A Classmate I am Thankful for

Out of all of the blogs that Mr.MaCarthy told his students to write about, this blog has to be the most strangest. Usually for thanksgiving, my previous teachers would let us have discussions or even do free writes about the things that we were thankful for. These discussions usually consisted of people talking about prized objects, activities and people who were not their peers; unless they talked about their friends. In this blog however, I have been assigned to think of a classmate that I am thankful for. Now after contemplating on this subject for a day, I chose to take the road less traveled by and choose someone who is not my friend and someone I barely know; Jonathon Marek. I personally think that Jonathon has an awesome liberal voice that every time you hear it you think, he has to have something intriguing or knowledgeable to say. It kind of makes the class more interesting because I hear a variety of voices other than Mr. MaCarthy. (No offense). So for thanksgiving this year I am thankful for food, family, shelter, all of my friends, and Jonathon for his awesome voice. 

I Celebrate Myself

After watching the movie entitled Into the Wild a biographical film about a man who wanted to escape society to live a life in nature, I concluded that nature is not for me. Some people love being in nature and discovering new things about themselves that one might not find in the everyday life of society.  I on the other hand find my true self in solitude and that can be anywhere but in the middle of the forest.  Don’t get me wrong I love the beauty of nature and the wildlife. I would even go hiking in a forest every once in a while.  It is just a lot easier for me to contemplate my true identity when I’m in a comfortable solitude that I won’t be fearful of or feel entirely alone. For instance, a good solitude place for me would be in the park during the summer. There I can sit on a bench and just think not only about myself but also the environment that I’m surrounded by. This way I can have a moment of peace and I’m not entirely alone because I’m still within the vicinity of fellow park goers. I guess I can’t be a true transcendentalist because I don’t want to give up society and I don’t want to throw away my religion. Although some say that society and religion can plague you, which may be true for some people, but for everyone, those ideas still shape the person that you become rather you accept them into your life or not. In a way I disagree with transcendentalists (people who believe that religion and politics taint the purity of the individual) such as Ralph Emerson and Henry Thoreau simply because not everyone needs to run away to the wild as they stated that people should do, to express their individuality or any other idea of transcendentalism. You can express your inner-self anywhere within the “walls” of society that you find the most comfortable. At least that is what I do because I know that my inner self is made up of the society that I was born into. That all my influences come from the teaching and experiences that has happened right here in society. That is why I celebrate myself because I am harmonious with society, as Emerson would say.