Seasons

As each week passes by, the temperature gets lower and lower and we get closer and closer to winter.  Within a few weeks, the ground will be covered by snow, and everybody will be wondering how our bodies are able to maintain homeostasis in such a cold environment.  Many people hate winter and migrate to warmer climates, while others enjoy every minute of the cold season.  Although I would not want to live in a winter wonderland for the rest of my life, I am grateful for growing up in an area that has harsh winters and am looking forward to the cold days to come.

Just like every other season, I love winter because it changes how you live.  The frigid temperatures and large amounts of snow force you to wear insulative apparel and cause long days of shoveling, however the snow brings fun activities, such as skiing, snowboarding, sledding, and skating and the cold makes you more appreciative of hot showers, hot chocolate, and overall coziness.  On top of that, the change in season brings great change within school activities.  Many drama kids move onto other plays for the winter, many kids that play sports move onto their next sport, etc.  I can't wait to move from running up and down a field to running in circles around a track and from hiking up mountains to skiing down them.  How do you feel about winter?

Stoic Optimism

This week, we wrapped up the psychonalalytic criticism unit by submitting our final essays on Winesburg, Ohio and began the unit on feminist criticism.  To sum up what I learned about life from the psychoanalytic criticism unit, I would say that life can be pretty awful.  With the exception of two stories in Winesburg, Ohio, every single chapter in the book was a sad story about society.  The transformation from psychoanalytic criticism to feminist criticism brought a slightly happier mood, but history is drenched with mysogyny, so feminist criticism is not quite the happiest unit.  Amidst these depressing units, I stumbled upon a philosophy that I found intriguing, and counters the sadness from these two units.

I do not know much about this philosophy, as I just briefly stumbled upon it while watching youtube, but the few ideas that I found about stoicism were fascinating.  Since I do not know much about this philosophy, I will not go into detail about it because I would not be able to give a just explanation as to exactly what it is, but one of the concepts that grabbed me goes along the lines of accepting that bad things will happen in life, so when they do, you will not be upset because you have already accepted that bad things will happen, and that you should think off all of the bad things that happen as learning experience and be grateful for them because they give you the opportunity to become a better person.  I am intrigued by this idea because it ties into both the feminist unit and psychoanalysis unit.  Accepting bad experiences and using them to make yourself a better person because of those experiences fits perfectly within the definition of sublimation, the most mature defense mechanism.  The feminist unit outlines the concept of privilege, which is when society gives you advantages that you did not earn.  For example, I am a white, middle-class, christian male living in the Northeast, so my demographics allow me to have many privileges.  I can't speak for people that have less privilege than I do, but in theory you could apply this stoic idea of becoming a better individual from unwanted experiences to lack of privilege.  An example of this could be Ben Carson, who grew up in a bad part of Detroit with a poor family, but later in life became the world's top neurosurgeon, and the first person to successfully to complete a hemispherectomy and to separate a pair of conjoined twins.

Beginning of the End

Within a matter of months, we will get accepted into college, graduate high school and then leave the town that many of us have lived in for the entirety our lives.  This time period will prove to be a pivotal part of our lives, as the transition from high school to college marks the end of our childhood and the beginning of our lives as adults.  In the time between now and when we leave college, there will be many moments where we will do an activity for the last, with the knowledge that we may never be able to return to that atmosphere again.  We are not even one-third of the way through our senior year, but a trend of ending has already started to occur.   

The activities that I have been most involved in throughout my years at RMHS have been sports.  I have been on the soccer team since I was a freshman, so four the past four seasons I have devoted an extraordinary amount of time playing soccer and hanging out with my team.  Within the past few years, I have generated an enormous collection of wonderful memories associated with the soccer team, and it has shaped me into who I am today.  With the start of the postseason, my soccer career at RMHS could come to an end at any moment.  For many seniors on the team, the last game of the season could be the last time they play an organized game of soccer.  Other seniors will continue to play soccer throughout the rest of the year and into college, but they will never be able to represent RMHS on the pitch, which leaves an unsettling feeling.  Whether you are a part of a team, band, drama, a club, or have enjoyed anything unique about your time at RMHS, you will need to give something up before you graduate.