Remember that time you ate that spicy taco just before you went to bed on the night before the big carnival? Oh, that weird dream you had about the 2016 presidential election. When you woke up you couldn't quite remember the frightening details, but after reading "On Self-Reliance" and "A Sound of Thunder" it's all coming back to you now.
The dream started badly. You were in line with your family at a train station waiting to be sent to Africa. Everywhere you looked there were posters of president-elect Donald Clinton, looking like a crazy lion who could eat a whole crowd.
Suddenly, there was Ralph Waldo Emerson telling you, "A man is his own star" You realized that you have something to contribute to the world so you decided to change. But it wasn't easy. First you had to put on a fancy hat and shirt and then you had to make a car to go back in time to the library so you could convince people to learn about the candidates and their awful ideas.
But right there in the library there was a giant cat and it started attacking everyone. People started to cry. You grabbed a cane from a nearby senior and yelled "We are all individuals and unique!". Everyone stopped and listened, so you kept going.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Emerson's Child
Yourself. Being yourself is when you do not think about others judging you and do what you love. It is how you act when nobody is watching. Being yourself and trusting yourself is not something easy to do nowadays. Everyone knows who they truly are but are afraid to show their true selves because they fear that society will judge them. Emerson's main point is to forget about what others expect you to be like and focus on what makes you happy. There is nothing worse than living your whole life being someone who you are not.
Everyone has that uniqueness in them which is what makes them different from society yet they refuse to show it. "A man is his own star" means that each one of us has like our own little world inside us that we do not show to others. We are all different and special in some way. There would be so much more diversity in our society if everyone acted the way they wanted to. When you are copying others, you are erasing your true identity and are becoming like everybody else. Emerson says,"...imitation is suicide" because you are killing your true identity when you copy others. Being like others is not what makes you special it's what makes you normal. Everyone has these standards that they have to meet up to in order to feel and look like everyone else. They look to others for approval on how to be when they should be looking for approval from within. Others do not have to accept you in order for you to feel good. You need to accept yourself.
How can you be yourself in a society that picks on people who are different? To begin with, you first need to trust yourself. If people begin to make comments about the way that you are, ignore them because they are just trying to fit in with the rest. Being like the rest should not be anyone's goal. We were raised thinking that we should be just as good as others when in reality we need to be as good as ourselves. We need to grow up realizing that we need to make ourselves happy and not others. There is so much pressure from society to be this way and not that way. All this adds up and is how you lose yourself. Losing yourself will affect you for the rest of your life if you don't find your true identity.
"Man is timid and apologetic", Emerson says this because we are too afraid to be different. We no longer dare to give our opinions or say what we think. Fitting in should not be your priority, it should be accepting yourself. You need to speak out when you have questions, say something when you have an opinion, and do something when it needs to be done. Do not wait for others to tell you what to do. Your life is your life. Clearly, Emerson wants everyone to be different. Do not be intimidated by others simply because they are better. If you keep copying others, later in your life you are going to regret it and feel like you wasted a lot of your time trying to be like someone else. You have to change now and let out your inner child and not conform to anybody.
To sum it all up, yourself is that little part of you that you hide from others. It is who you truly are. Emerson wants us to let this part of us out and show it to the world without worrying about what others will think. Do not live you whole life fixing yourself to be like everyone else. You should be happy with how you are now. When you do not accept yourself it is like you are not trusting yourself. In the end, everyone needs to trust themselves in what they are doing.
Everyone has that uniqueness in them which is what makes them different from society yet they refuse to show it. "A man is his own star" means that each one of us has like our own little world inside us that we do not show to others. We are all different and special in some way. There would be so much more diversity in our society if everyone acted the way they wanted to. When you are copying others, you are erasing your true identity and are becoming like everybody else. Emerson says,"...imitation is suicide" because you are killing your true identity when you copy others. Being like others is not what makes you special it's what makes you normal. Everyone has these standards that they have to meet up to in order to feel and look like everyone else. They look to others for approval on how to be when they should be looking for approval from within. Others do not have to accept you in order for you to feel good. You need to accept yourself.
