Be Your Own Hero

Dear Future Honors Student,

If you are anything like me, you are going to be excited to start your first semester at college. At the start of this semester, I was excited to meet new friends and be challenged in my thinking. This class definitely did that. You may have heard of the “Hero’s Journey,” but not fully understand it yet. That’s okay! I have not truly understood what it means to be on the Hero’s Journey till now… at the end of the semester.

“Thinking does not have a destination, a stopping point, a “Well, we’re finally here” … What is needed for the life of thinking is hope: hope of knowing more, understanding more, being more than we currently are.” ~ Alan Jacobs

                Keep this quote in mind as you journey through what feels like the endless number of books you will be reading and questioning throughout the semester.

As my freshman semester comes to an end, it is the perfect time to look back on my Hero’s Journey and how far I have come.  Early this November, our class was tasked with reading Hidden Figures and I believe this was the best way to capstone our class.  We began this semester with reading Alan Jacobs’ book How to Think and it really opened my eyes to some of the ways I fail at thinking for myself and being a divergent thinker.

Hidden Figures definitely displays this concept of divergent thinkers and how it is so important in our lives. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson push through all sorts of circumstances and are constantly pushed back for their thinking. Not only were they pushed aside for being divergent thinkers, but also because they were African-American women! Not only were these women tasked with overcoming the goal of putting people into space, but they had to overcome the way people viewed them. I would argue, that would be one of the most challenging part in their journey. Getting people to recognize them and see them as smart women, who are capable of anything they put their mind to. This is why I believe that ending with this book is so important to my journey. It encourages me to continue, even in the midst of adversity and trials.

There are going to be people who disagree with me and try to oppose me, and that’s okay. There are going to be trials and hardships that make me feel like I need to give up on my journey and turn back, but this class has taught to stand firm. As we watched the movie Arrival, this changed my view on communication and how I need to be able to fully understand the question before I can even think of a response. This class has changed my view on better thinking and communication. It has made me realize that I can always grow in my thinking, and that I can always improve my communication with others.

Lastly, Hidden Figures, taught me how to stand up and be a leader, even when it feels like everyone is going against you. Rick Warren states, “Great leaders inspire. They maintain a hopeful attitude, even in that face of discouraging setbacks, constant criticism and abundant opposition. People don’t follow discouraged leaders, they follow those who persist with hope.” This is exactly what Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson did. They were told by everyone that women could not do what they were doing, but yet they pushed through and they accomplished the impossible. This encourages me to strive to be a leader who gives hope to those who feels overwhelmed in the face of opposition.

In the end, strive to learn more, reach greater heights, get out of your comfort zone and become a better learner. Your journey is not done as soon as you reach the end of this class. You will always be learning, and if you payed any attention, questioning. Question what you hear and read. Question everything and strive for greatness!

Best of Luck,

Hannah Taunton

 

 

This was my first time watching the movie Arrival and I was blown away.  When we were first started watching the movie in class it was slow and it didn’t make that much sense. It was about the journey of Louise, a linguist, who was chosen to try and communicate with these aliens. She had to figure out how to communicate and eventually learned their language, which changed her life. As the movie came to an end, I was on the edge of my seat. It all started to become clear and I started to realize so many things.  Something that stood out to me was just the importance of language. During one part of the movie Louise explains how she cannot simply ask the question “What is your purpose?” because in order to do so they would have to be able to understand their purpose, if they have a purpose, and connect everything and realizing we are asking them why they are here. This really stood out to me because I never realized how communication impacted us so much. That in order to answer a what/why question, I have to be able to interpret the question itself and figure out what exactly the person is asking.

The ending was CRAZY! I was not ready for that kind of ending! At the end, the aliens had given Louise the power to see her whole life. She saw who she was going to marry and that they were going to divorce later. ” If you could see your whole life from start to finish: Would you change things?” I have been thinking about this question since the movie ended. Would I allow myself to go through difficult times if it meant a better outcome or would I seek to live a calm, easy life with no disruptions? I’m not sure I can accurately answer this question without being able to it. Of course, I have regrets, but that is what has led me to where I am now and I would not want to change that. But at the same time, I feel like there are certain things I would not want to happen. The only thing is, would that change what I’ve been through, would the smallest change in my timeline change who I am?

I have constantly been thinking about this movie and talking about it to my friends and family. I ask them the same question, and I have gotten a variety of answers. Some say yes without a doubt, and some are like me and don’t know if they would want to change. It has made me realize also that we all have mistakes and regrets, but without those, would we be the same person? Would we see the world in a different light or be able to sympathize with others? It made me grateful for what I have gone through and be able to pull something I learned from it and see how my life has been changed through hardships.

