Blog Assignment #6: Choosing a Life Story
For next time, read the following short pieces in LLTM:
1. Frost's poem on pp. 458 - 59
2. The selection from "Good Will Hunting" on pp. 322 - 29.
3. Badcock's essay on pp. 101 - 07.
All of the readings are about choices at critical moments in one's life. Who am I? What do I want to be? We are constantly telling the story of our lives as we live it.
The first year of college is all about change in the way we see ourselves and the choices we make make. Some of you came to college secure in the vocational path you wanted to take in life. Some of you aren't sure.
In general, reflect on the changes that have occurred in your life's path in the last two months.
All of these readings are giving you advice, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, about the choices you must make. Has your choice of a vocation changed in the last couple of months? If so, why? If not, why not?
Have you discovered that your abilities/ talents are suitable to your choice of vocation? Is any of the advice in the reading helpful? How so? If it isn't, then reflect on the failure of some specific piece of advice in your particular case.
Change has never been easy for me. I am the kind of person who always eats the same thing for breakfast and every day for my entire senior year I packed the same thing for lunch: a vegetable, two fruits, hummus, pita chips, cheese, and Greek yogurt. I like things to be stable and change scares me.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think I’ve changed in many ways since I have come to Ohio. It’s been really hard trying to adjust to a new life with new classes, peoples, and problems. One thing that has changed the most though was my perspective on life. Our lives, mine included, are filled with “I can’t wait...” then fill in the blank for whatever event is coming in our future. When I was in high school, I couldn’t wait to graduate high school. When I was sitting around in my house this summer, I couldn’t wait to leave for college. Now that I am here in Ohio, I can’t wait to go home. No matter what stage I am in my life, I can’t wait to be in a different stage. Being so far from home I have really had the opportunity to reflect back on my life. I have realized how good I had it back home. I had a great group of friends that I had shared friendships with for years. I had my parents there every night when I came home from school or work and my dogs always happily greeted me. My parents never missed a lacrosse game I played in and dinners were familiar and specialized, not served in bulk. But I can’t take being here for granted either because it is giving me the opportunity to make me stronger as I overcome many new obstacles and gives me the chance to be independent and try to find out who I am as a person. Basically, I have come to the realization that I need to live it the moment and not focus too much on the future as a mode of escape to get out of the present.
My choice in vocation has not changed at all since I have gotten here though. That is one thing in my life that is staying completely stable. I would even go as far to say that my plans for my future job are even getting more firm. Whenever I have been faced with a problem or an obstacle here, I turn to helping others or using my time to somehow better other’s lives. Whenever I do this, I realize how happy this makes me. Helping others is what I’m meant to do. I need to impact other people’s lives and being a teacher, my original intended major, is the best way for me to do this. My strengths are helping and understanding others as well as speaking in front of others. I also am good at social studies and that’s what I want to teach. My desire to pursue being a high school history teacher has only grown stronger since I have been here.
I think a lot of the advice given in the texts tell you to stay true to who you are and that will get you furthest in life. Naturally you will change but as long as it is growth, that is ok. Just keep your morals in check and refer back to them when making important life decisions and you can’t make a wrong turn in life.
When I applied for colleges in the United States one of the questions that I was asked was what I wanted to study. After looking at that paper for a few minutes, I wrote Economics. The truth is though that I submitted my application with a lie. I had no clue what I wanted to study. I guess the fact that I was always told by my school teachers that studying business and economics is the best way to earn allot of money made me want to become an economist. The sad part is that I had no idea what an economist does. I have many interest such as literature, music, sports and other random topics but economics is not one of them. When I am asked what I am going to study in OWU, I now answer that I am undecided. I wish though I was undecided only in my studies though, but I am not.
