Humanities Projects
The Mask Project
This is my first major project at Animas where where we explored socialization. I have an essay a mask picture and a reflection, enjoy.
Brynn Nelson
Beautiful Flaws
“Other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves.” -Beverly Tatum
Socialization; other people teaching us who we should be. What clothes we should wear, who our friends should be, what music we should listen to, what our hobbies should be. Socialization is how a person develops from what is taught to them, versus what they’re born with. It is teaching us who we should be. The norms of society, what other people view as good, or normal. How much of who we are really is who we are, and how much is who we think we should be. What they teach us to do. It is truly amazing how much is just taught to us. First: feral children. In school we watched a video called Genie about a girl that had been tied up in a room her whole life. She didn’t know how to speak and when someone did something like roll a ball towards her, or gave her a doll, she had no idea what to do with it. We can learn from this, that there are a great deal of things that we thought were natural, but really aren’t. Another example would be other cultures, looking at the differences and seeing that they are taught completely different things. Research has been done on many other cultures, and one, the Zuni tribe, has the completely opposite gender roles than we do. The men take care of the children, they clean and cook. The women hunt, and build the houses. It shows that society can switch roles and still thrive. In my opinion, society has made me to be what everyone else sees as perfect, rather than who I really am. There is a difference between the two, or at least there should be. My intellect, my body image, my hobbies, they’re all there, but how much of it is what I think I should do, and how much of it really is mine.
From a young age I was told girls are smart, It’s a fact, they're smart. As I got older I got the idea that if I didn’t get straight A’s or score 1600 on my SAT’s, it wasn’t good enough, that I wasn’t smart. It’s what I was supposed to do, it was my job.Get all A’s. Where did these ideas come from? Why must it be so imperfect to just be, average? Ralph Emerson said, “Character is higher than intelligence, a great soul will be strong to live, as well as think.” I’m definitely not a feminist, and I know there is some element of Nature here, but how can one know what is natural, and how much is subconsciously taught to us. There has to be a line somewhere. Around me, everyone has tutors, life’s all about extra credit, The homework is important. I agree entirely, I’m right along with them. I get good grades, it’s a big part of my life. The issue surfaces when someone decides that if school isn’t my life, if I don't have straight A’s, if I am simply, average, that it’s not okay. We try our hardest, we don’t fail, we are smart. Pleasing everyone else shouldn’t make us any smarter. So many people think intelligence is a feature of character, why can it never be ,simply, how smart you are?
“The best thing is to look natural, but nowadays it takes makeup to do that.”-Calvin Klein.
Everywhere I look, people are wearing make up. Downtown, people wear more makeup than they do clothes. Magazines, every picture is airbrushed to perfection. It sets unrealistic expectations of what we need to do to be beautiful. Half my body isn’t filled with plastic and I don’t wear too much makeup to see through. Does that really mean I’m not pretty too? I am constantly influenced by this, the fact that everyone is doing one thing, make up. I have to do it too, I gave been taught that girls wear make up. I’m a girl, so I wear makeup. Every picture we see in magazines billboards, they’re all perfect. Blemishes are removed, lips are made larger, eyes are made brighter, they’re not real. It makes us feel imperfect, not good enough. It’s how you look at beauty. It’s only an outward appearance with hair and makeup and a perfect body. It is only on the outside. To truly be beautiful, that is on the in. Looks are only skin deep, so why does it determine so much of our being.
“We’re all the same once the lights are turned off.” -Shel Silver stein
My gender shouldn’t determine what I find fun. I have broken the cycle of socialization by doing things that people don’t see as typical for girls.I play lacrosse, tennis, and hockey. Three of my friends play tennis. No one in my circle of friends play the other two. I hunt, fly fish, including tying my own flies, backpack and mountain bike. I’m alone in these activities, except for the mountain biking. A few years ago tests were done on a group of seven year old. They gave all the girls toy cars and told them to play with them. They treated them like babies and held them. They then gave the boys baby dolls. They used them as guns and pretended to shoot each other. It shows us that there is some element of nature here. I was taught from a young age how to be a mom, I had dolls, and wore pink. I liked it, I was taught to do it, but I did liked it. There is some element of motherhood naturally in me, and probably in most girls. That’s not an issue. The problem is when the little girl that takes the baby doll and uses it as a gun comes, and it’s not okay. The issue is when the mom of that girl, or the teacher, or the aunt comes and takes the baby and swaddles it and puts it in her arms. The problem is when they teach us, that that’s not what girls do. I was taught that it’s okay to hunt, and fish by my parents, but when I came back to school and every little girl was confused as to why I was acting like a boy, it made me feel wrong. When no one else I know did that, it told me that I shouldn’t do it either. Gender differences are on the outside, not the in, why can’t we treat it like that?
It is my opinion that by default, being fake is considered what girls need to do to be pretty.Where did it come from, the idea that being natural isn’t beautiful. As far back as you go, it’s been around. Corsets and foot binding, plastic surgery and makeup, it’s always been there, but where did these objects to beautify come from. I was always told that women have a certain self image to protect. You don’t wear sweatpants in public, you brush your hair, it’s just what you do. As I previously stated, I’m definitely not a feminist, but why are our genders so divided on every little thing. Why is it that we think gender is such a character trait. Why are we taught that these differences matter. If you’re a girl, why is football so unacceptable. What is it that makes boys not allowed to have dolls? We all have flaws, that’s what makes us so beautiful. After all “Why fit in when we were born to stand out.”-Dr. Seuss.
In my mask I have two people the girl that society has told me to be and the real me. For my mask I I chose to do a hinge system. For the top mask it is painted perfectly. The general definition of female beauty. She has long eyelashes, perfect eyebrows, big red lips, she’s beautiful. She’s also on the outside. She opens up to the inside. The me, the non stereotypical person, but still perfect. The mask on the inside is splatter painted. It is supposed to show that I have a crazy life and that is what makes it so beautiful The one brown splatter is to represent the fact that I have flaws, It is to show that everything about me is makes me feel perfect, even though there are some things that aren’t. On the inside of the top mask, there is a collage on each side. On one side, is the typical girl. Images and cut outs from things like vogue and people magazine are there. On the other is the real me. Along with a slight amount of things like people and vogue, there is a collage of things like sports illustrated. Even though I am a girl, and have girly things about me, There are other things too, and that is what makes me so unique.
