Our Stranger Meaning

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." -Jimi Hendrix
It is no surprise that I would choose a Jimi Hendrix quote to explain what I believe that he thought was meaningful. In many of his songs and the things he used to say, when you get down to it, was about peace for all. I think that for him, this is his meaning of life. Although he valued his music and guitars a lot, at the end of the day, equality, peace, and passion for life was something that he defined living life as. Personally, I agree. Our history is known for so much destruction in the name of power. But like Jimi said in the quote "the power of love" can lead to the great things in life for all of humanity and even animals and plants (just the world and ALL of its inhabitants in general). When humans learn to think with their hearts instead of their fists, there wouldn't be so much death, poverty, and just overall unnecessary struggles and devastation. In The Stranger, Meursault most likely wouldn't agree with this meaning of life. Although, honestly, I think he probably wouldn't care. He just seems to go with the flow of things with no real emotion attached to the things he gets into. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just that for Meursault, the meaning of life has no meaning for him. And so it makes me think of an earlier blog "The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living". For Meursault, it is just the way he is to not question his life and to just accept things as they come. From that, in the end, we find out that his utter acceptance of things that most people would hesitate at participating in, leaves him with the death penalty. Although meaning is completely subjective, Meursault wasn't able to experience the meaning for most people because of his "go with the flow" attitude throughout the story.

Thankful for a Classmate!

Since freshman year I have had a really good friend; my lovely, crazy and weird friend Ayicia. She always makes me laugh and makes me feel better when I am down. I have always been drawn to people that are really talented in things that I can not do myself and people that are passionate about their talents and for her it is fashion and art. She is respectable and her differences has only made us even closer as friends. Only recently did I realize that she has become a sister to me. I am grateful that I had the chance to have that kind of relationship for so long and that she hasn't given up on me even when I am being a jerk. Although we are graduating soon and going our separate ways, I know that I will miss her truly and take what I have learned from her with me everywhere I go.

Into the Wild- Alone

We talked in class about how going into the wild can be a freeing experience and a potential good one-if you are a professional survivalist that is. For me I would love to experience a life away from the city because it can be overwhelming to have a lot of expectations that I HAVE to live up to. Living in the wild seemed simple. But I know that I wouldn't be able to get rid of my old life completely. It is too ingrained into who I am to burn it. Being alone also has its appeal. To only worry about oneself and focus on Self, as Siddhartha would say, could lead me to an enlightenment like I think it did for Chris at the end of the movie. To finally find happiness and to be okay with how your life turned out is something that I believe most of us want to achieve and for Chris, going into wilderness by himself was how he accomplished it. But I don't think that I could be alone for that long. Although I consider myself an introvert, I have spent my entire life surrounded by people, some similar to me and others that are complete opposites. I have learned both directly and indirectly from plenty of people. And running away into a dangerous situation to get away from that seemed to me that Chris was trying to run away from himself. I believe that in the process of running away from the expectations of growing up in modern society and using a false identity and life only made it harder for him to discover himself. By the time that he passed away, I think his enlightenment was finally realizing that a decision that wasn't predetermined by his parents, a decision that he chose on his own. He was able to finally accomplish something that wasn't decided for him, so by the end he felt happy with himself to finally call himself by his right name.

We Still Haven't Figured This Out Yet!

This prompt took a long time for me to come up with a response to. But now, I think that what we still haven't figured out yet depends on the individuals. What we know and find out differs for every person. What I have figured out, someone else probably hasn't figured it out for themselves. Although this "answer" is very vague, it is honest. We all come from different backgrounds , families, communities, etc. It is extremely difficult to know for sure what "we" as a whole hasn't figured out yet.

How Do I Know What I Know??

This question is extremely hard to answer. When I think about it one can not be completely certain about something. But mainly what I know, is given to me by people or many sources for information such as movies, books, the news, etc. I either learn it, read it, or have experienced it. I use what I have learned to use in my own life. But when it really comes down to it, how do I really know that this is something I am sure about?? It is hard to know for sure. I think that the lack of certainty leads to the many questions that comes with living life. Like why do I do what I do? Plenty of questions arise all of the time, yet the answer is never really satisfying.  Sometimes when it comes to "knowing" what I know, it mostly comes from intuition, or a feeling that I am certain of something. But feeling it doesn't necessarily mean  that it is right. So does that mean knowing  isn't always right? So if it isn't right, then what is the  point of knowing something??

The Garden State

Reading the title "The Garden State", I instantly thought of the garden of Eden. But when it comes to the ending of the book,  Candide, the comparisons begin to build. In Candide, the characters made their ways through terrible situations and were constantly separated by those situations. Somehow, they were able to find themselves back to each other, although some seemed as though they did not learn from what they went through. But everyone is completely changed, Candide questions Pangloss and his philosophy, Pangloss does not really seem to truly believe his own philosophy, Cunegond is "ugly", and the other characters are different as well. When it comes to "The Garden State", for the characters of Candide, they saw the value in simplicity and hard work. They have to work hard to maintain this "garden" of theirs. After all that the characters has experienced, I believe their stuggles were neccessary for them to truly realize and appreciate what it really means for something to be the best of all possible worlds. Whereas for the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were completely ignorant of any outside influences while living in "The Garden State", and they did not have to work hard while living there. Yet I believe that they were happy. "The Garden State" overall, is the place (state of mind, a period/time in our lives, or a literal place) in which we experience happiness and contentment. Whether someone has started life in tht specific place or found it after living through terrible things although misery and sorrow still exists outside of someones personal garden state. But I do wonder if sorrow, pain, suffering, and all that is "bad" existed outside of the garden of Eden, and the only way for Adam and Eve to see this was by eating from the tree of knowledge. If not, then how was the snake able to exist, enter the garden, and deceive Eve?