“There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. Shining at the end of every day. There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. And tomorrow’s just a dream away”

~ Walt Disney Carousel of Progress.

 

We are constantly impacted by the technology around us. Whether this is good or bad is debatable. Some people say that technology is amazing as it makes our lives easier and we can have time to do more enjoyable activities. Yet at the same time, there are arguments that technology is taking over our lives and we are constantly connected. We are connected to our phones, laptops, TV’s, and keeping up with all the social media outlets. I feel like this is a problem that is influencing my generation and those to follow. As I’ve grown up, everyone around me is constantly wanting the newest gadget whether that be the MacBook, the iPhone X, or the new Apple watch.  We are “told” that these new gadgets will make our lives SO much better and we need to get them as soon as possible.

 

There’s a small problem now… We are TOO reliable on technology.

 

Everywhere I go, I see someone with either the new phone or apple watch! When I was growing up, I never had this extreme level of accessibility to technology. My brother and I had a PS2, but we were limited in the time we were allowed on. When my brother and I were growing up, we spent almost all of our time outside, creating new games to play, and embracing our creativity. As I’ve grown older, I’ve met people who were constantly buying the newest Apple product or gaming system. I’ve been making more and more connections that the people I see who always need this upgrade are heavily dependent on it in their lives. I recently just upgraded my phone from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 6 and that was only because someone felt bad for me for being so behind!

 

Whenever someone I know has the mindset of “Oh, I have to have this new iPhone X” they are like a kid waiting to open their present on Christmas. They are so excited and they are showing all of their friends and telling them how much better the iPhone X is, even if it has one or two new availabilities on it. So for those who are like me and are trying to understand why your friends are so reliant on technology, we’re going to look at two different Apple product ads. The first is the first iPhone advertisement to come out in 2007 and the second advertisement is trying to promote their newest iPhone series 4 watch. As they are both Apple products, they are pretty similar and they are trying to influence people to buy their newest product. Through looking at these two Apple advertisements, we will be able to understand which one is more effective and what made our peers have the mindset of needing the newest invention.

 

Here are the 2 advertisements:

First Apple iPhone

The Newest Apple Watch Series 4

 

We’ll compare these two ads by looking at their audio first. In the first iPhone ad, there was no music. There were different clips from movies of people saying the famous word, “hello.” The reason they decided to say “hello” was that the first thing the buyer sees when turning on the iPhones is the word “hello.” In the Apple Watch video, the music starts off very calm and serious and begins to build into this upbeat rhythm. While this music is going, there is a very calm male voice giving information about the product and what it has to offer. I find it very interesting how this video grabs your attention by having this upbeat rhythm, while a man calmly talks. This video ends with saying, “Apple Watch Series 4 is a device so powerful, so personal, so liberating, it can change the way you live each day.” Obviously, with a statement like this, the audience is going to be more prone to buy it. I think the reason this statement is so effective is that everyone wants a device that is personalized for them. It makes them feel special and gives them this sense of confidence. Everyone pays attention to what they here and it influences them most of the time without them evening knowing. In the first iPhone ad, it doesn’t say much and this may be saying that the iPhone speaks for itself. They do not have to do a lot of talking because they know that everyone will love the product and the popularity will cause everyone to want to buy it. On the other hand, the Apple Watch is just a remodel of the original and therefore in order to capture the audience’s attention, they have to tell about all of its new features.

 

The second criteria I want to compare is the information given by each ad. The iPhone video gives absolutely no information at all. It shows the phone is different and smaller, but it does not rely on providing information to capture the audience’s attention. The way they try to capture the audience’s attention is what I will discuss next. Unlike the iPhone ad, the Apple watch was extremely informative. The whole video was about informing the audience of why this new Apple Watch is so much better than the previous ones. The video talks about how they redesigned the watch to make it thinner with a larger screen. They also upgraded the way in which it takes your heart rate so that you can share it with your doctor. It also allows you to track your health and how far you’ve walked.

 

The last comparison I want to make is motive. Both videos want you to buy the new Apple product, but the mindset they have behind it is different. Back in 2007, this idea of a smartphone was completely new. Everyone was talking about it, and how it would make your life easier and that everyone needed to buy it as soon as it was released. As we see in the video, it plays OLD clips of people saying hello into OLD phones and that the iPhone was going to be this brand new invention. The way that this video tries to win the audience over is through showing them to get out of the past and walk into a brand new tomorrow. The Apple Watch, on the other hand, does not need to be promoted in this way. Seeing how much Apple has progressed over the past 11 years, we are not looking at a new invention, but improvements on the original ideas. The motive of this video is trying to get you to improve yourself. It makes you feel that if you get this new watch, that your life will be healthier and more convenient.

