Metacognition: My Dirty Closet

                Every day at 6:50 I am searching for my clothes in a rush. My closet it is filled with random clothes from summer tank tops to winter jackets, and numerous dirty clothes I shove to hide from my parents.  My closet looks like a hurricane had hit it. Every day it takes me a minimum of 20 minutes to find decent clothes to wear to school.  For this entry, I wanted to organize my closet in order to make the mornings go a little quicker and smoother.  I wanted to organize my socks, pants, shirt, boxers, jeans, jacket, etc., and organize it by a certain category to make it efficient.  I wanted to organize the clothes by season and pants, shirts, and socks by sub categories.

Whenever I look at my closet I tell myself I would clean it later. There was so much junk in the small amount of space I did not know where to start.  Seeing the mess everyday for months, made me accustomed to the mess and I did not feel the urge to clean it. Before I started to clean my closet I felt lazy and tried to put it off longer. I did not want to clean the piles of clothes, dirty clothes, and the thousands of mysterious items that were hidden in this closet. While folding clothes, tossing the dirty clothes in the laundry, and categorizing the items, all I thought about was trying to get the job done. I did not think about the long term goal of finishing, but the short term goal of folding the next shirt. After me organizing my closet, I felt a sense of relief and a sense of peace. I did not have to think about cleaning my closet anymore and it would make my mornings more productive. Finally cleaning my hideous closet almost gave a sense of joy, because I had finished completing a task I had prolonged for a long time.                 

Doing this project made my mind feel at rest. I did not have to think about cleaning my closet anymore. Cleaning my closet has always subconsciously been on my mind. Although I have accommodated to seeing the mess and not cleaning my room, it has always been in my head constantly irritating me like having a pebble in your shoe. Seeing my closet the first thing every day was not the best way to start off every day. Cleaning my room gave me a sense of relief and I felt like the pebble in my shoe was finally gone.

What I learned from this activity was that my mind works by structured steps. I do not think about the long term goals, but about the short term goals. I am a person who lives day by day and not think about the future. While doing this activity I did not think about the end product, but thought about how to fold the shirt better or wear to put the socks. Thinking about short term goals have pros and cons. I learned that I need to think more about the long term goals and future. By thinking this way would help me become a successful person. Also I learned that overcoming a large obstacle is not that hard and is very reliving. Not thinking about the long term goals results in me to procrastinate. Procrastination is my biggest enemy, overcoming this would help me be successful. 

Best of Week: Human connection and the epicureans

One quote that had always stuck with me was a quote by John Lennon that went, “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life.” 

This week in class, when we started to discuss about Hellenism, more specifically the epicureans, this quote magically popped into my head. Discussing about the epicureans made me wonder what it means to be truly happy and pleasurable. The epicureans believed that the greatest good is being happy and pleasurable and the greatest evil is pain. They also believed the way to attain pleasure was to live modestly and to gain knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of one's desires. Trying to ponder about what makes me pleasurable and happy, the desire to attain pleasure to live modestly and gain knowledge of the working of the world reminded me of Edward Curtis and how photography made him staggeringly happy. My mind became a giant roller coaster ride, one thought leading to another.

            While pondering about Edward Curtis happiness, I realized the importance of human connection and how everyone is somehow connected to one another. Like the shadow catcher bracelet, all these philosophers are somehow connected. Socrates helped developed the ideas of Plato’s and many others.  Although every brain is wired different, we are somehow still very similar. Through Socrates, indirectly or directly, these other philosophers were able to grow their ideas and have their own view of the world.  

             You can see the views of these philosophies from ideas such as transcendentalism to religion. David Thoreau and Emerson ideas are very similar to Hellenism. Transcendentalism expresses the importance the nature of reality and expressing the importance of beauty. Even religion like Buddhism is very similar to the ideas of the epicureans. Buddhist believes life is suffering and that the greatest evil in the world is suffering. In order to endure the pain, desire must be curbed and serenity will help endure. Although Epicurus and Buddha where thousands of miles away from each other they have very similar ideas.

            There are no two humans alike, and every person is wired differently. Although we are very different we are very similar at the same time. By learning about Hellenism and the epicureans it showed me the greater importance of the human connection. An idea from thousands of years ago has the ability to influence anything to this day. 

Best of Week: Beauty in Starlings

All my life, I thought birds were a very insignificant part of our lives, and a small part of our ecosystem. By learning about the starlings in class, I discovered that beauty is everywhere we just have to look carefully.  Beauty is everywhere, but because we are surrounded by it we don’t truly appreciate it. When the starlings are creating this magnificent art by their motion of flight they do not think they are creating beauty. They are simply following the other birds, but they are able to create this beautiful complex motion without hitting other birds.  Watching this art being formed by the starlings made me think about the beauty of our Milky Way galaxy.  We are encased in this enormous, beautiful galaxy and we are never able to see like the starlings.

The art that the starlings create shows you how anything can create beauty, even birds. We are just sounded   by it like the starlings that we do not notice it. I have always believed only humans can create art and beauty. From the starlings, it demonstrates anything can create art, and there are all forms of art. I have taken a new perspective of the definition of beauty and art.

From the examples with the starlings, I learned to be more aware of my surroundings in order to really appreciate every beautiful thing in life. When you are creating something, you do not know you are creating something unique and beautiful. It is important to be aware of the environment, and really understand beauty can come from anything, even birds.