Candide's punishments, do they fit the crime?

Throughout the story and what I have read so far, Candide's punishments definitely do not fit the crime. The reason is simply that in order to suffer punishment, there has to be a crime that is equal to that given punishment. Although Candide is guilty of being naive, the punishments he has faced do not match to it. At the beginning, Candide was trying to get closer to Cunegund. In result, he was exiled from his home and from everything he knew. This then led to other unjustified punishments that only seem to get worse. The banishment led to Candide being found by Bulgarians that beat him and put him in the cruel situation of having no choice but to see the remains of a war. Even though I do not think that the punishment Candide received in result of the "crimes" he committed were fair, I do believe that that is Voltaire's point. Upon reading this book, I know that Candide is a satire. By Voltaire having Candide to endure and receiving too harsh punishments for actions that do not seem to be crimes at all is a part of the satire. What is Voltaire making fun of exactly? I think he is making fun of those in power that do not analyze the wrong doings of their subjects properly, yet they still react and follow through with actions that change or even destroy the lives of people that are directly affected by those actions. By being "right" in all things, (for most rulers) their decisions go unquestioned. But although that with Candide it is obvious, for a much more difficult situation to judge, what really is a fit punishment?

The Modern Gadlfy

First, I would like to begin by asking, "What exactly is a gadfly??" So by simply googling this word, I found that a gadfly is “a person who upsets the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions”. In today’s society, it’s hard to identify any one person as the modern gadfly, but personally, I believe that the modern gadfly is teenagers. Teenagers who always seem to rebel one way or another, whom finds unique ways to stand out in our daily lives, teenagers whose personal choices overall goes against society norms of the previous generation. The perfect example for teenagers being modern gadflies is because-although this isn't necessarily a good thing- teenagers don't just give away their respect to those older than them simply because they are old. Instead of complying to that traditional form of manners, teenagers ask "Why should I respect someone just because of their age?" and the way that question is answered by the more "mature" population is that because they are wiser than teens and "children" need to learn to respect that level of knowledge, age, and experience. But me being a teenager (and a modern gadfly), I don't agree with this answer. I believe that some teenagers know more than our elders, most teenagers experience a lot of things just like the adults, and that age doesn't make you smarter than me. I know plenty of adults or older people that are more naïve than I am. There are adults that I just can't engage in an intellectual conversation with no matter the topic. There are also adults that just are people that don’t deserve my respect. Like the old saying goes "Treat others how you wish to be treated." So if I'm treated poorly by whomever, regardless of your age I will not tolerate it. My respect has to be earned and I really don't give it lightly since there are so few people that have shown me that they can be trusted with it. So although I sort of veered off of the topic of the modern gadfly, I believe that being a teenager in a more open minded society than before, that it’s easier to question things and the people we are surrounded by. It's easier to disagree with societal norms such as the "respect your elders" deal.

The Unexamined Life is not worth living??

I'm not sure whether or not if I completely agree or disagree. I think that living your life entirely is worth it regardless if you actually question and speculate at the many aspects of the many forms of life. But I also think that what also makes life so spectacular and invigorating is that we spend our whole lives wondering about why and how we are here. "Here" may not just be the world, or school or even a particular career (though that is also an important part of most people’s livelihood). I believe that "here" is something deeper and harder to really understand and/or explain. "Here" could be the path that we have chosen to walk or was forced into living through. Whether life has been relatively easy sailing or constant storms no matter where you may turn. What makes it easier to handle living life and continuing on that hard journey is thinking in more complex way and wondering more about oneself and our purpose of being alive. Although I think living life without questioning anything and just living and experiencing whatever may come is a type of life that many people may have, crave, or agree with, but having doubts and questioning the norms of society and also challenging it is what makes us have something to live for. So I guess I now agree that "The Unexamined Life is not worth living" and I think/feel it's mainly because through doubting, questioning, challenging, and -hopefully- changing what we mainly go along with in our daily lives, it defines our history and humans and it also defines our individuality. So through examining our lives I believe we then develop the opportunity to discover our meaning, our truths, our uniqueness, and our worth as living being.

Me

I'm a senior in high school. I am seventeen years old but i will be eighteen in October. I've been wanting to attend this school since the fifth grade, but I didn't know about the academic program until my freshman year. So thats that. I like anything Chinese. I started liking the culture since I was about six because both my mom and dad liked the culture. So by the time I got to high school I began to learn Chinese. This summer, I was selected for a scholarship to study abroad in China for six weeks. I lived with a host family and got to improve my speaking, comprehension and writing the language. I was also able to know more about modern China as well as the history and culture. Besides Chinese, writing poems, short stories, reading, dancing, listening to classical rock, and laughing are my favorite things to do. Halloween is my favorite holiday and autumn is my favorite season. My ideal weekend is staying in the house while its raining, reading non-stop, and drinking tea. I don't know how to ride a bike (i know, shocking), and I am too afraid to drive a car so  I will forever be a pedestrian. I have seven siblings (an older brother, three older sisters, a little sister and two little brothers) and I am basically the middle child. I have two nieces and three nephews. My plans for college is to double major in Comparative Literature and Chinese and to minor in Creative writing. I eventually want to become a college professor. Meanwhile, i want to study abroad in China as much as possible.  So yeah...