Final Post

This week marks the end of my 30-day challenge. Overall, I'm very satisfied with the way things went. I did a good job at sticking with challenge, even after having to make some adjustments. Now that I have begun my research paper, I am anxious to see what information I will uncover. I have found some really interesting pieces of information both from my research as well as my experience alone. Hopefully I can continue this habit in the future because it did provide a helpful resource to me when I was feeling "emotionally unstable."

Waste Land

When I first started watching Waste Land, my initial thoughts were confusing. I was questioning who this movie was going to form into what it did. I simply asked myself, “What are they doing there?” and “How are they going to find hope in these people?” Unfortunately, I am not exposed to these types of living conditions so it was hard for me to see the “light,” I guess you could say.

However, throughout the movie my thoughts gradually changed. I was witnessing this man, Vik Muniz, who had grown up in these conditions and turned his life into something wonderful and worth living for. Then, my questions got turned around into, “Wow, what is going to do?” I was instantly intrigued with Muniz’s project. I start to get to know and understand just a few of the individuals evolved in this lifestyle. I got to see how Munix turned these peoples’ lives around and created a piece of art for each of them…their life began to have meaning to them. I drew a greater appreciation for the things I have, as well as the people “behind the scenes.”

            This movie showed a great message of being universal. I believe that every type of audience can gain something from this experience. Although there may be may different opinions, the message will remain the same to everyone. It gives people a change to understand that they too can make a change and difference in their own life, as well as others.

Day 22

Since we talked in class last week, I have started doing much better on my challenge. I have accepted the fact that I’m probably not going to keep up with watching the news daily, therefore I chosen to stick with the alternative of simply writing each day.  Because I am basing much of my research off the idea that writing stimulates the brain and helps develop stronger psychological health, I am trying to keep this in mind when doing my own writing. Lately I have been focusing on the more important aspects of each day by focusing on my personal experiences and opinions towards each of these situations. In doing so, I hope to gain strong psychological health for myself.

Overcoming the Challenge I Face

Today in class we were asked to write about our progress for our Project: Experiment. So far, I would have to say that my progress has just been alright. Unfortunately, going into this experiment, I didn’t consider my schedule or my daily routine. It is not an easy task to just turn the TV on right when the news is playing and write about it…it’s a lot harder than I had anticipated. This has definitely been my biggest challenge thus far. Therefore, I have had to make some changes to hopefully boost my future performance of my desired goal. Let’s face it, turning on the TV to watch the news on a Friday night doesn’t sound too appealing. So, I have decided to create an alternative for weekends and those days where I get caught up in my day. I have chosen to at least write for 20 minutes each day. In the end, my main achievement is to determine the benefits of writing; the news is just an added bonus. In life you are going to have numerous challenges that you will be faced with, but the biggest challenge of all is overcoming them. I believe this is the step I need to take in order to get to my goal.

Scholarly Journal Source

Vrielynck, Nathalie, Philippot, Pierre, Rimé, Bernard. "Level of processing modulates benefits of writing about stressful events: Comparing generic and specific recall." EBSCOhost Volume 24.7 (2010): 1117-1132. Web.

This article deals with the benefits of writing in respect as using this task as a stress-reliever. For my challenge, I am going to tie in how writing helps stimulate the brain and this article uses an actual study that was done to improve physical and psychological health.

(De)Construction

The object I chose to break apart was a cd. I wouldn’t necessarily say that there is much meaning of this object to me personally, other than I used to listen to it and now I don’t. Along with that, the person who made the cd for me isn’t in my life anymore, so I consider this to be some meaning as well. For a larger audience, however, this cd is “old school” and, therefore I’m getting rid of this form of music.

Any time I do some sort of project like this, I have a difficult time thinking out of the box and being creative. When I finally sat down and thought about what I wanted to re-create my object into for a second meaning, I thought about making new memories with this old cd. Unfortunately I don’t have easy access to the materials I would need, but I want to use the broken pieces of my cd and use them as an embellishment to a picture frame. I am all about making new, but keeping the old, so I think this project would really show the person I am.

My Challenge: Day 1

When thinking of an idea for my 30 day challenge, I knew I wanted to choose something that would be worthwhile in the long run.  Of course, I had the thoughts of exercising or giving up something I can’t seem to live without, but those just weren’t doing it for me. When the aspect of writing was mentioned in class one day, I decided that I could take it one step further. So, for my February challenge, I have chosen to watch the news everyday for 20 minutes and write about it. Whether it be about a news story or simply my opinion towards an issue or two, the benefits I will gain from doing this experiment will be ones that I know will become habit for me. I have never been one to keep up to date with what’s going on in our world today, so I think conducting this experiment will help me develop more personal opinions, as well as find a bigger interest in not only the local issues, but the global ones as well. You never know, this may be the thing I need to encourage myself to take a stand on something and possibly take action where I can make a difference.

And so it begins…

Lately, most of the talk of the news has been about the welcoming of tens of thousands of visitors to Indianapolis for Superbowl XLVI. It is nothing new that the hosting of this phenomenal event has brought city and state leaders to want to be put in the superbowl host rotation. As Tony Dungy states, “The city has put their best foot forward.” I certainly think that the city of Indianapolis can be bold enough to aim for another.

Without getting caught up in the coverage of the superbowl, I wanted to focus my attention more on a story that I could put my opinion towards. Almost instantaneously, I had my opportunity. A large group of 3,000 union protestors stole the show in Circle City. Taking people by surprise, these members marched from the south lawn of the state house to Lucas Oil Stadium, protesting for the right to work. They are going to extremes of “stopping” the superbowl from happening by using trucks to invade…

            I definitely believe that people should be given the right to their own words and ideas. However, I do think some actions of these people should be limited. Protesting is an obvious way to express you own opinion of an issue, but what these citizens need to understand is that there is a respectable way to go about doing so. When you start thinking that you can “stop” events from happening or plan to use harmful equipment to make your point, I just think that is absurd. As the saying goes, “life isn’t fair,” so you just need to come to terms with the situation and realize that you aren’t the only one struggling and things will look up for you again.