Brynn Nelson
Beautiful Flaws
“Other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves.” -Beverly Tatum
Socialization; other people teaching us who we should be. What clothes we should wear, who our friends should be, what music we should listen to, what our hobbies should be. Socialization is how a person develops from what is taught to them, versus what they’re born with. It is teaching us who we should be. The norms of society, what other people view as good, or normal. How much of who we are really is who we are, and how much is who we think we should be. What they teach us to do. It is truly amazing how much is just taught to us. First: feral children. In school we watched a video called Genie about a girl that had been tied up in a room her whole life. She didn’t know how to speak and when someone did something like roll a ball towards her, or gave her a doll, she had no idea what to do with it. We can learn from this, that there are a great deal of things that we thought were natural, but really aren’t. Another example would be other cultures, looking at the differences and seeing that they are taught completely different things. Research has been done on many other cultures, and one, the Zuni tribe, has the completely opposite gender roles than we do. The men take care of the children, they clean and cook. The women hunt, and build the houses. It shows that society can switch roles and still thrive. In my opinion, society has made me to be what everyone else sees as perfect, rather than who I really am. There is a difference between the two, or at least there should be. My intellect, my body image, my hobbies, they’re all there, but how much of it is what I think I should do, and how much of it really is mine.
From a young age I was told girls are smart, It’s a fact, they're smart. As I got older I got the idea that if I didn’t get straight A’s or score 1600 on my SAT’s, it wasn’t good enough, that I wasn’t smart. It’s what I was supposed to do, it was my job.Get all A’s. Where did these ideas come from? Why must it be so imperfect to just be, average? Ralph Emerson said, “Character is higher than intelligence, a great soul will be strong to live, as well as think.” I’m definitely not a feminist, and I know there is some element of Nature here, but how can one know what is natural, and how much is subconsciously taught to us. There has to be a line somewhere. Around me, everyone has tutors, life’s all about extra credit, The homework is important. I agree entirely, I’m right along with them. I get good grades, it’s a big part of my life. The issue surfaces when someone decides that if school isn’t my life, if I don't have straight A’s, if I am simply, average, that it’s not okay. We try our hardest, we don’t fail, we are smart. Pleasing everyone else shouldn’t make us any smarter. So many people think intelligence is a feature of character, why can it never be ,simply, how smart you are?
“The best thing is to look natural, but nowadays it takes makeup to do that.”-Calvin Klein.
Everywhere I look, people are wearing make up. Downtown, people wear more makeup than they do clothes. Magazines, every picture is airbrushed to perfection. It sets unrealistic expectations of what we need to do to be beautiful. Half my body isn’t filled with plastic and I don’t wear too much makeup to see through. Does that really mean I’m not pretty too? I am constantly influenced by this, the fact that everyone is doing one thing, make up. I have to do it too, I gave been taught that girls wear make up. I’m a girl, so I wear makeup. Every picture we see in magazines billboards, they’re all perfect. Blemishes are removed, lips are made larger, eyes are made brighter, they’re not real. It makes us feel imperfect, not good enough. It’s how you look at beauty. It’s only an outward appearance with hair and makeup and a perfect body. It is only on the outside. To truly be beautiful, that is on the in. Looks are only skin deep, so why does it determine so much of our being.
“We’re all the same once the lights are turned off.” -Shel Silver stein
My gender shouldn’t determine what I find fun. I have broken the cycle of socialization by doing things that people don’t see as typical for girls.I play lacrosse, tennis, and hockey. Three of my friends play tennis. No one in my circle of friends play the other two. I hunt, fly fish, including tying my own flies, backpack and mountain bike. I’m alone in these activities, except for the mountain biking. A few years ago tests were done on a group of seven year old. They gave all the girls toy cars and told them to play with them. They treated them like babies and held them. They then gave the boys baby dolls. They used them as guns and pretended to shoot each other. It shows us that there is some element of nature here. I was taught from a young age how to be a mom, I had dolls, and wore pink. I liked it, I was taught to do it, but I did liked it. There is some element of motherhood naturally in me, and probably in most girls. That’s not an issue. The problem is when the little girl that takes the baby doll and uses it as a gun comes, and it’s not okay. The issue is when the mom of that girl, or the teacher, or the aunt comes and takes the baby and swaddles it and puts it in her arms. The problem is when they teach us, that that’s not what girls do. I was taught that it’s okay to hunt, and fish by my parents, but when I came back to school and every little girl was confused as to why I was acting like a boy, it made me feel wrong. When no one else I know did that, it told me that I shouldn’t do it either. Gender differences are on the outside, not the in, why can’t we treat it like that?
It is my opinion that by default, being fake is considered what girls need to do to be pretty.Where did it come from, the idea that being natural isn’t beautiful. As far back as you go, it’s been around. Corsets and foot binding, plastic surgery and makeup, it’s always been there, but where did these objects to beautify come from. I was always told that women have a certain self image to protect. You don’t wear sweatpants in public, you brush your hair, it’s just what you do. As I previously stated, I’m definitely not a feminist, but why are our genders so divided on every little thing. Why is it that we think gender is such a character trait. Why are we taught that these differences matter. If you’re a girl, why is football so unacceptable. What is it that makes boys not allowed to have dolls? We all have flaws, that’s what makes us so beautiful. After all “Why fit in when we were born to stand out.”-Dr. Seuss.
In my mask I have two people the girl that society has told me to be and the real me. For my mask I I chose to do a hinge system. For the top mask it is painted perfectly. The general definition of female beauty. She has long eyelashes, perfect eyebrows, big red lips, she’s beautiful. She’s also on the outside. She opens up to the inside. The me, the non stereotypical person, but still perfect. The mask on the inside is splatter painted. It is supposed to show that I have a crazy life and that is what makes it so beautiful The one brown splatter is to represent the fact that I have flaws, It is to show that everything about me is makes me feel perfect, even though there are some things that aren’t. On the inside of the top mask, there is a collage on each side. On one side, is the typical girl. Images and cut outs from things like vogue and people magazine are there. On the other is the real me. Along with a slight amount of things like people and vogue, there is a collage of things like sports illustrated. Even though I am a girl, and have girly things about me, There are other things too, and that is what makes me so unique.
Brynn Nelson
Mask Project Reflection
What are you most proud of about your mask? Why?
The thing that I am most proud of about my mask is the deeper level of thinking that I incorporated that you automatically have to use when you look at it, and think about what it means. It took a lot of time, effort, and revisions to make it like that. I am proud of of it because, firstly it shows that I understand the deeper meaning of socialization and this project. As well as the fact that I simply spent so much time on it, that I am proud of it because I put in the effort and it paid off, after many, many revisions. I am very proud of everything about my mask because I worked so hard on it, through the good things like painting it, and the bad things like having to redo the hinges seven times. I am proud of all of it, but the thing that I am most proud of is the fact that you can never simply look at it , and understand it. It requires a deeper level of thought.
Quote: Quote the section of your essay that you are most proud of and describe, in detail, why you are proud of it.
“In my opinion, society has made me to be what everyone else sees as perfect, rather than who I really am. There is a difference between the two, or at least there should be. My intellect, my body image, my hobbies, they’re all there, but how much of it is what I think I should do, and how much of it really is mine.” I believe that the best part of my essay was this section. It is my thesis statement and firstly, what I like about it is how I explained what my entire two and a half page essay was about in just a few sentences, which was very difficult to get just right. I also feel like I did a good job incorporating ideas that make you think of the entire essay following in a different way. All in all I think this was the best section of the paragraph, simply because it opens up the window to the entire essay following.