ReplyDeleteMy parents never pushed me in following a curtain path. As almost all of my relatives are currently unemployed, most of them would be happy with just a minimum wage. Before coming here I did not mind the idea of me working minimum wage in Greece for the rest of my life. All Greek children have dreams of becoming professional soccer players but that goes away when we realize that we are not good enough. After that, besides the one that grow up in a really wealthy family, we graduate high school with kind of low and depressing expectations for our future. I guess we lower our expectations in order to not be disappointed when we do not reach them.
Being a perspective graduate in OWU I realized that I may have to set higher expectations for my life. Maybe I can become one of the characters portrayed in commercials with a nice house and a comfortable car. Someone that is able to provide for his family doing something he loves for a living and without even having to borrow money from friends to pay the rent. I do not know what that is but I will figure it out soon.
Answering to the question “What do I want to do in my life”, I do not think I can fully answer. Too many things are rushing through my head. My ultimate goal though would be to help my relatives and friends by bringing them here to the States for a chance to get educated. After that I hope I am able to help in any way the public schools back home. Being one of the students that hated school and jumped out of my schools fence with friends to go drink coffee, that may sound a bit oxymoron. The last two years of high school though I realized the importance of education in my life. Without it I was doomed to have life similar to my former life expectations.
Before leaving the jungle of Athens as we call it back home I heard many different advice from all kinds of people I knew. Besides my friend Giwrgos that advised me to marry a rich American girl that will solve all my problems, most of the people gave me the same advice the texts which I read did. Basically to stay true to myself and never forget where I came from. No matter who I become, to always have a picture of Peristeri hanging from my wall.
To start off, I always wanted to be a politician and improve the political and economic situation of Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteEventually after discouragement from my parents about how hopeless the countrys situation was and how if any good person did come into power,he was assassinated,I dropped that idea.
Another interest I had was that of spirituality.I was curious about how different Islam was from other rweligions.However my religious interest was suppressed by the religioislyconservative background of my society in which discussing other religions was a taboo.
Finally, I discovered a newfound interest in maths.And up until now I have nbeen able to pursue my interest.
In my opinion,Robert Frosts poem is reflective of my life.His journey into the woods offers him two options and he takes the one which is not chosen by many people.Similarly in my life I have explored many novel things to find out what best suits me and then tried my best to stick to those interests
Hard to explain what has happened in my life's path in the last two months since I came with no idea about future career plan and I still have no idea about it now. But I am not completely unfamiliar with my intended major or career. It may be my wide range of interests causing me hard to decide. Economics is my interest and necessary skill for future life, mathematics is my passion, and art is my love. Besides these, I am also interested in learning foreign languages and traveling. So what kind of occupation can fulfill my interests and how can I find the job become the main problems I am facing now and I will be on my way finding out the answer. But I think what is most important for this time is to attain a good academic achievement and lay the foundation for future career.
ReplyDeleteAnd what has really been changed in the last two months should be my schedule plan. If I have to say something about whether I changed, I would probably say-I am an expert in the field of sruggling with my schedule now.
The thing that struck me most about the readings was the phrase from Badcock's essay, " Doubt is often a necessary ingredient in the quest for certainty." When it came to choosing a path in life, I was absolutely certain as I entered college. I was going to be a scientist. I would break new ground. I would understand the universe better than anyone had before.
ReplyDeleteI ran smack dab into my first calculus course. I had done well in high school, but I now understand that I did well because most other people did so poorly. I was totally unprepared for the exacting standards of a college-level class. I now know that I was (and am) dyslexic. Mathematical thought is beyond me, and math is the language that the universe speaks. My love of science had come into direct conflict with my lack of talent. What to do?
What I really had was passion and enthusiasm for ideas, any ideas. I loved to debate them, and I had a talent for it. Writing seemed to be the way to go. The trouble was that the dyslexia that hindered me in math also made my writing, well, horrible.
Despair and self doubt set in. Should I just work at the mill like my father did his whole life? That would certainly be easy. I would be choosing, like Will in "Good Will Hunting," the path of friendship and neighborhood at the cost of wasting my passion for ideas. It would be the easy path, certainly.
