Problem Solving  

I’m not a master at problem solving nor do I go looking for it but pride myself in being good at solving problems. I have different stages that I go through whenever I encounter problem and I must complete each stage for the problem to be solve.  I relay on the analogical problem solving method the most but try not to get fixated on previous techniques that I used but rather look for similarities. Though solving a problem is stressful, I get a rush from it. It like my reward system get activated because I could fix/ solve something.

Scenario:

Mariama have been working hard and preparing herself for her trip to Sierra Leone. She has a large family that still live in Sierra Leone. She decided to buy clothes for her half-sister, father, favorite cousin and auntie and more cousins. Now she is a full-time student with two jobs and an internship; so, you can see how stressful it was for her between September to October. It was easy for Mariama to shop for the females in her family but it was difficult to shop for the males. Mariama’s best friend told her about layaway at Burlington Coat Factory. She had three different layaways under the same number. For the fourth layaway, Mariama put it under her friend’s name because she was ashamed and didn’t want the sales associates to judge her. By mid-October there was only one layaway at Burlington. The company that ship to Sierra Leone were scheduled to pick up the clothes on the last week of October. But there was a problem. Mariama hadn’t find clothes for her dad. She went shopping and could find her some pants and shirts but she didn’t have enough money to pay for the clothes. There was still clothes on layaway that she had to pay but Mariama didn’t have enough money for her dad’s clothes and the layaway. Mariama decided to pay for the last layaway instead. However, Burlington’s sale associates couldn’t find her layaway. There are two problems in this scenario; 1. Mariama don’t have enough money to get her dad’s clothes and second, her layaway that had her half-sister clothes was missing.

Stage one: Mariama started laughing and tell jokes because she refused to believe that she doesn’t have enough for her dad’s clothes and her layaway is missing.

Stage two: Mariama is displaying massive amount of attitude towards the workers at Burlington because she waiting for 30min. Thankfully She realized that she was being rude, so Mariama try to be passive aggressive instead.

Stage three:   Mariama was very sad and felt hopeless and start to freak out inwardly and try not to have a panic attack.

Stage four: Mariama try to calm herself down by telling herself that it fine and it not that serious for her to be acting in such a way. She starts thinking of ideas to solve the problem.

Stage five:

 A light bulb went off in her head and Mariama realized that two weeks ago, she took out the layaway that was under her friend’s name and not under hers as she had thought. Mariama talked to a manager and inform the manager of the mistake she had made. The manage looked up the layaway under Mariama’s name and found out that “missing layaway” was not missing but was rather under a different name.

Stage six: Mariama apologies for the mistakes. But then she remembers that she still doesn’t have enough money for her dad’s clothes. Mariama remembered that she has a coat and shoes that she bought but then realized that it made her look funny. Mariama went back home and retrieve the coat and shoes and return to Burlington. Mariama got a refund for the coat and shoes. With the refund money and help from her boyfriend, Mariama could buy the clothes for her dad.