What will you remember from this project? Why?
The thing that I will remember most about this project is the videos we watched and the text we read on feral children. The reason being that I never really thought about how much the things and people around us influence who we are, what we believe in, and what we do as individuals. Looking at the cases, I came to a realization of how much we are impacted by our surroundings. I don’t know that that realization could ever leave me. One specific case I remember is a video called Genie. The girl was tied up in her room with no real outside contact until age thirteen. She didn’t know how to talk, play, or virtually react to anything. It shows us how much we learn, even if we don’t realize we’re learning it. Our surrounding environment impacts us greatly and the cases of feral children only help us to better understand that.
Habit of Heart and Mind: Which habit of heart and mind do you need to work on in your next project to get better at Project Based Learning? Why do you need to improve and how that Habit of Heart and Mind will help you.
I think that out of the habits of heart and mind, the one that I need to work on the most for my next project would be perserverance. In the mask project, when something got hard I would merely figure out a simple solution or a way around it. Due to that, there are some things involved in the project that I did not make as well as I could have. As some elements of my mask were not at their full potential, I think it shows that throughout this project, I did not have as much perseverance as I could or should have had. In my next project, I believe that that aspect could be greatly improved upon.
Mask Project Reflection
What are you most proud of about your mask? Why?
The thing that I am most proud of about my mask is the deeper level of thinking that I incorporated that you automatically have to use when you look at it, and think about what it means. It took a lot of time, effort, and revisions to make it like that. I am proud of of it because, firstly it shows that I understand the deeper meaning of socialization and this project. As well as the fact that I simply spent so much time on it, that I am proud of it because I put in the effort and it paid off, after many, many revisions. I am very proud of everything about my mask because I worked so hard on it, through the good things like painting it, and the bad things like having to redo the hinges seven times. I am proud of all of it, but the thing that I am most proud of is the fact that you can never simply look at it , and understand it. It requires a deeper level of thought.
Quote: Quote the section of your essay that you are most proud of and describe, in detail, why you are proud of it.
“In my opinion, society has made me to be what everyone else sees as perfect, rather than who I really am. There is a difference between the two, or at least there should be. My intellect, my body image, my hobbies, they’re all there, but how much of it is what I think I should do, and how much of it really is mine.” I believe that the best part of my essay was this section. It is my thesis statement and firstly, what I like about it is how I explained what my entire two and a half page essay was about in just a few sentences, which was very difficult to get just right. I also feel like I did a good job incorporating ideas that make you think of the entire essay following in a different way. All in all I think this was the best section of the paragraph, simply because it opens up the window to the entire essay following.
What will you remember from this project? Why?
The thing that I will remember most about this project is the videos we watched and the text we read on feral children. The reason being that I never really thought about how much the things and people around us influence who we are, what we believe in, and what we do as individuals. Looking at the cases, I came to a realization of how much we are impacted by our surroundings. I don’t know that that realization could ever leave me. One specific case I remember is a video called Genie. The girl was tied up in her room with no real outside contact until age thirteen. She didn’t know how to talk, play, or virtually react to anything. It shows us how much we learn, even if we don’t realize we’re learning it. Our surrounding environment impacts us greatly and the cases of feral children only help us to better understand that.
Habit of Heart and Mind: Which habit of heart and mind do you need to work on in your next project to get better at Project Based Learning? Why do you need to improve and how that Habit of Heart and Mind will help you.
I think that out of the habits of heart and mind, the one that I need to work on the most for my next project would be perserverance. In the mask project, when something got hard I would merely figure out a simple solution or a way around it. Due to that, there are some things involved in the project that I did not make as well as I could have. As some elements of my mask were not at their full potential, I think it shows that throughout this project, I did not have as much perseverance as I could or should have had. In my next project, I believe that that aspect could be greatly improved upon.
The Greek Tragedy Project
My partner and I chose human trafficking in the chocolate industry as our social issue to write about. Our script, graphic novel, and my project reflection.
Gabe Garcia
Brynn Nelson
A Darker Chocolate
Prologue:
(A small village in Ghana, Africa. Women are in the sheds making a dinner for their husbands and sons. Men come in, shouting. They go into to the huts. Gunfire starts and the men from the village run in with knives. All you can see is men stabbing women and children, and children killing children. Young Ashiba is stuck watching his mother be stabbed in the back of the neck repeatedly by a young boy his age. He’s hearing her screams and can’t help because he is frozen, with fear.
(Ashiba wakes up in his fathers shed, In a cold sweat).
Ashiba: (Crying) Mom!
Taruke: ( Door bursts open) What’s wrong!
Ashiba: I had a dream about mom again.
Taruke: That was a long time ago
Taruke: Just shut up and get out of bed, I need help in the back. I know you had such a good life with her
(Ashiba gets up and goes to the yard)
Taruke: Give me that axe.
(Ashiba hands Taruke an axe)
Chop!!
(Taruke cuts another chicken head, Ashiba looks at it like it is his mother’s head rolling into the dirt and her dragging her head along the straw on the ground.)
Ashiba: Why do you do that to them?
Taruke: We need the money. We’re broke son. It’s either kill the chickens or spend another night with hunger pains like everyone in this God forsaken village does. Its more than you’re doing.
Ashiba: Don’t you feel bad? killing them?
Taruke: Nope they're just stupid birds. Go take them to market. Take this
Ashiba: (taking chicken) Fine!
( Ashiba gets up and walks down to the river bay.)
Taruke: I need money, and I get what I need, one way or another. I love my son, but I can’t afford him anymore.
(Ashiba is at the market he walks past a man, selling people, like animals)
Slave Owner: Three healthy men here! good workers! ( walking past vendors)
Fruit salesman: Would you like an orange, young man? Half price!
(Ashiba walks through the sales tents and by the merchants he finds a nice square where he can sell the chickens.)
Ashiba: Chickens! 3 Cedis per chicken!
Slave owner: Ashiba, hello, I’ll buy your chickens.
Ashiba: Who are you?
Slave owner: A friend of your fathers, I was just talking to him, I paid quite a lot of money for his finest possession.
Ashiba: Oh, and what’s that?
Slave owner: Come with me. (Punching Ashiba)
(The slave owner grabs him, and carries him away to his boat. He puts a bag on Ashiba’s head, and binds his hands, Ashiba could feel the butt of the gun smack his head [painfully, and the young boy falls to the ground, unconscious.)
Chorus: It is unfair. Ashiba has been
stolen wrongly, like an animal,
and is being brought to a farm
to work as a slave. Many children
share his fate. I am sorry Ashiba,
for soon you too will be broken.
Scene 2.