 

I think that the Apple Watch Series 4 does a much better job at trying to convince it’s audience to buy the product. This advertisement was informative and it isn’t trying to get you to buy something new, but simply improved. By looking at the first iPhone commercial, I can see why it encourages people to constantly upgrade. It is trying to convince its audience to get away with the old and embrace the new. Once this mindset is in place, it is not as difficult to get them to constantly upgrade and buy the newest gadget they come out with. I also think that the Apple Watch Series 4 ad does a better job convincing those like me, who do not care about keeping up with all of the new gadgets, more prone to buying it. As I was watching the video, I even kept thinking, “Oh this would be kind of nice to have. I could track all of these different things, and I would not have to carry around my phone.” Slowly, this video was making me feel like I needed to have this product. After seeing this advertisement, it made it easier for me to see how others fall into the trap of having to constantly buy the newest Apple product. But what makes us so attracted to technology and what it can do? I think that especially in today’s age, we are constantly looking for ways to make our lives easier. As humans, we love new things that make our jobs quicker and easier so that we can have more time to relax and enjoy our personal lives. I believe that if we become involved in this kind of thinking we are going to continue spiraling down until we hit this point where we are completely reliant on technology to do everything for us. We do not have to constantly be connected to our phones or a screen to be happy. We receive greater satisfaction from doing the job on our own and not taking shortcuts. Looking at the end product and saying, “I did that all on my own.”

 

I have heard this so many times from my teachers, grandparents, and strangers at Publix. I will be having a conversation with them and they’ll just start talking about the “good ole days” and how they never had to worry about the kind of people I do today. This always gets on my nerves because whenever I am trying to have an intelligent conversation with older people, if I don’t agree, they will always just say “Of course you wouldn’t understand, you’re a millennial.” 

I would classify both of these memes as noneffective. I think that both visuals are comical, but are not going to create any real change.  The words are the important part, as the photos are just a background that has no significant meaning.  Apart from each other, these photos have no real influence or meaning, they are just something you could find and say “Hey, that’s kind of funny.” I think together, they will make you think a little more about what the older generation seems to think of the younger.

 

 

You can’t think for yourself…

Let “Big Brother” think for you, he knows what’s best. Jacob already tells us “thinking for yourself is impossible” (Jacobs 36).

It’s hard for us to really think and figure out our problems. It is SO easy for us NOT to think! I think this is why I feel like so many kids my age are not properly equipped to move onto the “adult life.” Kids are being trained not to think or question ideas/concepts. We are supposed to blindly follow what our authorities tell us.

In almost any circumstance where we are learning, we take what the teacher says and we don’t question it! We assume that they know what they are talking about. While we should trust the instructor, I don’t think we should assume that they know everything and are always right. It’s okay to question and say, “Oh, something about that isn’t quite right.”

I had one teacher in high school, who would always think that everything she taught was absolutely right and everyone else was wrong. Being the stubborn person I am, I would often ask questions to try to get her to question her statements and she would shut them down in fear that I might actually be right. This happened quite frequently with other students as well. This would be an example of how teachers try to limit our individual thinking.

I have found that when teaching, the best way to get students to think for themselves is through questions that require critical thinking. If we ask “why does this happen” instead of “what happened,” it brings us out of the grammar stage of justs facts, into the rhetorical stage of learning where we ask the questions, “So what?” “Why does this matter?” “How does this affect me?”

This reminds me of Fahrenheit 451 and how one of the main things that continually pops into my mind is how individual thinking is NOT permitted. If a person breaks this “social norm” by asking questions, reading books, or THINKING FOR THEMSELVES, they are arrested or killed! At the same time, we do not like to think for ourselves. We like to remain in our old ways and thoughts. It is hard to think for yourself and to ask those hard questions of “Why does this matter?” We, sometimes, like to be stubborn and stay on our own paths and not see the other side of the argument because it will disagree with us and we will have to think harder about why we think the way we do.

This all leads me to my next point, individuality. As I’ve been reading these books, I’ve noticed that no one is allowed to be different, we all have to be the same. In Fahrenheit 451, they are encouraged to not be different, to go along with what “big brother” says. In our society today, while we are encouraged to be unique, we can’t be too unique. We still have to fit in with what our culture says and wants and if we go against them, we are criticized and ostracized.

As I mentioned in the beginning with let “Big Brother” think for you because he knows what’s best. What is best for one person, is not always the best for another. We are all different and require different learning styles. This is one reason I believe Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Brave New World make us cringe so much! In those books, they take away that sense of individuality and try to make us all the same and we were not created for that! We were made to thinking critically, and have new and different ideas and to share those ideas with others.

 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton