This post is also available as a podcast here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/s-p01/episodes/Gifts-e2djsns

This is a season of gift-giving for a lot of us, but that’s not what this post is about. I find more value in people, even though I have a lot of things. The gifts I want to talk about are personal gifts. The kind of gifts we have innately, in our person. A big part of my job is advising. I help my students figure out what they want to do with their degrees, careers, etc. In a way, I try to help them find their gifts; the things that drive them and the things that make them unique. Our gifts in this world are the things that we bring to it; the things we give people merely by being who we are.

What are your gifts? I think we find our gifts through the things that bring us meaning. I think, for me, those gifts come in the form of connection. They come from the people I connect with and my love. In my teaching, my gifts are the interconnected knowledge and my joy in the things I teach. In my dancing, my gifts are in my heart; wearing it on my sleeve and connecting with my audience by showing parts of myself. I describe my choreography as cerebral, technical, and emotional. I connect with my dancers through challenging them and embracing their humanity in their movement.

What are you meant to do? Only we can define what we are meant to do, but I think it becomes clear when we find flow. Flow comes with meaning when we are following things we are called to do. Remember that flow happens naturally, it feels right. We don’t feel forced or bogged down in flow. I think that’s because it happens when we feel fulfilled by the work. I find meaning in my teaching, I find fulfillment there. I find meaning and fulfillment in my dancing. I find flow in these things, and I learned this year that I also find flow (as well as meaning and fulfillment) in my writing. This blog feels “right.”

As an advisor, I cannot tell people what their gifts are, nor can I tell them what they’re meant to do. I can inspire them, ask them questions, and support them in their own feelings, beliefs, and goals. I do learn certain strengths and aptitudes of my students, but they are but a piece of the whole. I try to share these things with my students, because I know that we are usually our own worst critic. I think it helps to build them up and accept the things they’re meant for. When my students are trying to decide on their major, a minor, or a career path – I always start by asking them about what they find most interesting.

Interest is a spark to finding something fulfilling. It’s the reason that sparking students’ interest in a class is the beginning step to engaging them in learning the content. As an applied mathematician, I know that my field is versatile. We can apply mathematical tools to problems in many other fields. We are not constrained in the ways that other majors are. My students genuinely have choices to make about their emphasis and applications. So, if a student is interested in environmental applications, they can study that. If they’re interested in space, they can study that. If they’re interested in social dynamics, they can study that. Interest is a start.

For the degree, research, and careers it can also help to determine the courses that students most enjoyed. In honesty, their interests are more important than the courses because undergraduate curriculum is a foundation for the mathematics used today to solve problems. No student is going to go into the workforce and do exactly what they did in their courses. Students don’t generally realize that courses are the foundation, not the simulation of their careers. A foundation is built upon with additional skills in a career. So, the courses that students enjoy can spark their interests for a career, but they are not definitive on their own.

In many ways, I do my best to ask students (and friends) questions to help them articulate the things that bring them meaning and flow. I think that finding work that brings us meaning and flow makes our careers more successful and enjoyable. No career will be perfectly in flow, much like we cannot always be in flow. However, for me, working a job that does not bring me meaning and flow would cause me to stagnate and suffer. So, I try to help them find meaning and flow because they are my keys in my life.

This week’s story is about the only dog that I ever considered “mine.”

My parents (dad, probably) got a puppy when I was a baby. This dog was the result of a German Shepard jumping the fence and procreating with a Bouvier show dog that was in heat. Her name was Shebou (Shepard-Bouvier). She was a super-sweet dog that I grew up with. I loved her. I’m very much a cat-person, so Shebou is the only dog I’ve really loved as my own. She smelled like olive oil, she had long messy fur, and a very friendly and protective personality. She wasn’t inside much; she was mostly an outdoor dog.

Shebou grew up with me, and she was a great dog. The most prominent memory of Shebou was a day that she saved me from another dog. Dogs are great protectors, I had a dog once save me from a rattlesnake on a hike. Shebou got between me and a pitbull that got out from a neighbor’s yard and attacked us. I think I was 8. All I truly remember was walking down the street with Shebou, seeing a dog running toward us, then turning and running home. I heard about the damage to her neck, but I didn’t see her get attacked. Or, if I did, I don’t remember it. I remember the fear and I’m grateful she was with me that day. Shebou was a gift in my life. She was a loving dog that saved my life, and I’m grateful for her existence in my life.

Find your gifts, find your meaning, and as always: find flow.

You got this, -S.