After reading the stoicism handbook, I was excited to live the week like a stoic as I really enjoyed and resonated with the core ideas and practices of stoicism. When we had our week of living philosophically, I lived like an epicurean, and in my reflection one of the practices I mentioned I wanted to do more of was meditation. This week really allowed me to do this through the daily early morning and late night meditation and reflections. Being able to wake up in the morning, compose myself, make a plan for my day, and imagine any challenges that may arise made me feel so much more organized throughout each day. I knew what my main goals were for the day and had already thought about how to achieve them, even if something didn’t go as planned. As for the evening meditations, being able to reflect on the events of the day and asking myself what went well, what didn’t, and and what I could do differently prepared me for the following day. Adopting this role of a friendly advisor to myself allowed me to, as Seneca says, criticize my specific actions rather than myself as a person as a whole and focus on ways in which I could improve. I also decided to write down this self analysis in a journal I had lying around, which I had bought and planned to use a while ago, but never did. This really helped me collect all my thoughts and remember the next morning what I want to keep doing, what I want to improve on, or what I want to do differently. The last important practice was the midday exercises, which I found insightful and helped me improve my meditations and also my self analysis journal. The midday exercise I found resonated with me the most was Sunday’s which discussed the idea of what is in our power. Recognizing the things that are outside of my control especially helped with my self analysis. As I was evaluating the things causing negative emotions in my life I asked if it was something I could control or not. If it was something I could control, I would write down what I could do to change those negative emotions, and if it was something I could not control, I made a conscious effort to not dwell on those negative emotions. This really helped me pinpoint the source of negative things in my life and either take action to change those negative things or accept their presence. Overall, I really enjoyed living the week like a stoic. Finally putting my journal to use and changing up my daily routine was refreshing and I felt really centered and organized throughout the whole week. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, how I could accomplish it, regardless of adversity, and at the end of the day I was able to reflect and think about how to improve for the next day. I can definitely say I will be making a conscious effort to implement some of these practices into my daily routine and some of these ideas into my own mindset, as I think they will really help me learn from my daily life and conquer and move past adversity. 

Ingredients:

• 120g flour
• 225mL water
• 2 tbsp honey
• Oil for frying
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

We mixed the flour, water, and honey together until we reached a smooth batter consistency. Then, we heated up oil in a pan and scooped some of the batter in, cooking the pancake until both sides were golden brown. Once all the pancakes were cooked, we added some honey and sesame seeds to the top and gave them a taste.

Reflection:

While at school over spring break, Eva, Annie, Tiff, and I decided to use the VCAM kitchen to create some roman dessert pancakes. I was very excited to complete this task, as I’ve always loved pancakes and was ready to try an ancient variation. The first thing I noticed about this recipe was the limited ingredients, just flour, water, honey, and sesame seeds. There were no milk, eggs, butter, or baking powder in the pancake batter, so I was intrigued to see what the texture would be and how it would vary in comparison to traditional modern pancakes. Once we mixed the flour, water, and honey, we noticed the batter was thicker than normal, which was to be expected. We then added the oil to the pan and cooked them like traditional pancakes, flipping them until the color was even on both sides. After taking them off the stove, they seemed heavier and less fluffy than standard pancakes, again which was to be expected. Once we topped the pancakes with the honey and sesame seeds, we did a taste test, and I was pleasantly surprised. I was not expecting it to taste great considering the limited ingredients, but the honey and surprisingly the sesame seeds made a tasty sweet and slightly savory pancake. The only thing I did not love was the texture of the pancake, which was pretty dense and chewy. This I expected, as flour and water make more of a dough instead of a typical light and fluffy pancake batter, however, I still enjoyed and finished my pancake. In the future, I would add some salt to the pancake toppings to make it a true sweet and savory dish. Overall, I thought the process of making the dish was both easy and enjoyable, and doing it amongst friends made it an even better experience.