(Ashiba wakes up, head pounding. He does not recognize where he is. He has just been taken away from his home with no explanation. Another boy walks up to Ashiba)
Cocoa Slave: The cocoa farmers bought you away from your dad for 300 celis (90$). Your father has given you to them. These men aren't kind men Look around, you are on a cold mat, on the ground. We have all been brought here.
Ashiba: ( waking up in a haze) What happened?
Slave owner: Get up now!!! New kid, come with me, I’ll show you what to do. Do a good job and I won’t have to lash you, finish your daily work and you get fed, got it?
Ashiba: Who are you?
Slave owner: I’ll tell you when you can talk. Climb the tree cut down the pods with the machete, climb down the tree, cut open the pod with the machete, get out seeds, repeat. Got it, or are you too stupid to figure it out?
Ashiba: No, I got it.
Chorus: Ashiba climbs the tree and after countless
cuts from his knife and falling from the tree his
hands are rubbed raw and his feet are bleeding.
Once the blisters fade it is easier for Ashiba to endure
long hours of work day and night for weeks on end.
It is a terrible thing that has happened. A sweet little boy
has been turned brute. Why, why has this happened, and for what?
Scene 3:
(Ashiba is getting stronger, used to working in the farm now, but he has lost his will to live and realizes that he cannot trust anyone.)
Chorus: Ashiba you are sick and your skin is
rotting from the blisters you are enduring too many
beatings and aimless fists. You are beaten and bruised,
Ashiba you must run, these people don’t plan to
let you free, you're killing yourself!
(Ashiba wakes up and walks to his tree and starts climbing. Out of nowhere, a Guard at the farm runs to ashiba and pulls him from his tree. Guard pulls out machette and cuts ashiba, )
Ashiba: Aahhh!!! Stop!!! Please I beg you!!!
Chorus:The Guard drops to knees, choking ashiba,
The guard grabs his knife and stabs Ashiba in the
ribs slicing in between like a piece of meet. The
guard crawls to the top of ashiba and
sits on his chest so he can’t move.
Guard: Your dead kid!
Chorus:After Ashiba tries to crawl away whimpering,
the guard jumps on top of him. He throws his fist
as hard as he can into Ashiba’s face and grabs the
back of his hair and pulls it as hard as he can, then
lets go leaving his neck to sag. Disfigured and dismembered
Ashiba tries to crawl but as he gets close to the river the
guard stabs his knife into Ashiba’s foot and staples him
to the ground. Ashiba cries in fear as the man grabs
turns Ashiba around to see his face and Ashiba cries
with shock, for his father is the one holding him, beating
him. Ashiba, beaten turns, and with his last bit of
energy, he punches his father off of him and gets away.
As he lies on his bunk and slowly loses consciousness,
he thinks about what he has just done to his own father.
He fills with anger at the Slave Master and the farm. He
has lost his joy, and his empathy. He does not feel sorrow anymore.
(The next day, Ashiba can hardly walk. All the other kids have gone to work for the day. The Slave Master comes up to Ashiba’s mat and pulls him up.)
Slave Master: Why are you not working?!!
Ashiba: (mumbling to himself and stumbling to a tree ) I will, It’s what I do, I climb, I cut, I open, all day, all year, all my life. There’s nothing left of me, you stole it all pig!
Chorus: Ashiba is done. He is too hurt to work,
yet he does. Too broken to be, but he is. It is
something wrong that has been done to him.
He has not been killed, but his life has been
taken. Ashiba walks to a tree, climbs higher then
he has in all the time he’s been there. He grabs a
branch, but it is not secure, he falls all the way to
the ground, all the way to his last
breath. A terrible thing, the farm has taken
everything from him now, there is nothing left.
Gabe Garcia
Brynn Nelson
A Darker Chocolate
Prologue:
(A small village in Ghana, Africa. Women are in the sheds making a dinner for their husbands and sons. Men come in, shouting. They go into to the huts. Gunfire starts and the men from the village run in with knives. All you can see is men stabbing women and children, and children killing children. Young Ashiba is stuck watching his mother be stabbed in the back of the neck repeatedly by a young boy his age. He’s hearing her screams and can’t help because he is frozen, with fear.
(Ashiba wakes up in his fathers shed, In a cold sweat).
Ashiba: (Crying) Mom!
Taruke: ( Door bursts open) What’s wrong!
Ashiba: I had a dream about mom again.
Taruke: That was a long time ago
Taruke: Just shut up and get out of bed, I need help in the back. I know you had such a good life with her
(Ashiba gets up and goes to the yard)
Taruke: Give me that axe.
(Ashiba hands Taruke an axe)
Chop!!
(Taruke cuts another chicken head, Ashiba looks at it like it is his mother’s head rolling into the dirt and her dragging her head along the straw on the ground.)
Ashiba: Why do you do that to them?
Taruke: We need the money. We’re broke son. It’s either kill the chickens or spend another night with hunger pains like everyone in this God forsaken village does. Its more than you’re doing.
Ashiba: Don’t you feel bad? killing them?
Taruke: Nope they're just stupid birds. Go take them to market. Take this
Ashiba: (taking chicken) Fine!
( Ashiba gets up and walks down to the river bay.)
Taruke: I need money, and I get what I need, one way or another. I love my son, but I can’t afford him anymore.
(Ashiba is at the market he walks past a man, selling people, like animals)
Slave Owner: Three healthy men here! good workers! ( walking past vendors)
Fruit salesman: Would you like an orange, young man? Half price!
(Ashiba walks through the sales tents and by the merchants he finds a nice square where he can sell the chickens.)
Ashiba: Chickens! 3 Cedis per chicken!
Slave owner: Ashiba, hello, I’ll buy your chickens.
Ashiba: Who are you?
Slave owner: A friend of your fathers, I was just talking to him, I paid quite a lot of money for his finest possession.
Ashiba: Oh, and what’s that?
Slave owner: Come with me. (Punching Ashiba)
(The slave owner grabs him, and carries him away to his boat. He puts a bag on Ashiba’s head, and binds his hands, Ashiba could feel the butt of the gun smack his head [painfully, and the young boy falls to the ground, unconscious.)
Chorus: It is unfair. Ashiba has been
stolen wrongly, like an animal,
and is being brought to a farm
to work as a slave. Many children
share his fate. I am sorry Ashiba,
for soon you too will be broken.
Scene 2.
(Ashiba wakes up, head pounding. He does not recognize where he is. He has just been taken away from his home with no explanation. Another boy walks up to Ashiba)
Cocoa Slave: The cocoa farmers bought you away from your dad for 300 celis (90$). Your father has given you to them. These men aren't kind men Look around, you are on a cold mat, on the ground. We have all been brought here.
Ashiba: ( waking up in a haze) What happened?
Slave owner: Get up now!!! New kid, come with me, I’ll show you what to do. Do a good job and I won’t have to lash you, finish your daily work and you get fed, got it?