How can you be yourself in a society that picks on people who are different? To begin with, you first need to trust yourself. If people begin to make comments about the way that you are, ignore them because they are just trying to fit in with the rest. Being like the rest should not be anyone's goal. We were raised thinking that we should be just as good as others when in reality we need to be as good as ourselves. We need to grow up realizing that we need to make ourselves happy and not others. There is so much pressure from society to be this way and not that way. All this adds up and is how you lose yourself. Losing yourself will affect you for the rest of your life if you don't find your true identity.
"Man is timid and apologetic", Emerson says this because we are too afraid to be different. We no longer dare to give our opinions or say what we think. Fitting in should not be your priority, it should be accepting yourself. You need to speak out when you have questions, say something when you have an opinion, and do something when it needs to be done. Do not wait for others to tell you what to do. Your life is your life. Clearly, Emerson wants everyone to be different. Do not be intimidated by others simply because they are better. If you keep copying others, later in your life you are going to regret it and feel like you wasted a lot of your time trying to be like someone else. You have to change now and let out your inner child and not conform to anybody.
To sum it all up, yourself is that little part of you that you hide from others. It is who you truly are. Emerson wants us to let this part of us out and show it to the world without worrying about what others will think. Do not live you whole life fixing yourself to be like everyone else. You should be happy with how you are now. When you do not accept yourself it is like you are not trusting yourself. In the end, everyone needs to trust themselves in what they are doing.
Choices Speech
Some choices we make will end up changing our lives greatly while other choices may not affect us at all. Every day we make choices and we usually go with the choices that will make our lives easier. If you had a choice to go to a party or stay at home and finish homework which would you pick? Some may say going to a party would be better so that you wouldn't miss out on all the fun and you would enjoy yourself for a while. On the other hand, others may say finishing up your homework would be better so that you wouldn't have to stay up all night doing it. These are the kind of choices we make that don't really affect our lives. There are choices that will greatly affect our lives such as choosing who you want to become and where you want to go to college. These are the choices that you have to think more about so that you make sure you make the right decision. Right now I would say I have not made any life changing decisions but I have changed a few things in order to do better in the future. I don't really know at what age I began to worry about doing good in school but at some point I guess I realized that school will affect my future tremendously. Ever since that moment I have always tried to do my best in school and I believe that will help me in the future. This decision will greatly influence my future. Emerson's "On Self-Reliance" is all about being yourself. An example from his essay about choices is that he wants us to make our own choices rather than copying others. He believes that we have all we need and should not seek for things outside of our reach. Emerson probably thinks the choices we make now will greatly influence our future because he wants everyone to start making their own decisions. Making our own decisions will make us unique which is what we should all be. Doing the things we want will give us a sense of individualism. Emerson wants to tell us we are all different by saying "A man is his own star". In "A Sound of Thunder" the decisions the characters made would greatly affect the future. Since they went back in time, changing one small thing can change everything in the future. When the men went back in time they could not step off the path or else they would step on some grass or small animal. They had to make sure not to kill anything else other than the T-Rex. When they went back to present time they realized that the president they did not want to win the election actually won. A butterfly died and this was caused by something the men did in the past. The moral of this story was that the slightest choices we make can affect our future in either good or bad ways. Clearly, our thinking and actions we make should be taken seriously because they will affect us in some way in the future.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
An Earth Shattering Fart
Amazing story! I really enjoyed reading this story and it kept me hooked all throughout. It's mind blowing how one thing can change history in so many different ways. My favorite part was when the men were shooting the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The men shot the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the eyes and into the brain. I can't imagine being in this situation especially because of how big these dinosaurs are. I also liked where they were talking about how killing one mice may change everything in the environment in the future. I wonder if killing that mouse would have drastically changed the future for all the animals. Reading this story made me realize how my choices today can really affect my future. Not doing one thing can lead to me failing something else and finishing something up can lead to me being more successful. This story also related to the recent discussions about the elections. Many people dislike Trump and did not expect him to win presidency. In the story they talk about Keith winning presidency and how he was the better candidate. In the end, a butterfly died and then he found out that Deutscher had, in fact, won. Something they changed when they went to the past affected the presidency and led to Deutscher winning. The moral of this story could be that you should be very careful with your decisions because they can affect your future greatly. In the end, this story is very interesting and makes you think in different ways.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Emerson for the Young Buck
What I've learned so far from Emerson is that you need to trust yourself and do whatever you want to do. You shouldn't be doing things you aren't comfortable with simply because your friends are doing it. Nowadays everyone is trying to be like each other because they think that there's always someone better than them. You're the best at being yourself. Right now you need to realize that you shouldn't worry about what others will think of your actions. If you want to do something, just go for it and ignore what others will say. You need to trust yourself and find whatever makes you happy. Are you really living your life to the fullest if you're always copying others and looking for their approval? No! You need to figure out what's right for you and not what's right for others. It doesn't matter what other people want. In the end, Emerson is clearly trying to get us to stop relying on others and instead rely on ourselves.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Emerson Said It
"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself"
With this quote I think Emerson is trying yo say you can never be happy with life if you're not happy with yourself. You should not have to look for others' approval in order to feel good. This came up in today's Socratic Seminar because we were talking about Emerson's main points and what we believed truly spoke out to us such as this quote. This quote should inspire people to accept themselves the way they are.
