Get Organized: A tribute to Aristotle

For this assignment I decided to clean up my room. Usually my room is a complete disaster. There are clothes , books, scraps of paper, and shoes everywhere. When I normally clean my room I just bunch things into a ball and kind of put them away or just stack things up. This time, however, I actually folded my clothes and put things where they belong instead of just stacking them up. I made all my sweatshirts made it where they are supposed to be. I put all of my shoes against the wall in a neat line. I put all of my books back in my bookshelf or in my backpack. Finally, I threw away all of the garbage and scraps of paper.

Before starting to clean my room I was a little hesitant because it was so messy. I thought that it would be really hard to actually a place for everything and put it away neatly. While cleaning my room I was kind of annoyed because it took awhile. I got annoyed at how much stuff I have that needed to be put away. In the end, I was really happy. I could actually see all of the the carpet on my floor. I could walk around my room without having to worry about stepping on something or tripping over it. Although I was hesitant and annoyed before and while I was cleaning, it really paid off in the end.

The project made my mind feel "cleaner." I feel like I just got rid of all of the junk in my mind as well as in my room. Seeing a clean room made my mind feel fresh. I didn't have to think as much about where I was walking or where things were. My things were where they should be and the floor was clear of obstacles. All in all, cleaning my room was kind of like cleaning my mind.

After the project I know that it isn't really that hard to clean my room. It may look like a very daunting task, but it really isn't that bad. I also know that I can keep my room clean so that it doesn't get messy. I realized that everything has a place in my room and if  I just put everything away after I'm done with it then it will save me time in the end. Overall, cleaning my room made me realize that keeping my room clean will benefit me in more than one way.

Change of Mind: Religion

Growing up and now, I have a very religious mom. My mom grew up right across the street from a church. She went to grammar school there and went to Resurrection High School, which, at the time, was an all girls catholic high school. Because of this background my mom raised my brother and I in a catholic household. Every Sunday we wake up at 8:30 and go to 9:30 mass. My brother and I went to Religious Education every Tuesday night from 1st-8th grade. We got our first communion, reconciliation, and got confirmed in the church.

This background would probably make most people really appreciate religion. It would probably make religion a large part of their lives. This, however, was not the case for me. All of this going to church when I thought I could have been doing better things with my time, really made me not appreciate anything that had to do with religion. I figured that I could be catching up on my sleep in my bed at home instead of pretty much sleeping through church every Sunday morning.

When we started talking about religion in class, I was like oh great... it's another "Sunday morning." However, the more we got talking about it the more I thought about it. I realized how much there is to religion. I realized that there is a lot more to religion than the priest standing up at the altar telling us what we should believe and how we should think. It's a philosophical process that was created thousands of years ago.

I've decided that I shouldn't judge religion as harshly. A lot of people put in a lot of hard work to create these things. Even if I don't believe in the things they do or say, I should still give them a chance. As much as I don't enjoy going to church on Sunday mornings, I should give it a chance because I might be looking at it the wrong way. If I think more about what the priest is saying at church I can probably get a lot more out of the experience. All in all, our discussion in class about religion in Sophie's World made me re-evaluate my attitude towards religion and church on Sunday mornings.

Change of Mind: Maya Lin Documentary

When we watched the Maya Lind Documentary in class it really made me think about some things differently. Before we watched it I figured that it was really easy to design memorials. I thought that the Government just picked someone to do it and they did it. I figured it was a really simple process that didn't take that long. I was very closed-minded on the subject.

After watching the movie I realize how much work actually goes into the memorials. I really appreciate the Vietnam Veterans memorial a lot more now. It's not that I didn't appreciate it before, but now that I have a deeper understanding of it, it really hits me on a deeper level. Now that I know how much work actually went in to creating the memorial it means a lot more to me. Now that I've seen how much work it actually took to create this I think I will appreciate a lot more things now. I think that I will look at things now and think about how much work went into creating them. I will have a more open-minded view of art and memorials.

Best of Today: Socratic Irony

I thought that the most interesting thing that we talked about in class today was Socratic Irony. I think that the way that Socrates learned was amazing. The fact that he was able to act dumber than he was and then learn from that was really interesting to me.

I think that if someone today were to "pull a Socrates" and go around a place like Daley Plaza and ask people questions would be seen of as a dumb person. If this person acted not as smart as they actually were people would also get annoyed with them. Today, people are too worried about being somewhere at a certain time and climbing the corporate ladder and making money. They don't take the time to "stop and smell the flowers." They need to take a break from their busy lives and just sit for a day and think about what life would be like if we didn't have everything that we have now. They should think about what it would be like to be Socrates in Ancient Greece acting dumber than he was, asking people questions.

I think that what Socrates did is a great way to learn. If you can observe how other people act you can learn about them. I think that, however, if I acted dumber than I was when I was in school in order to help me learn better it wouldn't get me very far. I  wouldn't be able to do well on tests or quizzes or even in-class discussions because I was acting dumber that I was in order to learn more about the society that we live in.