Ashiba: Who are you?
Slave owner: I’ll tell you when you can talk. Climb the tree cut down the pods with the machete, climb down the tree, cut open the pod with the machete, get out seeds, repeat. Got it, or are you too stupid to figure it out?
Ashiba: No, I got it.
Chorus: Ashiba climbs the tree and after countless
cuts from his knife and falling from the tree his
hands are rubbed raw and his feet are bleeding.
Once the blisters fade it is easier for Ashiba to endure
long hours of work day and night for weeks on end.
It is a terrible thing that has happened. A sweet little boy
has been turned brute. Why, why has this happened, and for what?
Scene 3:
(Ashiba is getting stronger, used to working in the farm now, but he has lost his will to live and realizes that he cannot trust anyone.)
Chorus: Ashiba you are sick and your skin is
rotting from the blisters you are enduring too many
beatings and aimless fists. You are beaten and bruised,
Ashiba you must run, these people don’t plan to
let you free, you're killing yourself!
(Ashiba wakes up and walks to his tree and starts climbing. Out of nowhere, a Guard at the farm runs to ashiba and pulls him from his tree. Guard pulls out machette and cuts ashiba, )
Ashiba: Aahhh!!! Stop!!! Please I beg you!!!
Chorus:The Guard drops to knees, choking ashiba,
The guard grabs his knife and stabs Ashiba in the
ribs slicing in between like a piece of meet. The
guard crawls to the top of ashiba and
sits on his chest so he can’t move.
Guard: Your dead kid!
Chorus:After Ashiba tries to crawl away whimpering,
the guard jumps on top of him. He throws his fist
as hard as he can into Ashiba’s face and grabs the
back of his hair and pulls it as hard as he can, then
lets go leaving his neck to sag. Disfigured and dismembered
Ashiba tries to crawl but as he gets close to the river the
guard stabs his knife into Ashiba’s foot and staples him
to the ground. Ashiba cries in fear as the man grabs
turns Ashiba around to see his face and Ashiba cries
with shock, for his father is the one holding him, beating
him. Ashiba, beaten turns, and with his last bit of
energy, he punches his father off of him and gets away.
As he lies on his bunk and slowly loses consciousness,
he thinks about what he has just done to his own father.
He fills with anger at the Slave Master and the farm. He
has lost his joy, and his empathy. He does not feel sorrow anymore.
(The next day, Ashiba can hardly walk. All the other kids have gone to work for the day. The Slave Master comes up to Ashiba’s mat and pulls him up.)
Slave Master: Why are you not working?!!
Ashiba: (mumbling to himself and stumbling to a tree ) I will, It’s what I do, I climb, I cut, I open, all day, all year, all my life. There’s nothing left of me, you stole it all pig!
Chorus: Ashiba is done. He is too hurt to work,
yet he does. Too broken to be, but he is. It is
something wrong that has been done to him.
He has not been killed, but his life has been
taken. Ashiba walks to a tree, climbs higher then
he has in all the time he’s been there. He grabs a
branch, but it is not secure, he falls all the way to
the ground, all the way to his last
breath. A terrible thing, the farm has taken
everything from him now, there is nothing left.
Humanities
Greek Tragedy Project Reflection
The thing I am most proud of in my project was the amount of care that went into the drawings. Though we were not the only people in the class that chose to create a graphic novel, we were the only ones that chose to draw one. Everyone else that did so took pictures and made it digitally. The reason I was so proud of this particular aspect is because it took much more time to do so then say a video. I was also proud of our project because the other groups that chose our social issue, human trafficking, made the main character the same thing, a reporter. Where as we made him an actual child forced into slavery at one of the farms. I liked this because not only was it original, but more difficult to incorporate all of the aspects. The Greek Tragedy Project was both fun and educational and I enjoyed it very much.
One piece of advice I would give to an upcoming student here would be to make a plan, agree on it and stick with it. Planning everything out helps. When my partner and I wrote our script, we were just going. We didn’t know what was going to happen next, or how much space we could use up. Due to this, we had to completely restart several times. Also, I would say make sure that your story is at least semi realistic. It is a tragedy, that doesn’t mean it is a fantasy. The social issues are real things, so what happens with them need to be real too. As long as you are well prepared, the tragedy project will be a great one.
On a related note, I think that working in partners went well. It was very nice to be able to put some of the work load on someone else. Although there were some challenging parts as well. For example my partner took the project home to finish the night before it was due, and I was going to finish the script and turn it in. I did my part but my partner did not, making it very hard to complete the project. There are both pros and cons to working with a partner but in the End I think it is more beneficial than not. If anything it just gives us a much needed skill to use in the future.
The most challenging task for my was probably making sure everything was falling into place and getting done. My partner was not extremely motivated so I had to be the instigator. There were many different aspects of this project and making sure that they all got done when they needed to and right was very challenging. An example would be the first day that we started the visual component. The script needed to be edited and we were both very excited to start the fun part, but we had to make sure the script was up to standard before that. In the end I did the script and my partner started drawing. Although the project had many challenging aspects, I think it was a fun one.
Greek Tragedy Project Reflection
The thing I am most proud of in my project was the amount of care that went into the drawings. Though we were not the only people in the class that chose to create a graphic novel, we were the only ones that chose to draw one. Everyone else that did so took pictures and made it digitally. The reason I was so proud of this particular aspect is because it took much more time to do so then say a video. I was also proud of our project because the other groups that chose our social issue, human trafficking, made the main character the same thing, a reporter. Where as we made him an actual child forced into slavery at one of the farms. I liked this because not only was it original, but more difficult to incorporate all of the aspects. The Greek Tragedy Project was both fun and educational and I enjoyed it very much.
One piece of advice I would give to an upcoming student here would be to make a plan, agree on it and stick with it. Planning everything out helps. When my partner and I wrote our script, we were just going. We didn’t know what was going to happen next, or how much space we could use up. Due to this, we had to completely restart several times. Also, I would say make sure that your story is at least semi realistic. It is a tragedy, that doesn’t mean it is a fantasy. The social issues are real things, so what happens with them need to be real too. As long as you are well prepared, the tragedy project will be a great one.
On a related note, I think that working in partners went well. It was very nice to be able to put some of the work load on someone else. Although there were some challenging parts as well. For example my partner took the project home to finish the night before it was due, and I was going to finish the script and turn it in. I did my part but my partner did not, making it very hard to complete the project. There are both pros and cons to working with a partner but in the End I think it is more beneficial than not. If anything it just gives us a much needed skill to use in the future.
The most challenging task for my was probably making sure everything was falling into place and getting done. My partner was not extremely motivated so I had to be the instigator. There were many different aspects of this project and making sure that they all got done when they needed to and right was very challenging. An example would be the first day that we started the visual component. The script needed to be edited and we were both very excited to start the fun part, but we had to make sure the script was up to standard before that. In the end I did the script and my partner started drawing. Although the project had many challenging aspects, I think it was a fun one.
