January 14

The Power of Experience

https://www.google.ca/search?q=family+over+everything&rlz=1C1GCEA_enCA787CA787&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtg7-61r7dAhUH-J8KHUDGABwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1920&bih=974#imgrc=jd5F9xLJYIK7YM:

Experiences have the ability to make or break someone; many of them shape who we are as individuals. When we go through something often we carry the lessons from it. It is the bad experiences that we remember and learn from, the experiences that bring great adversity within our lives. In A River Runs Through It, written by Norman Maclean, we are introduced to the Maclean boys Paul and Norman who as they grow up face many adversities but deal with them differently leading to a tragic ending to their story. Even though experiences have the ability to alter someone’s life it is how the individual deals with it that truly alters who they are.

 

In A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean it can be seen that throughout his life Paul Maclean is always seen as someone who made and followed their own rules but as he grows older he becomes darker getting involved with drinking and gambling at Lolo’s leaving those around him worried. Norman offers to help but his help is refused by his brother after he reveals his truth and his darkness to Norman. This experience with his brother left Norman feeling like he had failed to fill his role as the “brother’s keeper” though Paul is an adult and has the capability to deal with the consequences that come with his decisions. In the beginning of the film Norman says “My father once said to me Norman you like to write… Maybe one day you can write our story and only then you will understand what happened.” Norman like much of his family

ignored many of the problems that followed his brother Paul only quietly fearing what would happen to his brother. Not understanding what had happened to his brother Norman is left with the constant feelings of shame and guilt that he was not able to save his brother from his own demise.

 

After Paul’s death the Maclean family became more distant rarely ever talking about what had happened to Paul. When reverend Maclean and his wife are sitting in the kitchen at the table eating but not looking at each other, it is clear to the audience that Paul had been the glue of the family and having loss him they had lost a way to talk and connect with each other. Much like Paul his parents had a difficult time connecting and talking about the problems that come with losing a child especially one like Paul who often entertained and brought conversation to the dinner table that had been silent so many nights he hadn’t been there. Leaving a feeling of emptiness within the family.  Often families are brought together by loss and not torn apart, throughout the movie it is shown that the MacLean’s rarely ever address any problems pushing them to the side which could be seen as the driving force behind Paul’s death. This experience brought a

feeling of defeat within reverend Maclean who had been a man who walked proudly of who he was but now was hunched over by the time he had delivered one of his last sermons where he said “But we can still love them. We can love them completely without complete understanding” showing that though he does not understand his son he had come to terms with his death and loved him unconditionally.

There have been many experiences that have permanently altered my life. From the age of five to thirteen I had been bullied throughout all the schools I went to. It was like no matter where I went I wasn’t able to escape the demons that enjoyed torturing me. The feeling of being in a situation where your feel alone and like no one understands you makes your push into isolate yourself in fear of vulnerability. Opening up became a big fear of mine leading me to have constant anxiety and letting others take away my happiness. These very experiences helped me become who I am today. For many years I tried to run away from it until I hit a brick wall and had to fight back and find me. Building up my core values and showing that I am strong and capable but most importantly I have the power of being resilient. Like the MacLean’s I come from a culture where we push things under the rug: if it’s never mentioned it’s not a problem. The lack of understanding is often defeating but it is the unconditional love that I am given that keeps me going and pushing me into the right direction.

 

How an individual reacts to experiences alters who they are. It allows them an opportunity for growth and learning if not taken it can lead to a tragic ending like that of Paul Maclean. In A River Runs Through It, written by Norman Maclean the audience is shown through Normans actions with his brother along with the lasting effect Paul’s death had on the family that negative experiences have the power to make or break you. The repercussions of the experience shape who you are and the individual you will eventually become.

Category: Sept 2019, Tyra | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 18

Salvation (Refined Visual Reflection)

Talha Muhammad

December 12 2018

Visual Reflection

 

Salvation

 

Individuals often find salvation in doing the tiniest of good deeds at times. During wartime individuals often lose sight of themselves and the goal that they set upon themselves. Through that loss individuals often have to change to adapt in order to the cruelty on the battlefield. During this period individuals become susceptible to their surroundings and change for the better or worse, more often being the worse as no one is around to help them. Individuals often begin to cherish lifeforms weaker than them, avoid unnecessary cruelty, and taking care of others in an attempt to preserve the remainders of their worn down sanity.  