In that regard I had also had to consider my father's wishes. Ironically, he had lived a miserable life at the mill with one goal in mind: to send me to college so that I could "make something of “ myself. If I chose the easy path, I would disappoint him and probably sink into the depths of despair in which he had lived HIS life.
So I learned to write. It was a struggle of sometimes painful proportions, but I was driven toward improvement because the act of communicating produced in me the greatest joy imaginable. Grades and other external rewards shrunk to insignificance. I fell naturally into teaching because only in college (or so it seems) is the free debate of ideas possible and because only in college is the idea properly honored.
I had found my one, true path in life that gives it meaning and purpose and joy. I would never have found it without that "dark night of the soul," that self doubt that seems to me to be the necessary ingredient to finding the balance between your passion, the demands of others (like parents), and your talents.
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood," as Frost writes. You, oh my students, will face many such choices in the coming months. Do not tread one of the paths without thinking about where it might lead.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly enough, change has always been a really exciting thing for me. My life has been so monotone that even the littlest bit of change has had the biggest impact on me. I tend to be a decently social person that can find good friends pretty easily. Obviously, some aspects of change and transition are harder than others. For example, the change in academics from high school to college was difficult to adjust to. Nonetheless, I feel that I have done the best with the resources I have to try to make the change as harmless as possible. I think a bug part of this is the people I surround myself with. The friends that I have made (older and my age) have given me really good advice and helped me when issues arose or got challenging.
When I came into college I was set on going into an HHK major with an emphasis on pre-physical therapy. I still have an interest in that but I have also grown interested in other fields. With the range of classes I have taken so far, I have seen many other fields that I could see myself being a part of. I have become more and more undecided about my major. I feel as thought I could do well in physical therapy but also other areas like sociology or psychology.
The reading really emphasizes the need to follow the path that makes you happy in life. I personally think this is one of the most important pieces of advice someone would have. The world is so envolved with money and the power struggle that I believe many people have lost the desire to do what simply makes them happy. Trying to be happy is my main goal but I have so many other influences in my life that push me to value money and other socially constructed happinesses.
Within the past two months, the major changes that have happen was the start of my freshman year of college and my change of majors.
ReplyDeleteI came to OWU thinking that I would be a Biology Major with a focus in Business. Within these past two months, my major has changed to Black World Studies, and Pre-Med. I've always been interested in both of these subjects, but it never occurred to me until the start of freshman year, that I could combine the two and potentially use them in my future career. My choice of vocation has changed as well within these past few months, due to my new lifestyle, dorm life, social life, academic life, just being away from home in general.
I have discovered that my abilities and talents are suitable for my choice of vocation. The advise in the reading is helpful because I found that I share some similar traits with the characters.
I always thought change was good. If you deal with the same situations every day, then that would be boring. When something did change, you would not know what to do. I feel like life is a test on who adapts to changes the fastest. Some of the most interesting people I have met are people who have been through so much change and they know how to adapt quicker. People who make changes in their lives are the ones who enjoy life the most. They challenge themselves to go beyond their boundaries and learn more about themselves and the environment around them.
ReplyDeleteAs of now, I am still on the same career path. Since the seventh grade, I have wanted to be a brain surgeon. This career path is for me because I feel that all brain surgeons are quality people who want the best for themselves and everyone else so the whole community can do better. I also wanted a field where I can rely on other people, and this is definitely one of them.
There has not been too much change for me in the last couple of months, mostly because I have always been an individual who is independent. I wanted to take this college path because I know that this is the path to become a neurosurgeon. So I am here to do one job and I am staying focused.
Like I said, I am still on the same career path and it will hopefully not change because this is my dream career.
I feel like I do have the abilities and talents to become a neurosurgeon because I believe in myself. Nothing in the readings really stood out for me, mostly because I have dealt with change my whole life. When I was younger, I moved 4 times in two years. This was the time where I started becoming more independent. I also had to become stronger to take care of my sisters and mother and be there for them.
