{"id":286,"date":"2025-01-15T23:57:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T23:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/?p=286"},"modified":"2025-01-15T23:57:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T23:57:28","slug":"shedding-notions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/shedding-notions\/","title":{"rendered":"Shedding Notions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Returning to Evergreen after 25 years of life experience was inspiring and it turns out the perfect time to answer\u00a0The Query<\/u><\/em>. I did not know at the beginning but this time in my life I had \u00a0the courage to work through and let go of the outdated, unworkable educational parameters I was taught that I had to adhere to. I allowed myself to challenge the norms, the way education is\u00a0supposed<\/em>\u00a0to look. I allowed myself to play, discover, see where my curiosity took me. It was challenging and more rewarding than I could have imagined.\u00a0 I am happier and more content than I can ever remember being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I decided to return to school\u00a0The Query<\/u><\/em>\u00a0was not clear to me, it had been rattling around in my brain for many many years, in hindsight it\u2019s been there my whole life. But here I was ready to complete my education, having very little clue as to what path to take. I knew I wanted to write and share about people and food in some way.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t come to school with clarity and openness. I thought to legitimately and responsibly return to school in my mid 40\u2019s as a single mother I would need to know exactly what I wanted to do and it had to be a concrete career path that would have good job prospects,\u00a0The Query<\/u><\/em>\u00a0did not look like a responsible path. Having transferred with 2 years of credits, I only had 2 years to figure this out and the pressure was on. \u00a0My real interest,\u00a0The Query<\/u><\/em>, though not a \u201cresponsible\u201d career path was there, poking its way into my dreams and begging to be paid attention to. I was too busy at the beginning making sure that I fit the mold \u2013 education with a clear end goal to a good paying job and career \u2013 no room for exploration. I took some courses in Food Policy, Writing and language hoping I would fall into a concrete path. During this time, I took a class with Carmen Hoover in the Native Pathways Program: World of Writing. One particular assignment had\u00a0The Query<\/u><\/em>\u00a0smiling at me, reminding me that it was there, waiting. \u00a0\u00a0I wrote an essay on Sobremesa, a cultural practice in many areas of the world meaning the \u00a0time spent after a meal, talking and connecting with loved ones around the table. \u00a0\u00a0It had me examine for myself the importance of taking time to ponder, wonder, work out ideas and thoughts in a relaxing and open way. I began to look at what it would look like to apply this concept to my education and learn in a way that worked better for me, a different way than what I was taught I was supposed to \u2013 what would it look like to allow myself discovery?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/object>Sobremesa-Final-Draft-WOW-Jennifer-Ball-Winter-1<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Returning to Evergreen after 25 years of life experience was inspiring and it turns out the perfect time to answer\u00a0The Query. I did not know at the beginning but this time in my life I had \u00a0the courage to work through and let go of the outdated, unworkable educational parameters I was taught that I … Continue reading Shedding Notions<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":999,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/999"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodagproject-su24-ball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}