 

Individuals can often keep their sanity by remembering to show compassion to weaker life forms. By doing this individual’s remember the value of life no matter how big or how small it is. This is seen is in the photograph taken in 1952 in the North Korean war, as a soldier is sitting down under a ditch and focusing on feeding a cat, rather than killing it. Through feeding the cat it is seen as a form of salvation as instead of using his hands to kill the others, he is using his hands to preserve a life. This shows that although the soldier should be wary of his surroundings while resting, he is willing to risk letting down his guard in order to feed the cat.

Individuals in a war often have a difficult time preventing themselves from crossing the line and deliberately performing cruelty in order to release stress over their situation. Through resisting those urges individuals are preventing themselves from losing a vital aspect of themselves that makes up their identity. This can be seen in the photograph as the soldier is tenderly feeding the cat while sitting in a defenseless position in the trench. As he feeds the cat he is preventing himself from crossing the line and causing his himself to change for the worst. The cat can be seen as a test to see whether he can preserve his character or change and indulge in the acts of cruelty on the battlefield.

 

During the wartime, individuals will often seek to preserve their sanity while trying to fight and survive. Individuals will often be overcome with their negative emotions while having feelings of comfort and happiness sapped away from them in order to adapt to the cruelty of the battlefield. As individuals constantly kill, they lose a crucial part of themselves that they had before the war, changing their mentalities to become unstable or depressing that lasts their whole lives even after the war is over. In order to preserve their sanity individuals will often take any actions that have a relation to their lifestyle before the war. This can be seen in the photograph as the soldier is very serious in carefully feeding the cat, neglecting the situation on the battlefield which would normally be a soldier’s first priority. In this photograph it is seen that the soldier is carefully protecting the one thing that can preserve his sanity during the war, even disregarding his safety by taking his helmet off. Through the act of feeding the cat, he is also protecting a vital piece of his himself that he possessed before the war in order to prevent him from completely losing himself.

 

Individuals in the battlefield will often find salvation by not going overboard through doing deliberate cruelty and by learning to cherish the life around them. By doing this individuals will find that it doesn’t matter how weary they become during the war as long as they as they have something to hold on to.

 

 

 

 

Category: Talha, Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 11

Do Not Lose Hope- Literary Exploration

Do Not Lose Hope

“…the idea that hope is an important quality.”

 

  Hope. It is what one feels every day of their lives. Hope that their day will be good. Hope they pass the big test. Hope they succeed. Hopes for a better life. Without hope, an individual would have nothing to look forward to, and what kind of life is that? In the book, The Glass Castle, hope is an evident theme in regards to the Walls family. It is especially what the kids are forced to rely on, due to the poor living conditions entrenched on them due to extreme negligence from their parents. Through all the negativity, Jeannette, hopes that their family will find stability and normalcy. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls asserts that when an individual sustains hope in their lives, they will find positivity through all the negatives, therefore, even after being enlightened that hope does not always work out, they will depend on it to achieve a better quality of life.

 

  Hope is the whisper of desires in reality. Without hope, there would be no motivation to continue living life, because a life without aspirations, is a life not worth living. Rex Walls introduced the idea of hope to his family so they would have something to look forward to when times were especially rough. As a child, Jeanette idolized her father and believed he could do no wrong, even though he constantly lets down the family. She is introduced to the idea of The Glass Castle, and the prospector, symbols of hope that life will get better.  The Glass Castle is a mansion made of glass that Rex promises Jeanette he will build for the family, the prospector is a machine that Rex would use to fund the glass castle. In her early stages of life, no matter how many times the family moves into homes that fall apart, and battle with aching hunger due to the shortage of money, Jeanette always looks forward to the Glass Castle. “All we had to do was find gold, dad said, and we were on the verge of that, once he finished the prospector and we struck it rich he’d start work on our Glass Castle.” Jeanette is reflecting on the empty promises that her dad allowed her to believe in. These ideas gave Jeanette false hope of her future, as she believed that they would not be poverty stricken for too long, but as time goes on, Jeanette became dependent and attached to the Glass Castle as the answer to all the problems the family has faced, therefore, when the Glass Castle is not built, she is confused and faces an identity crisis. Without the Glass Castle, Jeanette does not know where life will take her.