"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think"
Emerson is trying to tell us that we should not worry about what others will think of our actions and that we should do whatever we love without being judged. This quote can be very meaningful to some people because there are a lot of people out there who do stuff they don't like simply because everyone else is doing it. I think a lot of us would agree that we should not be controlled by society.
"We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which represents us"
In my opinion, I believe this means that when we are around others it is not who we truly are and are actually afraid to act like ourselves because we will be judged. If this is what Emerson is trying to say, then I agree with him because everyone acts different around people depending on who they're with. If they're with their family they act like themselves but when they're around their friends they may seem like a totally different person. We don't fully show who we really are.
"Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright"
Emerson is trying to say that we as humans no longer step up for what we believe is right. We turn to others to see what is right and wrong without having our own opinions. I agree with Emerson because nowadays everyone seems to look for approval from others and not from within. There is too much extrinsic motivation going on in society.
"Every heart vibrates to that iron string"
This quote can be interpreted in many different ways and I think it has something to do about everyone being different and special in their own ways. Each one of us has the potential to be someone different in this world yet we choose to be like everybody else. We need to be our true selves and show who we truly are. When you're like everyone else you don't stand out and there's nothing special about you, so why choose to be like everyone else? Being yourself can be good and bad depending on whether you care about what others will think. Emerson wants us to be ourselves without worrying.
With this quote I think Emerson is trying yo say you can never be happy with life if you're not happy with yourself. You should not have to look for others' approval in order to feel good. This came up in today's Socratic Seminar because we were talking about Emerson's main points and what we believed truly spoke out to us such as this quote. This quote should inspire people to accept themselves the way they are.
"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think"
Emerson is trying to tell us that we should not worry about what others will think of our actions and that we should do whatever we love without being judged. This quote can be very meaningful to some people because there are a lot of people out there who do stuff they don't like simply because everyone else is doing it. I think a lot of us would agree that we should not be controlled by society.
"We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which represents us"
In my opinion, I believe this means that when we are around others it is not who we truly are and are actually afraid to act like ourselves because we will be judged. If this is what Emerson is trying to say, then I agree with him because everyone acts different around people depending on who they're with. If they're with their family they act like themselves but when they're around their friends they may seem like a totally different person. We don't fully show who we really are.
"Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright"
Emerson is trying to say that we as humans no longer step up for what we believe is right. We turn to others to see what is right and wrong without having our own opinions. I agree with Emerson because nowadays everyone seems to look for approval from others and not from within. There is too much extrinsic motivation going on in society.
"Every heart vibrates to that iron string"
This quote can be interpreted in many different ways and I think it has something to do about everyone being different and special in their own ways. Each one of us has the potential to be someone different in this world yet we choose to be like everybody else. We need to be our true selves and show who we truly are. When you're like everyone else you don't stand out and there's nothing special about you, so why choose to be like everyone else? Being yourself can be good and bad depending on whether you care about what others will think. Emerson wants us to be ourselves without worrying.
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