4/22/16

It was what I am

I believe that there is a lot of merit in looking back.  Looking back at what you've done and looking back at what your dreams have become.  Too often we continue on changing without ever considering what we use to be; we pride ourselves on progress but rarely reflect on how much that progress is. In my opinion, moving forward without noticing how far you've gone is like running a race without ever looking up to see if you've crossed the finish line. People say that you think about the beginning when you've come to the end and I believe that to be true so as my time in IB comes to an end I'm finding myself thinking about the beginning.

On the first day of my first IB class I remember not knowing anything about what was to come.  I mean in theory I knew what IB was supposed to be like but for all I knew the informational meetings and classroom observations could have all been an elaborate scheme to get kids to sign up.  Thankfully I survived my first day and many more days to come and I now have a better grasp of what the IB is.  I'm not going to describe the IB program because we all have a pretty thorough understanding of what the IB is and some of us have a few choice words to describe it too.  Instead, I want to talk about how I've grown as a person during my last two years at Millbrook.

I know that a lot of teenagers say they haven't learned anything from school but they're wrong.  Even if you have never paid attention to a single word a teacher has said you've still learned something, in that case how to make it look like you're paying attention.  I've learned the importance of finding a passion and cherishing what you love.  Having something that you love and enjoy spending your time doing makes life that much more interesting and gives balance to the work you deal with everyday.  For me, this passion is golf and traveling.  There is nothing on this entire planet that makes me happier than seeing a new place and interacting with new types of people.  There is also nothing better than breaking a personal record on the golf course or hitting the perfect shot.  These moments have become like flashbulb moments in my memory where simply thinking about them makes me smile.  I've learned that having something that will always make you happy is comforting when  you need it and exciting when you do it.

I've also learned the importance of investing in others and what they love.  People generally want to help one another and struggling alone is a lot worse than if someone were to help.  Showing someone that you care about their happiness is the most beneficial thing you can do for them and will pay off in the long run.  People are always more inclined to help someone who encouraged them in the past and I think that the relationships where people help one another are the ones that last.  For me, supporting someone takes effort because of the time that it takes but is well worth showing that I care about them.

The things that I've learned in IB haven't been all facts and statistics but things that will help me in the future.  The experiences that I'm taking away from High School will stay with me for a long time and have become a part of who I am.  The things that I have learned are what define me and impact the actions that I take.  In conclusion, it was what I am.  What my experience in IB has taught me defines me and what makes me who I am.  

Scrolling through Walt Whitman's journal, I noticed a few things about the structure and the content of the journal and had a major difficulty deciphering his handwriting.  The structure of the journal is extremely informal and consists of a mostly questions and brief ideas concerning these questions.  The journal often writes several questions in a row and then moves on to give brief ideas about how to answer these questions using examples.  Whitman also writes several stanzas of a poem about questions written but most seem incomplete.  He includes drawings of characters and things that I think are either inspiration for a poem or someone he has seen using much more detail and care than the writing in the journal. This journal seems to me like a collection of ideas about questions Whitman has pertaining to everyday occurrences and how they could be turned into poems.

In this journal, Whitman expresses his concerns about the world and his opinions on how it can change through his ideas for poems and the questions that he asks.  This reveals that Whitman is a person who cares about the world around him and notices the larger themes and troubles of everyday life that escape most people.  The questions asked in the journal talk about themes that apply to the people of the time period and potentially in the future.  This shows that Whitman is a writer who believes that change can happen in the world and aims to enlighten people through his work about problems that affect the people.

One part of the journal that stuck out to me was the idea about the ship.  Whitman wrote, "Welcome the storm- welcome the trial- let the waves why how I shall see what old ship is made of" (Whitman 7).  He then goes on to say that the ship is the "ship of the world- ship of humanity- ship of the ages- ship that connects the world- ship of the hope of the world- ship of promise" (Whitman 10).  This idea about the ship stood out to me because it is the epitome of the purpose of Whitman's Leaves of Grass in that it aims to connect people and to raise questions about society.  Whitman uses a metaphor of a ship in order to draw a connection of humanity and hope between people to talk about hardship.  I think that it is extremely effective to unite the readers in order to encourage a purpose and Whitman's ideas show this.

After reading the annotations, I have a different perspective on what the meaning of the metaphor of the ship is.  At first I thought it was the hardships of the people but now I can understand how it can be representative of the government under Lincoln's Presidency.  I find it interesting how Whitman made up a dialogue between Lincoln and him and continually referenced Lincoln throughout the journal.  Creating a dialogue between two people gave Whitman a lot of writer's freedom on the persona that Lincoln could have and I think it is important on how Whitman represented Lincoln.  Lincoln being seen in an honorable yet distant manner is consistent with his Presidency but I think that Whitman had an appreciatory tone towards Lincoln.  Whitman also used this dialogue to bring up problems within the government and to comment on the fracture of America during the civil war.