 

  Without clear motivation for the future, an individual will feel stress and panic as they try to grasp onto the things that once provided them with hope. When Jeanette is older, and the construction of the Glass Castle has still not made progress, she becomes enlightened that this is yet another one of her father’s empty promises, and he will not give up drinking to support the family, therefore, she takes matters into her own hands, and attempts to build the Glass Castle with her brother, Brian. The family is living in Welch, under horrible conditions. The house that they live in, Little Hobart Street, does not have indoor plumbing, nor electricity. They have no food, no new clothes, and nothing good in their lives. Sick of reality, Jeanette once again, turns to the Glass Castle for the hope of a better life. Brian and Jeanette configure that the construction of the Glass Castle has made no progress, therefore, take matters into their own hands and start digging a hole for the foundation of the castle. It takes them several weeks to dig a hole deep enough, but when revealed to Rex, he ignores their silent pleas of a better quality of life and suggests that they use the hole as a garbage disposal. By using the “foundation” of the glass castle as a garbage disposal, Rex has revealed his true intentions. This scene is extremely significant to Jeanette’s life, as this is the first time she has the realization that the glass castle represents the illusion of life getting easier, and Rex does not plan on making it a reality. With this sudden enlightenment, Jeanette realizes that embedding the idea of hope with the glass castle has been a “figment of her overly active imagination,” and decides that she will find it somewhere else. One who lives in the dark, and is influenced by the beliefs of others, will find great differences in life when they are enlightened and able to view things from different perspectives. With knowledge, one is able to pursue limits that have no end.

 

  Hope should not be intertwined with an individual, because humans let down one another very often. This is the conclusion Jeanette makes, as she makes plans to leave to New York after graduation. Jeanette has a newfound hope in her life, except it is not dependant on her father to come true, but on herself. She hopes that in New York she finds a better quality of life without her parents. She abandons the family values Rex and Rosemary have taught to their children, and only then, is when she is able to find happiness and success. Before leaving to New York, Jeanette confides in her father of her plans, he again tries to make her stay by bringing out a blueprint of the glass castle. In the past, Jeanette had been a victim of her father’s manipulation and negligence, but now, Jeanette disregards Rex’s silent pleas of Jeanette staying home, and follows what her heart desired. This scene signifies the true growth and development Jeanette has adopted. From being the impressionable daughter who had always believed in her father, and stuck by him, to leaving home shortly after graduation to pursue what she believes is right for her. Once she sees perspective in her own way, she is motivated and unstoppable. This is how Jeanette is able to desert her family values and find success in New York. Upon reaching New York, she worked hard to provide for herself, and balanced work and school, which was the opposite of her parents would have done, exemplifying her divergent identity. Jeannette Walls is now a world known writer to her infamous book, The Glass Castle, and has found huge success through her strong belief in hope, which was initially introduced to her from her father, but made a reality due to her resilient nature.

 

  The Glass Castle expresses the important constant of life, which is hope. Hope provides motivation towards life’s greatest problems, such as poverty. Jeannette Walls asserts that when an individual is introduced to the idea of hope early on in their lives, they will lead with said aspiration, therefore, eventually achieving success. Jeannette Walls faced many setbacks in her life, but it is hope that life will get better, that allowed her to eventually succeed. Hope is the cause of her happiness, hope is embedded in her aspirations, hope is the better life she desires.

Category: Sept 2018, Zainab | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 10

Found my Future

 

(Sorry about the cheesy song)

I have always struggled with my identity. Switching back and forth from sports, school and church have made it challenging for me to decide on who I am because of the different social environments I have grown up in. Within each environment, I did continue to have my selfless caring perspective towards people. The different environments gave me multi-personalities and made me grow as an individual. From my talents and skills, struggling academics and Christianity I have learned that no matter what point I am in my life I am still going to put others before myself.