A lot of things have changed since I got to OWU. For one, I've been away from my grandma for the first time. I was away at camps for a week but she was always still in town, staying in a hotel. This isn't my first time staying on a college campus but it is staying with roommates. When I was home, I shared a room with my sister but I haven't in about 8 years. I had my own room that I occasionally shared with my grandma during the winter when it was too cold to stay on the couch (her choice in case you think I kicked her out of the room to stay on the couch). I'm completely on my own for the first time without any sort of face to face contact with any member of my family. I also haven't made friends as easily as I did back home and that's been tough. I also think I've grown a lot as a person. I'm starting to make my own decisions, which I couldn't really do before. Most of my decisions before my senior year of high school were made for me, and even in my senior year I asked for help in decision making because I really didn't know how to. This year I made tons of decisions on my own, especially about my mental health.
ReplyDeleteMy career path has changed a bit. Before coming to OWU I wanted to be a double math and music major but eventually decided (because of my grandma convincing me to) to just go with being a mathematics major. Since then, I've started failing calculus and have thus reconsidered if mathematics would be a good major for me. As of right this moment, I'm still considering keeping that as my major but if I end up failing this semester I might change my major to some history major or Psychology.
The Frost poem has always been my favorite poem of all time because it's always been the one poem I've related to the most and I feel like I subconsciously base my life on. In my life there's always been 2 roads, the one my family wants me to take and the one I want to take. The latter road then splits in 2 as well, what I want for me and what I want to make my family happy. In my immediate family, everyone has taken the road for them. My oldest sister didn't want to go to college because she wanted to get married and start a family right away. She has since expressed that she regrets that idea, seeing as how that particular marriage failed and her second marriage is failing and she is stuck working at low wage jobs, like her current one at Starbucks. My other sister wanted to go to community college for graphic design before she was forced to drop out to have a baby. She doesn't really regret much of that except for the timing. Most of that situation was unplanned. But the thing was she chose college and a graphic design major for her and my grandma supported her. In my case, my family expressed that they wanted me to go to college and be a mathematics major and when I expressed interest in maybe being a music history major too or deferring a year, no one was supportive until after I was accepted. Actually, that only applies to the deferring a year. Everyone still thinks I made a mistake in wanting to be a music history major. I'm following "the path less traveled by" in my family by doing whatever they wanted me to do. Yesterday I was talking to my cousin who's struggling in her sophomore year of college and wanted to take next semester off to deal with some of her issues and I told her that she should talk to her dad and see if it's okay with him. In full disclosure, I told her what I want to hear. I'm struggling with so many mental issues right now that are affecting my grades and I just want someone to tell me that it's okay if I want to take a break. But I would never go and ask because I turned down the opportunity when they finally started to support it and now I think they'll bring that up and I'll just go along with whatever they want again. After I told my grandma about my cousin's decision yesterday, she told me that my entire family is proud that I'm the most successful at the moment, even though she doesn't know I'm failing two of my classes and I'm really scared to tell her the truth and break that pride. I'm still choosing the path less traveled by but sometimes I want to take the road most traveled and conform to my family because I'm tired of all the pressure to take the road less traveled.
ReplyDeleteFor me change has come in a much different way then I anticipated and I have really had to change things about my life that I had never thought of before. The main change in my life that really hit me hard was how much I have to share, my room, my speakers, my food, and most importantly my clothing considering my roommate brought none of the correct cloths for the weather. I have never really had to share anything in my life and i have had to adapt to be more okay with sharing. I really felt that Frost's poem was the piece that was most suitable for my life because unlike most of my friends, the type of school that I chose was small and liberal arts and was not division 1. I was the first student from my school to attend Ohio Wesleyan and I feel like it has been great for me because I have made so many new friends while all my friends who went to big state schools seem to just be hanging out with the kids from high school still and I am glad I was forced to get out of my comfort zone and meet new people. Taking the road less traveled on has been different but I think it has helped me in so many ways and I'm glad that I chose it.
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