A. Project Reflection This project is an open letter to the people of the United States, and I am sharing it through this digital portfolio in the link below.
Looking back on my political perspective, I realized that it has shifted even further to believe more deeply in what I already did. I looked at many arguments from opposing perspectives, and while some of them make sense, others are just illogical and don't align with how I want to make change for the better. It has already been pushed in this direction over the past four years, and I am always open to opposing arguments because I want to understand where all people are coming from. I continually push myself to think open-mindedly, so that I can be compassionate. I strongly believe that compassion is what will save our society.
I have learned that people can take what you say viscerally or rationally, and it all depends on your word choice. There are always ways to say things negatively or positively. Our ideology may all be different, but we have to learn how to unify to actually be able to efficiently and effectively run our country, and to interact with the rest.of the world. The "democratic experiment" is fundamentally based on this.
As I said before, unity is a central dogma to our democracy, and as we have been able to witness, these past four years have been very divisive. Where has that gotten us? I know that one party is getting everything that they want, and the other keeps trying to fight their way in. I also would like to note that the two party system we have going is not going to work forever, and it certainly doesn't allow for free thinking. Where we are at right now is that you absolutely have to align yourself with one of the parties, or people don't take you seriously and your voice isn't represented in the general elections. I believe that we can fix this if we all chose to be more compassionate and understanding, but I can't control what everybody does and that is what this country is about, having the freedom to choose.
Project Description This project consists of an abstract art piece, a poem, and an artist statement. My project is about having existential crises and grappling with the absurdity of life. Whether it's chaos, a joke, nothing at all, or pure emotion that day life is about grappling with the experiences and taking them as they are. You can make meaning out of it or don't. There is where the beauty in all of this nonsense lies, What is it all for? The world may never know, but we have to be okay with that. All of this came out of watching films and reading about different philosophies and I just stuck to whatever I was still thinking about. That's where the authenticity comes in.
New Insights I think that I have learned a lot, but then again maybe I've learned nothing. If anything this semester has made me question everything. I was never one to just shut up and do the work, and now that is something that I think about daily. I remind myself that there is a goal that I want to reach in the future that requires these prerequisites, and if it seems stupid in the moment take that experience and treat it as such. I have learned to live for the experiences, and that having goals isn't everything, but that it is part of my nature to want. Overarching the goals is the theme that my life is self-fulfilled. Nobody but myself told me what to do, and technically I have the freedom to do whatever I want (even if it's against the law, that doesn't mean I can't do it). If there is an omnipotent power, or a meaning to life, I haven't found it yet, so I choose to live with the feeling of self-purpose.
Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to Do After completing this project, I wonder about things more than ever but it's hard to communicate how significant a question like "What is this?" seems in my brain or just to communicate my thoughts in words at all. Another big question that I would like to explore is the place where the brain goes when there is a feeling of transcendence or what happens I guess. Is there such a high place that we go? Not everything can be explained by our science I suppose, but humans have a need for everything to be explained so I think that's when they turn to organized religion. Why does religion have to be organized and why was it organized in the first place? In my opinion, the best way to practice faith is by your own accord following your own set of morals. But I think the worst question of all may be pondering if any of this is even real. Is this just some weird "dream", am I part of something else's life, did I already die and this is what's happening? Who knows but we all keep going anyways and just distract ourselves from questions like that. I don't think I would lead a very fulfilling life if I only ever thought about the unanswerable questions.