 

Growing up I was given so many opportunities by my parents to figure out my interests. Even though I was inclined to these opportunities they were often cut short depending on my sisters. Once my sisters could not do a sport such as gymnastics, soccer and/or skating that meant I was done with it too. It wasn’t because I was trying to be like them but because it was just easier for my family. My identity has been based on the choices of others and until this past year, I did not realize the consequences with me not taking more of a part in the decisions in my life. Having other people decide for me seemed better because it appeared only right to put others wants and needs before my own. Over time my care for others has both harmed and strengthened me. It has given me a purpose in life but also destroyed my individuality causing me to struggle especially as a soon to be graduate. Last year in leadership we did many skills and interests test to see what careers we might flourish in but as I saw my options I knew I was limited to only a few of them.

My academic have never been a strong suit because of my ADHD and anxiety so being a doctor, a nurse or really anything medical it was unlikely to happen. So once that cut my list to half I started to research the rest. A lot of them required large fees and others that excited me like a police officer or firefighter my mom refused I could do. So I came to the terms that I at least knew three things. I like to help people, I have been coaching and babysitting kids for years and I enjoy it and people with learning or physical disabilities fascinate me. So over the past summer, I have come to the conclusion on what I wanted to work towards. I had finally chosen something for myself. Yes, it was based on others wants and my limited options but I still proud of myself that I had made a decision that no sister, brother, academics or religion can’t stop me from pursuing it. So hopefully by next fall, I will be enrolled in education for four years before getting my after grad in……Special Education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over time my support for others has both harmed and strengthened me. It has given me a purpose in life but also destroyed me as an individual. Simply questions become indecisive without other individuals approval or opinion to consider, the willingness to alter values and morals in order to get peer acceptance is viewed as true and the expectation when being a leader to make choices when others cannot make a consensus is a struggle.

Category: Adelle, Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 31

KNOW YOURSELF

We see so many versions of ourselves until we truly know who we are. To know who you are, is to know what you’re worth. We often times second guess our value and undermine our own confidence.

I believe I am still learning to find myself. I think I’ll be finding out more things about myself for the rest of my life. I am constantly pushing myself to try new things and stepping out of my comfort zone day by day. I’ve wanted to do many things in my life, for example when I was in elementary I wanted to be a soccer player and an astronaut. Becoming an astronaut was not realistic at the time but it was one of the coolest things to me, at that point I thought that was going to be my identity. I believed that this was me, that I was born to be an astronaut or a soccer player. As my life went on throughout middle school I continued to pursue soccer until I fell out of that phase. That phase where all I wanted to do was play soccer or become a legend had faded out for me. I believe that we go through many different phases in life but we should never get caught up in the moment to the point where we have no foresight and just a lost motive.

The moon, is still the moon, in all of its phases

This quote reflects the idea in individuals who go through different stages and periods in their lives where they are seeking achievements of their goals or simply satisfaction. As did I have created many goals and when I had seen failure I would take it to heart and let it affect my mood. However this isn’t true anymore, I see myself and value my ideals, I’m not trying to follow a path someone already has laid out for me or meet anyone’s expectations, its about me creating my own journey. No matter what the task at hand I do not let others opinions even touch my thoughts because I’ve “beat myself up” about some pretty dumb and minor things looking back now. For example; missing a shot in a soccer game or failing a test. These goals, attitudes, failures, and phases all lead back to your identity and struggles you face every day. Taking risks in the decisions you make show who you really are. They shape your mindset, your personality, and the relationships you keep with people. I keep this in mind everyday of my life because I know I ultimately decide my identity with the choices I make.

Category: Chetan, Sept 2018 | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 12

Effects of Curiosity on my Identity

Times are changing. People are asking more questions. Is it bad that I question values and beliefs of my religious faith? Is it bad that I don’t agree with several practices of my religion? Am I a bad person or worse am I going to hell for my disbelief?! No. I refuse for someone or something to determine my fate based on my loyalty and allegiance towards them.

In today’s time many feel the need to know the answers to everything. As a curious individual who’s faced many obstacles, I feel like religion is something I have grown to disbelieve but I do not deny that it is has and still is playing a large role in shaping my identity.

