Speech (Decisions and the Future)

Every decision we make in our life matters, a lot actually. That decision can possibly mean nothing to you when in reality you never know that choice could change your life completely, perhaps in that moment or in the future. It can either benefit you or hurt you mentally or physically. Sometimes we make decisions without even thinking if it will affect us in the future, which isn't a smart choice. I feel like whenever we get the opportunity to make a decision we have to the mentality of a mature person. When I make a decision I think about it, will it help me grow as a person or not. Honestly it's based on what we decide. I also really think that the present matters, like our actions in the present basically lead to what our future will look like. So with that being said we need to make decision that will help us get the future we want. One day you might think whatever you did doesn't matter but it will come back to you in the future. One great example is "The Sound of Thunder" he killed the butterfly and didn't think it would matter so when he got back he realized it did matter because a different president won the campaign. So not only did it affect him but everyone else too. 

A Sound of Thunder

After reading and getting to the end of it I understood the connection between today's tune and the story. My honest thought on the story has to be I enjoyed it, it was a good one. It had a great point to it, time is nothing to be played around with because if you make a mistake you can change so much with a small "mistake".

Emerson Essay Prompt

     About a week ago history was made once again, by that I mean we elected Donald Trump to run our country. Before getting any deeper into this I'm just going to say that about 117 million people who were eligible to vote, didn't. Already by knowing that Emerson would've been pretty angry at this country. Having the privilege to vote, didn't take advantage and then when they elect the president you didn't want you complain. Ridiculous, Emerson wouldn't just be angry he'd be disappointed. How are you going to be angry when you didn't even bother to make time to go do something so easy that may or may not benefit you and the others in this country. Everyone's vote counts and if you think otherwise that's a shame.

     Emerson said, " Do not think the youth has no force, because he cannot speak to you and me". I completely agree with Emerson, by this he means the youth has a voice but just because they don't use it doesn't mean they don't have one. In this case he'd be astonished on how the youth did not use their voice. It's sad to know that America is also known for having very few people voting. If the case was that they did not like either of the candidates then they should've used their voice to do something about it before election day, there is no excuse. There was a reason why Emerson said the youth is powerful, sadly more than half of the youth did not use their power.

     In all honesty I feel like Emerson wouldn't do anything about this, not because he can't but because he would want the youth to do it themselves. To go after what they want, if they want a change they need to go fight for it. Emerson's whole point was to be yourself, if you believe in something then who gives a shit about what anyone else thinks you do you. This quote "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude" says you act how the world expects you to, alone you act yourself and the whole point is to be yourself in this world. Emerson probably thought this might've been the issue, the youth acted how the world wanted them too.

      After the election there was so much hatred and anger, which I'm sure many have been aware of because most of it has been through social media. A person posted a picture of their ballot and this person voted for Donald Trump, and after Trump won he said something in between the lines of "it was a joke I honestly thought he would loose". In that moment I was very angry not at who he voted for but the fact he took the election as a joke, what a disillusion honestly. Now, how would Emerson react to this? Perhaps the same way many reacted, angry, disappointed, disillusioned. This actually might've frustrated some people because they that had the privilege to vote took it as a joke, while someone who doesn't have that privilege wished they did.

      The whole purpose of Self-Reliance was to be the person you're mean to be. Not the person they want you to become but the one that's for you. Be true to yourself, everyone has their opinions and that's okay but that doesn't mean you have to do as they say. As I've said before who gives a crap about what anyone has to say if others don't believe in what you do that's great because as Emerson said "To be great is to be misunderstood", so you must be doing something right. Not everyone will understand you and I feel like that's part of being yourself.

Day 3 Emerson Presentation Notes

- If you run away from your problems you'll have to pay the consequences either way
- You can't  be going places to happy
- Smile now cry later

Day 2 Emerson Presentation Notes

- Be true to yourself
- We're all artists in the way of painting and sculpturing our life

Day 1 Emerson Presentations Notes

Unfortunately I was absent this day but as I viewed some of my classmates blog's the notes they got was to be you, who you want to be.

Socratic Seminar

I was absent on the first day of the seminar which I heard was good. The second day of the seminar was really quite. Andrew offered to help and give me a quote so he gave me one but someone said it so I had to look for a different one. I don't know I feel like it could've been better.

Emerson Quotes

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." What I understood from this quote was that society tells you to follow what they do because if you do otherwise you're not doing it right so if you don't follow other and what they do you accomplished being yourself and what you want to do.

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." This means to not go where everyone goes because its what they expect but instead to make a difference and be someone can look up to.

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself." What Emerson meant by this was that don't look for the answers in others but in yourself because that's where its at.

Self Reliance Question

What encouraged him to write this essay?

Mind Map

The mind map was very useful in my opinion. We added words that we didn't know the definition to, quotes, essays, etc. Also we tried organizing it as  much as we could.