Throughout the beginning of the course, honestly, I was confused. Confused what was so important about compassionate curiosity and mindfulness practice. No class has ever tried to introduce these ideas into my life, which looking back at it now should be something that is taught to students in every class. Trying to completely understand a wicked problem emotionally, intellectually and somatically was very challenging for me. I never really made the time to sit down and have time for myself to be able to have a mindfulness practice, I thought it was useless. But now through understanding being in the present instead of focusing on things around and the future I can understand how helpful mindfulness practicing can be. Setting time aside to just focus on myself in the present has helped me be able to lessen my stress levels, especially with finals week and all the hours needed to spend working on schoolwork. With help from the readings and the discussions it is clear to see why compassionate curiosity and mindfulness practicing are so important to obtain in today’s society. When I bring compassionate curiosity to my learning in this course, I notice I am more aware of the outside world. As well as I am humbler about the things currently going on in today’s society. Compassionate curiosity allows for a more open-minded style of learnings. I have never brought compassionate curiosity into a classroom setting before taking this class. I believe it is a very effective way of learning. The students can really use their minds and curiousness to think about what they are learning and discussing in the classroom. Compassionate curiosity allows for us to continuously discover new things and use compassion to accept and be nonjudgmental toward what was discovered. Utilizing compassionate curiosity in my daily life to be in the present moment and understand wicked problems around the world today is now a goal for me. Making sure I can have a clear mind, heart and body so that I am able to turn my full attention to the matter. I set a specific time in my schedule to set aside for this mindfulness practice idea when I know I will always be able to achieve my full attention, right before bed. It sort of eases you into a calm and peaceful state of mind, making it easier to fall asleep at night. Now of course the beginning of starting this practice was not so easy, it wasn’t always easy to remember but as the days went on it slowly become a normal routine of my day. As well as it wasn’t always easy to stay in the present moment and keep the distractions away but now since I have been doing it for over a month it has become much easier. Adding this practice to my daily life has made me become less stressed, anxious, and less of a grumpy person. Being able to sit and have time for just myself is so wonderful, the particular reason for this circumstance being a lot of days I am so busy I barely have time to eat or even sleep. Adding this to my life has helped tremendously. Developing a humble and compassionate response to wicked problems was also another goal I have put in place. Before this class I never really noticed myself be humble or compassionate toward any of the wicked problems this society is currently facing. I have always been compassionate towards others whether that’s volunteering in my community or mission trips or even just my friends, but I never really have been caring about the horrible problems existing in this world. Honestly, I never really knew how many problems the world and environment have/are facing. The large and very well-known problems this world has faced though I have known about and have showed a sense of compassion towards. I feel sad that my mind has not known the seriousness of the environment and world. I wish my eyes were opened to this earlier in my life so that I could have been able to change my ways a while ago. Being able to broaden my view and idea of the issues upon wicked problems has helped me to create for myself more of an open mind. Coming to class with an open-minded attitude I was able to focus full and be available for different ideas and different aspects of wicked problems that I had no idea even existed. Hearing about wicked problems that existed throughout the world, I obviously immediately became compassionate but not completely humble. Though, through constant mindfulness practice I have been able to have many different views and have begun to become humbler to the world’s issues. I have become immensely more grateful for the things I have and the life that has been provided for me. I have noticed many people do not understand nor care about what is happening around the world and the environment. Knowing what is happening outside of our lives is very important, you can bring a humble, compassionate response to what you discover, and you will want to help make a difference in the world. Finding out more about the world, made me want to create habits that will contribute to the wellbeing of the world. Taking everything into account of what I have learned the past two months of Wicked Problems of Industrial Practice, I feel that this has been an extremely positive experience. I never really knew anything about this course before it started, nor did I know anything about mindfulness practices and compassionate curiosity. Having to add mindfulness meditation into my schedule was not something I thought was going to happen, but it ended up having a positive effect on my life. Meditation to me was a weird aspect that I was told needed to be added into my life, the only time I have ever meditated was in a class in seventh grade, but it had none of the affects that this idea of mindfulness meditation has had. Although I get distracted easily and I prefer to think about what I have going on next not what is currently happening in the present moment, I have seen some very positive effects that have been made since I started mindfulness meditation. I have been able to notice changes in how I think about the world and what we as humans are doing to destroy it. I have never really thought about the reality of how bad humans truly are to this planet. Learning the ideas and issues we have learned in this class has truly been and eye-opening experience. I have learned to always carry a compassionate response and be humble in every issue. I’ve learned so much more about the wicked problems being faced today and the fact that most of them have not had any changes to them is sad. This class has helped me to understand the gruesomeness of this world. I can’t wait to see how current wicked problems and future wicked problems are confronted and attempted to be resolved. This world is not going to last if we continue to mistreat it the way that we currently are.