Vulnerability

Working collaboratively is one of the hardest skills to develop successfully for me because I always strive for perfection and when others don’t do their part or don’t do it well, I feel the need to do it myself. Communicating with the team had some inconveniences earlier on in the project, but now it is just Felipe and I which has been a challenge in some aspects but has facilitated communication because it is just one person I have to inform now. A time when I felt helpless and vulnerable recently in the project was when our mangroves in the nursery began to dry up. It is really hard to maintain them alive and I have been doing my best to water them on the schedule, but the conditions keep getting harsher. I have began feeling hopeless about the project at times but my team and collaborators have helped me motivate and understand that I can’t blame myself for everything because I am trying my best and the force of nature is strong enough to bring this project down. It has helped me be a little easier on myself, for the better, because I used to be so stressed out all the time and I learned to handle that and focus on the important things rather than getting caught up on unnecessary things that I can’t do anything about, which is a way in which this vulnerability has helped me grow as a person. Another time when I felt like this was last week when we had our presentation to the 5th graders as the first step in collaborating with them. Felipe got sick and couldn’t come to school, and I had to present on my own which was a time when I felt a little vulnerable because we had worked so much on preparing and now I had all this weight to carry on my own. I presented by myself and ir went really well and I was super proud. I am excited to keep working with them and I hope next time Felipe will be able to be there. The reason I felt a little vulnerable was because Felipe has missed many big steps in our project for many different reasons that weren’t necessarily under his control but it has taught me to grow as a person and take the leader role in order to keep going and make the change in the planet with our mangrove.

Learning outcomes: Global importance, Commitment and perseverance, Work collaboratively, New challenges and new skills, Strengths and areas for growth
Learner profiles: Communicator, Balanced, Reflective, Knowledgable, Principled, Caring, open-minded, risk-taker