Model United Nations Project
This project looked at current or relatively current world issues and created a Model United Nations of the student body to discuss them. To practice for the final exhibition, our class did a conference on North Korea. then final the Israel Palestine debate. There where many parts to this project that made it all come together. First, we did research on the subject, then wrote a policy paper about the issue and what a possible solution was, then finally a resolution on the subject, all of which where from our countries perspective, in my case China.
Here is a link to my resolution and policy paper for the Israel Palestine Debate:
Policy Paper:
https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/document/d/1aHKkraZxvc6Z_fVNLI9ceeLG1YQJ3dhyyZ-mEOy6NPU/edit
Resolution:
https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/document/d/1LuUVzR90nT9wKzSCISYETRTAD6-XNQsPuKtw-57Ghe8/edit
Here is a link to my resolution and policy paper for the North Korea Nuclear Crisis
Policy Paper:
https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/document/d/1rRZ2Nm8agSCtmOyofCcOWAoedQiM80Yq2zGRSrC0Sdw/edit
Resolution:
https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/document/d/1NLvtyX0UpOrWdOqeV0cjGjWRjfzKfhAJM3NP9PLjsyg/edit
PROJECT REFLECTION:
Brynn Nelson
MUN Project Reflection
I believe that the Model United Nations project went very well. I think it was important because it not only gives us a deeper knowledge and understanding of world news and politics, but also gives us needed public speaking and writing skills. In the end I think that is exactly what this project gave me and therefor was fundamental to experience and engage in. I would most definitely do this project again due to its importance in the learning of fundamental skills to politics and the other skills that I previously mentioned. This is what I would tell a student if he asked me about the project’s importance. Although it was a fun way to implement the learning that took place, it was still very important and it still taught me a lot. This is why I think that the project was so important in learning much needed skills.
The habit of heart and mind that I was most proud of throughout this project was perseverance. The project was ten weeks long and after a couple of weeks it starts to get difficult to focus for a whole two hours every day. I had to show extreme amounts of perseverance to get through it and I did. I was proud of this because it was very difficult to do so and that makes the fact that I could that much better. Although I showed and exhibited many habits of heart and mind, I believe that perseverance is the one I best displayed and am the most proud of. Although it was difficult, I finished out the Model United Nations project strong, and had a lot of fun in doing so.
The greatest challenge in this project was writing the operative phrases in the resolutions. After your main point is across it is difficult to have more about the same subject that you have already covered. To work through it I made all of my operative phrases less specific to include more of them, while still getting across the same amount of information, although this project was far from easy and there where many struggle. I think that the writing of my resolutions was the most challenging and difficult thing to write, complete, and push through. With the help of example resolutions and editing my resolutions, I not only completed them, but also did a very good job on both of them, I think at least. With my resolutions completed I finished the project and had a lot of fun doing so, while still learning a lot.
The most interesting amendment was one made to the resolution that passed. Throughout the conference, I kept a piece of paper with what amendment each person was writing their speech about. I also marked who had the same view as me and who I should talk to in order to get an amendment to pass. In the end a lot of people with an opposite view as my country ended up making my amendment pass. The people that had an opposite view as me agreed with my amendment except for a few minor alterations that we added. This surprised me because of my view of them in the beginning of the conference. In all, it was a surprising conference in general but this particular thing was something that surprised me more than anything. A lot of these people where in the Arab League and I now know that China shares a perspective on the Israel Palestine conflict as them. That is something that was the most interesting to me.
Here is a link to my resolution and policy paper for the Israel Palestine Debate:
Policy Paper:
https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/document/d/1aHKkraZxvc6Z_fVNLI9ceeLG1YQJ3dhyyZ-mEOy6NPU/edit
Resolution:
https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/document/d/1LuUVzR90nT9wKzSCISYETRTAD6-XNQsPuKtw-57Ghe8/edit
Here is a link to my resolution and policy paper for the North Korea Nuclear Crisis
Policy Paper:
https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/document/d/1rRZ2Nm8agSCtmOyofCcOWAoedQiM80Yq2zGRSrC0Sdw/edit
Resolution:
https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/document/d/1NLvtyX0UpOrWdOqeV0cjGjWRjfzKfhAJM3NP9PLjsyg/edit
PROJECT REFLECTION:
Brynn Nelson
MUN Project Reflection
I believe that the Model United Nations project went very well. I think it was important because it not only gives us a deeper knowledge and understanding of world news and politics, but also gives us needed public speaking and writing skills. In the end I think that is exactly what this project gave me and therefor was fundamental to experience and engage in. I would most definitely do this project again due to its importance in the learning of fundamental skills to politics and the other skills that I previously mentioned. This is what I would tell a student if he asked me about the project’s importance. Although it was a fun way to implement the learning that took place, it was still very important and it still taught me a lot. This is why I think that the project was so important in learning much needed skills.
The habit of heart and mind that I was most proud of throughout this project was perseverance. The project was ten weeks long and after a couple of weeks it starts to get difficult to focus for a whole two hours every day. I had to show extreme amounts of perseverance to get through it and I did. I was proud of this because it was very difficult to do so and that makes the fact that I could that much better. Although I showed and exhibited many habits of heart and mind, I believe that perseverance is the one I best displayed and am the most proud of. Although it was difficult, I finished out the Model United Nations project strong, and had a lot of fun in doing so.
The greatest challenge in this project was writing the operative phrases in the resolutions. After your main point is across it is difficult to have more about the same subject that you have already covered. To work through it I made all of my operative phrases less specific to include more of them, while still getting across the same amount of information, although this project was far from easy and there where many struggle. I think that the writing of my resolutions was the most challenging and difficult thing to write, complete, and push through. With the help of example resolutions and editing my resolutions, I not only completed them, but also did a very good job on both of them, I think at least. With my resolutions completed I finished the project and had a lot of fun doing so, while still learning a lot.
The most interesting amendment was one made to the resolution that passed. Throughout the conference, I kept a piece of paper with what amendment each person was writing their speech about. I also marked who had the same view as me and who I should talk to in order to get an amendment to pass. In the end a lot of people with an opposite view as my country ended up making my amendment pass. The people that had an opposite view as me agreed with my amendment except for a few minor alterations that we added. This surprised me because of my view of them in the beginning of the conference. In all, it was a surprising conference in general but this particular thing was something that surprised me more than anything. A lot of these people where in the Arab League and I now know that China shares a perspective on the Israel Palestine conflict as them. That is something that was the most interesting to me.
Brave New World Project
To start this project, we read a book titled "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. During reading this we had to analyze it, specifically looking at how it showed us how we find happiness. The book was about a distopia where they valued happiness above everything else, but it wasn't really true happiness. After this, we had to write an essay and make an art piece about how to find happiness based on our new found knowledge.