“Curiosity”

Since childhood, I was surrounded by my religion, Shia Ismaili Muslims (we call ourselves Ismaili for short). My parents and grandparents all deeply entrenched in our religious roots. I too, once, was deeply in love with the divine: I would attend my mosque and pray alongside my dad and after have the opportunity to run around with my friends, playing hide-and-seek and soccer every chance we had until it was time to go home. Even after moving to Calgary and making new friends, I continued to pray no matter what situation I was in, whether it be if I really wanted something or just to remember my creator to feel safe or forgive any sins. Yet, for some reason, this was not satisfying for me.

As I grew older and started learning about events from the past or even current events taking place all over the world, I asked the same questions as any another curious individual would ask about God, “why is He doing this. Why all this blood-shed and inhumanity.” Asking these questions led me back to the same answer that not only people told me but I told myself, “He has a plan. Everything happens for a reason.” After facing specific family problems and using anger as a means to insult my religion, I grew into the mindset of wishing to never be an Ismaili Muslim. I refused to be associated with my religion and blamed my failures on God. I stopped praying and removed all pictures from my room of anything that was related to my religion. Although this anger led my life for a while, I made sure I kept it a secret from anyone because I was afraid of judgement and letting my parents down.

Moving into my junior year in high school, I began to mature and understand that things like academic success and consequences all came as a result of my actions and the amount of work I was willing to put in. I always struggled finding myself thinking that I was an outlaw, a rebel who was not going to succeed in life because I did not believe in religion. I began to understand what religion did to me, how it influenced me. I realized that all these years I was blaming religion for my failures and problems but I never took a step back to realize how religion made me a better person in society. Attending years of religious classes and learning about my faith implemented values and ethics in me. I slowly started to value religion again but not like most would. I saw religion as more of a foundation system for me, in that, all my decision making skills between right and wrong and how to treat others all came from the ethics I was taught from religion. From this, I no longer saw myself as an outlaw but rather someone who knew how to be a positive member in society and someone who was going to be accepted by everyone because of the kind, caring person religion taught me to be.

Throughout my life I have struggled with my sense of identity but I finally feel like I am growing into my shoes and understanding who I truly am. I still refuse someone or something to determine my fate but I do bow down them (if there is a greater being) for helping to shape my identity and making me the person I am today.

 

Category: Sept 2018, Uncategorized, Zaafir | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 8

My Identity

 

The definition of identity is knowing who someone truly is, where their values, beliefs, and priorities truly lay. I think that individuals have different journeys to embark upon, their own destinies to live and their own unique legacies to leave behind them. I still grow and learn more about myself as I grow and blossom into the hopefully well established, strong, and independent women I aspire to be. My belief is that an individuals identity is a reflection of the environment they choose to put themselves in. My greatest struggle to discover my path to my identity has been to embrace the fact that I have to live my life for myself, not other people. My greatest struggle has always been consuming myself with other peoples concerns rather than focusing on my own life, over time I found that I was deterring away from the path that I wanted to be on. I have always known what I wanted to do with my life and who I wanted to be and that’s been the biggest blessing for me but getting distracted along the way caused me to lose direction. I had to experience great failure to come to the realization that I need to be more individualistic in order to find my path. An individuals journey to identity will consist of many hardships, I think that learning from our mistakes is what teaches us to build our identity around our experiences. In many cases, we must fail in order to succeed. Sometimes some individuals have longer journeys than others but that doesn’t mean that the will never find it, each downfall will shape them and teach them a lesson to carry through life. But the most important thing will always perseverance without there is no way an individual will see any change in their lives. Identity is a complex thing but that also the beauty of it because its what will make one individual unique and special. I strongly feel that our environment as we grow has the biggest impact on our identity, each and everything an individual experiences as they grow to adulthood sticks with that individual forever and that’s why it is important for individuals to know that your bad experiences do not always have to install fear within you they should be an opportunity for you to learn about who you are. All these little lessons eventually compile up and become a very important part of an individual.

