Road coarse is allowing me to expand and apply the knowledge that I gained from the Spread of Buddhism Across Asia course while learning about many new ideas, religions, peoples, landscapes, interactions, and history.
Although I am extremely enthused about the course and I am very grateful for the opportunity that I have to take the course, there are still aspects of the course that I am nervous about (mainly because I am just a nervous person). Firstly, I am apprehensive about learning all of the technological aspects of the course. I have never done web design or anything of the like, so I wonder how easy it will be for me to pick it up (and then be able to teach others if they need help). Technology is not difficult for me to learn or understand, but it is not automatically intuitive for me, so it takes me a couple of tries to learn and/or figure out. Additionally, I am anxious about the TAs’ responsibilities for the larger research project because it will be a lot of work in a very short amount of time. I worry that it will be difficult to balance those responsibilities with the other work in the course (such as readings and quizzes), as well as to balance personal time and jobs outside of Guilford. As of now, I feel stressed about the amount of work we are all being held accountable for, so I wonder how others are feeling about the workload. Furthermore, I realize that I am a perfectionist as well, so it takes me longer to finish assignments, thus making me worry more about workload! In order to combat my anxiety and slow (but thorough!) work process, I am aiming to organize my time to make myself more efficient. One way that I am planning to organize my time will be by trying to get things for the course done in advance, because I also have to plan around jobs and for personal time.
Overall, I have noticed the theme of balance arising within this semester for myself, so I will embrace this opportunity to learn how to healthily maintain equilibrium mentally, emotionally, and physically while I strive to do the best that I can in this course and in the rest of my life as well. I will strive to focus on balance and see how that affects my stress and worry. I am so ready to learn more about a part of the world that I do not know a lot about and to hopefully help educate others down the road. It is daunting to think of how little I know about so many other peoples and cultures in the world, but I will do my best to learn what I can in the time I am given with an open mind and open heart.