Here is my essay:
The Journey: Not the Destination
Although the United States of America is not the happiest country, we are ranked seventeenth out of all other countries, which means that, obviously, we are a relatively happy place. I thought this number would be much higher seeing as how much depression we have and economic crises. I think that this number was so high for one of two reasons. First; there are lots of people in America that are very happy. They are charitable and have enough to get by. Previously I thought that money played a part in how happy we are but as stated in the movie happy “Once you have basic needs met, money plays no part in the level of happiness you attain.” I believe that this large number of happy people could balance the ones that one could only naturally assume are not happy. The second reason I think that the ranking was so high is because even though people have economic crises and there is depression, but they still manage to find happiness in the little things. On another note, happiness in the book Brave New World looks a lot different than happiness in our world. In our world you need to do things and have things happen to you that give you pleasure and joy. In their world, they exploit that fact and turned simple happiness it into something unnatural and fake. They started ending real happiness and replacing it with a drug that made you feel happy for a short period of time. They also got rid of all the pain in their world. You can never truly have happiness as is stated by Carl Jung “The word happiness would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” It seems like if you try to manufacture happiness, it will backfire into something completely different. Meaning and difficult pleasures as well as having good values and seeking opportunities to grow and leading a fulfilling life through social relations gives us happiness, also meaning creates a deeper and more complex level of happiness, which you should only seek out above things that are not meaningful.
The fact that every person is an individual and has a different definition for what happiness is and what makes them happy, it is difficult to define what gives us happiness. A lot of happiness is thought to be credited to things like money or jobs but I have found this to be inaccurate. In a quote from the movie Happy it states, “50% of our happiness is predetermined in our genes, only 10% of it is created from our job, money, etcetera, and the other 40% is credited to intentional behavior in our daily lives” (Montague). Happiness has been analyzed and converted into a major scientific study, and I find that this is maybe not entirely the right direction to go with such an intense topic as what makes a person have joy and contentment. I feel as though what makes us happy is simply doing what we enjoy and approaching every situation with a positive attitude as it comes to us. Happiness is not something as scientific as it has been made out to be, it much simpler than that. Abraham Lincoln stated that “Folks tend to be as happy as they make up their minds to be” (Lincoln). That being said, what makes us happy can be broken down into four major categories, appreciation: being thankful for what you have, interdependence: realizing that you are not alone and there are people there for you, selflessness: treating others exactly as perfectly as everyone should be treated and accountability: understanding that everyone is liable for certain things. What makes us happy is not as scientific as it has been made out to be; it is a definition of being a person with good values, seeking out opportunities to grow.
How can we define what happiness is, what makes a person feel happiness and have that emotion in their life? It is virtually unattainable to denominate what makes a large amount of people happy. We can pinpoint less specifically, a key difference between people that are generally happy, and people that aren’t. Martin Seligman, a scientist looking at this very subject, states in a TED talk he gives titles “the New Era of Positive Psychology” that “Although we couldn’t find any major differences in the lives of those who are rarely unhappy to those who rarely are, we did find one repeating factor. Those who reported being happy most of the time led extremely social lives as opposed to those who are not generally overly happy” (Seligman). Seeing as humans are social beings, this makes a lot of sense. Leading a fulfilling life through social relations seems to be a simple way to achieve happiness, and it also seems to be the only difference between a person leading what is defined as a happy life vs someone who isn’t. An example of some people that live by this is the residents of Okinawa. Okinawa is an island off the coast of Japan and they are often said to be one of the happiest group of people. They live their life by the word “icharibachode” meaning that once you meet someone, you already accept them as your family and confide trust in them. This close relationship with other people, strangers even, could play a large role in why they are so happy This claim is backed up by Martha Washington who stated “I have determined that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstances but by our disposition” (Washington). Our social relations seem to be something relatively easy to control, if it is a major factor in what makes a person happy more people should try changing their social status and in result change their happiness.
Although you can have the two without each other, Meaning creates a deeper level of happiness and makes the state of happiness seem less simple. Meaning and happiness are two very different things; they play into each other directly and often get grouped together and confused as the same relative thing. To address how meaning plays a role in finding happiness, as was stated in the movie happy, we must first look at if what we think makes us happy has meaning, also, if we can be truly happy without having meaning in our day to day lives. It is stated in the movie I am that “We fashion our world as needing to be significant at someone else’s expense” (Daniel Quinn). Meaning in life means that you do things and have things happen that help others and create a deeper level of positive feelings, whereas happiness simply means having something done to you that pleases you in a way that is appealing. In the Spanish language the word for “enjoyable” and “to please” come from the same root, I believe that this is because it is understood that they mean the same thing. In addition, it is more difficult to seek out meaning by yourself then it is to seek out happiness. A man named Albert Campus once stated that “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” There is no way to determine how what you do or what happens to you gives meaning or happiness, but I can say that having meaning in your life is a good way to create a deeper level of happiness.
Meaning is more important than happiness, especially because finding meaning often creates happiness, and that being said, to a certain point we should seek happiness above most things but meaning. That seems like a lot but it is really only the unimportant things, family, not included because it has meaning, love, not included because it has meaning. Looking at what has meaning reminds me of an assignment we did in class, we had to look at pleasures that where difficult to attain, and pleasures that where easy to attain. Meaning would be the difficult pleasures, something that gives you pleasure but is more challenging to complete like for example running a marathon, Happiness would be the simple pleasures, something simple or easy to attain, but still bringing you pleasure. It is important to do those simple pleasures, but not if they interfere with the more important difficult ones. As an example, William Gladstone once stated t “Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both and you won’t have to hunt for happiness” (Gladstone.) I believe that what he meant by this is that Is if you take your happiness, and find meaning in and with it, you will always have happiness, rather than just for a short period of time. Finding happiness is important, so much so that it should be put above most all else without meaning.