An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which a person faces and uses his or her experience

~James A Baldwin

Category: Sept 2018, Shanza | 1 Comment on My Identity
December 5

My Identity

The greatest challenge in life is discovering who you are. The second greatest is being happy with what you find. An insecure girl will stir up trouble because she has to be the winner. I was always the trouble maker as a little kids and nothing no matter how hard people tried changed that. Then one day it’s like a switched flipped. One day i could feel my faith coming through me and try to steer me on the right path. I am coming to terns with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith and that a soft landing is never guaranteed. Don’t let struggle become your identity let faith. When you can feel good about yourself, it carries over into everyday life. If you can look in the mirror and like yourself, that’s the greatest feeling in the world. I feel more like myself than i have in  long time. Before I truly comfortable with my identity i was struggling with major health and mental health issues. I have 2 different anxiety disorders and 6 health issues. This has been a struggle fir most of my life. However my faith has really helped me get past all of my struggles and help me define who I really am. The weaker we feel the harder we lean on faith. And the harder we lean the stronger we grow. At the end of the day, I’m at peace because my intentions are good and my heart is pure. In family life, love is the oil that eases the friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony. My identity is unique from anyone else’s there is one me and I don’t want to match Anyone else’s identity.

 

Category: Felicity, Uncategorized | 2 Comments on My Identity
December 4

My Identity

Throughout peoples lives, many of them have struggled to come to a realization of who they really are. They keep trying to find themselves but they fail every time. Many people go through this and you might not be able to see this from the outside but they are broken inside.

 

When I began grade 12, I didn’t know what I was going to do when I was done high school. I had a hard time deciding on what I wanted to do and was seeking help from many of my close friends and family. All my friends had their lives planned out and I was the only one who wasn’t sure how my life would turn out.

When mid November came, I knew I needed to make up my mind fast so I wrote down everything I was interested in and started thinking. Soon after, I had set my future in a way that would benefit me and was finally able to see what I was going to become. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to become a police officer because I wanted to put bad guys away and help the community grow and become better. Being a police officer was always my dream since I was a child and making that dream come true would mean a lot.

I found who I really was and finally had a sigh of relief because all the stress had finally been gone. In an individuals life, finding their future self can be hard because the future is unplanned for and there are many things that can go wrong and alter what you had intended to happen. Facing and overcoming these obstacles is a big part of finding your true self and can help you get through life with a little less stress. I hope whoever is reading this has found a way to find their true self and accomplish their goal in order to achieve success.

Category: Harman | 1 Comment on My Identity
December 3

My Identity

Identity

         At my age I don’t know what my true identity is and I feel like when your life is all said and done then others truly realize what you meant to the world and what your identity is. As a kid in high school I start to think about what i’m going to do in the future but until it happens I will never be sure about what’s going to happen in my life. I want to be a lawyer but when I get older and gain more wisdom I will realize what I want to become and when I die that will be a part of me. Most of my cousins are becoming lawyers and that’s why I chose to pursue that and sometimes I think to myself that being a lawyer is not truly who I am but there’s money in it. I’ve always loved electronics and because of it I feel my true identity is to become a software engineer. At school we are always told to do what you love and that will make you happy and I somewhat agree with that because if you’re doing something you love and it’s paying you a good amount then I say pursue it but if you’re poor and doing something you love then I feel you will have much more problems in life and it’ll make you depressed. In my case I find interest in being a lawyer and it pays good so it would be a great choice for me but becoming a software engineer is risky because it might not work out so I think that pursuing it would be a waste of time if it doesn’t work out well for me.

“Nobody truly knows or appreciates you until it’s all said and done” ~Anonymous

What this means is that when you’re alive you’re just another human but when you’re dead then everyone realizes how much impact you had on their life and that’s why many people mourn over others death. There’s many examples of this such as rappers because when they are alive people just listen to their music and never look into what they are going through but when they die they post all over social media and start appreciating them. The reason people do this is because everyone is afraid of death and when someone else goes through it they want to show their condolences to their families and show that the person that has passed was important.

Image result for success pictures

The Psychological Mindset for Success

        What this picture means to me is that you don’t realize your highest point in life until you’re dead and that’s why the man on the top is a shadow. The reason I think this is because your life can change instantly without even see it coming such as winning a lottery or getting framed for a murder. You know it happened but you wouldn’t see it coming. Things like this change what people think of you and eventually changes your identity because the experiences you have in life shape who you are as you grow older.

 

Category: Robin, Sept 2018 | 1 Comment on My Identity