[Editor's note: Departing somewhat from our usual "My Week in ESTEEM" format, current student Risa Takenaka shares her experience, candidly and with humor, since learning that Notre Dame's classes would move online. This news came on March 11, just as the class was finishing up their Spring Break week in Silicon Valley.
This is the third post in the series. Check back often for new installments.]
The Friday Fitness Fools
And of course, Cold Brew Fuel co-founders, Nick Wilt and Anshul Dhingra are keeping the rest of us accountable for working out via Zoom fitness challenges. The description for this particular challenge was, “Heavy in jumping jacks and push-ups. I don’t know the exact numbers we will be doing but it will be a lot!”
... That’s a no for me, dawg.
Word on the street is that Nick even did a marathon on a treadmill recently... Very impressive, but are we even surprised? Leave some motivation for the rest of us, please!
Speaking of staying fit, here is Livingstone Masango post run. His running partner, Sarah Schmidt, says “I convinced him [Livingstone] to go for a run the other day, and I low-key thought he wasn’t going to make it.”
Love to see it.
Wine Sommelier
And while visiting wineries may be out of the question for now, that has not stopped Abby O’Loughlin and Co. from having a good time. Her family, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and family friends recently had a Virtual Quarantine Wine Tasting event, hosted by her grandpa and his client, who happens to be the largest wine distributor in Ohio. When I asked her what she thought about the selection, she told me “it all tasted like wood chips with perfume,” which is exactly why I am content with my $7 peasant wine.
Zoom University
To be completely honest, classes via Zoom are less than ideal, but I still love seeing my classmates’ faces pop up one by one on my screen at the start of each class. Glitches, technological difficulties and all, I’m very grateful we can still “meet,” and that we’re all starting to master the art of virtual hand raising. And, unsurprisingly, we’ve found some ways to make online learning quite entertaining.
Last week during “Design Your Life” taught by Kyle, we had an interesting discussion about how we can apply design thinking to creatively solve problems in our personal lives. We also had a timely conversation about how to manage our personal finances, and how we can think about the cost of goods and services not only in relation to money, but in terms of our life energy. The question of how much time and energy it would cost us to pay for a good was especially insightful for Meli, who has been debating on whether or not to invest in a pair of Airpods.
We even had an adorable guest lecturer, Professor-In-Training Elio Williams, make a surprise appearance during class. You know what they say, gotta start ‘em young.