To create a society that values authentic happiness, we must first create a definition for what authentic happiness is. I believe that it is finding simple pleasures in-between fulfilling all of the difficult ones. A lot of societies today value happiness on a shallow level but in order to get them to see the benefit of an authentic happiness we must show them how much better of they can be if they allow a deeper meaning of happiness into their lives. Dalai Lama once said “Happiness is not something ready-made, it comes from your own action, “if they choose to accept authentic happiness, the society themselves will create an air that values authentic happiness. On another note, If I could tell a friend how to achieve happiness tomorrow, I would tell them to look at things that they can do to make others feel happy; look at things that make them feel happy and are difficult to achieve; and look at things that give them pleasure and are simple to achieved. Then they need to go about living their lives and doing this things, charitable pleasures, difficult pleasures, and in between simple pleasures, and that is how to live a happy life. The reason it is so difficult for the greater population to achieve this true happiness is because they see being happy as a destination. This is the wrong way of thinking, because happiness is not a destination, but rather a journey in which you have to forge your own path
Here is my essay:
The Journey: Not the Destination
Although the United States of America is not the happiest country, we are ranked seventeenth out of all other countries, which means that, obviously, we are a relatively happy place. I thought this number would be much higher seeing as how much depression we have and economic crises. I think that this number was so high for one of two reasons. First; there are lots of people in America that are very happy. They are charitable and have enough to get by. Previously I thought that money played a part in how happy we are but as stated in the movie happy “Once you have basic needs met, money plays no part in the level of happiness you attain.” I believe that this large number of happy people could balance the ones that one could only naturally assume are not happy. The second reason I think that the ranking was so high is because even though people have economic crises and there is depression, but they still manage to find happiness in the little things. On another note, happiness in the book Brave New World looks a lot different than happiness in our world. In our world you need to do things and have things happen to you that give you pleasure and joy. In their world, they exploit that fact and turned simple happiness it into something unnatural and fake. They started ending real happiness and replacing it with a drug that made you feel happy for a short period of time. They also got rid of all the pain in their world. You can never truly have happiness as is stated by Carl Jung “The word happiness would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” It seems like if you try to manufacture happiness, it will backfire into something completely different. Meaning and difficult pleasures as well as having good values and seeking opportunities to grow and leading a fulfilling life through social relations gives us happiness, also meaning creates a deeper and more complex level of happiness, which you should only seek out above things that are not meaningful.
The fact that every person is an individual and has a different definition for what happiness is and what makes them happy, it is difficult to define what gives us happiness. A lot of happiness is thought to be credited to things like money or jobs but I have found this to be inaccurate. In a quote from the movie Happy it states, “50% of our happiness is predetermined in our genes, only 10% of it is created from our job, money, etcetera, and the other 40% is credited to intentional behavior in our daily lives” (Montague). Happiness has been analyzed and converted into a major scientific study, and I find that this is maybe not entirely the right direction to go with such an intense topic as what makes a person have joy and contentment. I feel as though what makes us happy is simply doing what we enjoy and approaching every situation with a positive attitude as it comes to us. Happiness is not something as scientific as it has been made out to be, it much simpler than that. Abraham Lincoln stated that “Folks tend to be as happy as they make up their minds to be” (Lincoln). That being said, what makes us happy can be broken down into four major categories, appreciation: being thankful for what you have, interdependence: realizing that you are not alone and there are people there for you, selflessness: treating others exactly as perfectly as everyone should be treated and accountability: understanding that everyone is liable for certain things. What makes us happy is not as scientific as it has been made out to be; it is a definition of being a person with good values, seeking out opportunities to grow.
How can we define what happiness is, what makes a person feel happiness and have that emotion in their life? It is virtually unattainable to denominate what makes a large amount of people happy. We can pinpoint less specifically, a key difference between people that are generally happy, and people that aren’t. Martin Seligman, a scientist looking at this very subject, states in a TED talk he gives titles “the New Era of Positive Psychology” that “Although we couldn’t find any major differences in the lives of those who are rarely unhappy to those who rarely are, we did find one repeating factor. Those who reported being happy most of the time led extremely social lives as opposed to those who are not generally overly happy” (Seligman). Seeing as humans are social beings, this makes a lot of sense. Leading a fulfilling life through social relations seems to be a simple way to achieve happiness, and it also seems to be the only difference between a person leading what is defined as a happy life vs someone who isn’t. An example of some people that live by this is the residents of Okinawa. Okinawa is an island off the coast of Japan and they are often said to be one of the happiest group of people. They live their life by the word “icharibachode” meaning that once you meet someone, you already accept them as your family and confide trust in them. This close relationship with other people, strangers even, could play a large role in why they are so happy This claim is backed up by Martha Washington who stated “I have determined that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstances but by our disposition” (Washington). Our social relations seem to be something relatively easy to control, if it is a major factor in what makes a person happy more people should try changing their social status and in result change their happiness.
Although you can have the two without each other, Meaning creates a deeper level of happiness and makes the state of happiness seem less simple. Meaning and happiness are two very different things; they play into each other directly and often get grouped together and confused as the same relative thing. To address how meaning plays a role in finding happiness, as was stated in the movie happy, we must first look at if what we think makes us happy has meaning, also, if we can be truly happy without having meaning in our day to day lives. It is stated in the movie I am that “We fashion our world as needing to be significant at someone else’s expense” (Daniel Quinn). Meaning in life means that you do things and have things happen that help others and create a deeper level of positive feelings, whereas happiness simply means having something done to you that pleases you in a way that is appealing. In the Spanish language the word for “enjoyable” and “to please” come from the same root, I believe that this is because it is understood that they mean the same thing. In addition, it is more difficult to seek out meaning by yourself then it is to seek out happiness. A man named Albert Campus once stated that “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” There is no way to determine how what you do or what happens to you gives meaning or happiness, but I can say that having meaning in your life is a good way to create a deeper level of happiness.
Meaning is more important than happiness, especially because finding meaning often creates happiness, and that being said, to a certain point we should seek happiness above most things but meaning. That seems like a lot but it is really only the unimportant things, family, not included because it has meaning, love, not included because it has meaning. Looking at what has meaning reminds me of an assignment we did in class, we had to look at pleasures that where difficult to attain, and pleasures that where easy to attain. Meaning would be the difficult pleasures, something that gives you pleasure but is more challenging to complete like for example running a marathon, Happiness would be the simple pleasures, something simple or easy to attain, but still bringing you pleasure. It is important to do those simple pleasures, but not if they interfere with the more important difficult ones. As an example, William Gladstone once stated t “Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both and you won’t have to hunt for happiness” (Gladstone.) I believe that what he meant by this is that Is if you take your happiness, and find meaning in and with it, you will always have happiness, rather than just for a short period of time. Finding happiness is important, so much so that it should be put above most all else without meaning.
To create a society that values authentic happiness, we must first create a definition for what authentic happiness is. I believe that it is finding simple pleasures in-between fulfilling all of the difficult ones. A lot of societies today value happiness on a shallow level but in order to get them to see the benefit of an authentic happiness we must show them how much better of they can be if they allow a deeper meaning of happiness into their lives. Dalai Lama once said “Happiness is not something ready-made, it comes from your own action, “if they choose to accept authentic happiness, the society themselves will create an air that values authentic happiness. On another note, If I could tell a friend how to achieve happiness tomorrow, I would tell them to look at things that they can do to make others feel happy; look at things that make them feel happy and are difficult to achieve; and look at things that give them pleasure and are simple to achieved. Then they need to go about living their lives and doing this things, charitable pleasures, difficult pleasures, and in between simple pleasures, and that is how to live a happy life. The reason it is so difficult for the greater population to achieve this true happiness is because they see being happy as a destination. This is the wrong way of thinking, because happiness is not a destination, but rather a journey in which you have to forge your own path