Magic Mirror on the Wall.

I read an article this week for English called, "If you Don't Spend Enough Time Getting to Know Yourself, You'll End Up Absorbing Everyone Else's Definition of You." Absorbing? Isn't absorbing a good thing? The 'quicker picker upper', Bounty, sure thinks so. What would a maxi-pad be, if not absorbent? And aren't we college students supposed to be absorbing knowledge like diligent little sponges? So why did this article make me so uncomfortable? I know who I am and what I like, don't I? Don't I? Did I really want to sit through that horror movie that I hated, or was I just to afraid to tell that guy who asked me out that I don't like horror movies? Or did I even want to attend college? Or was that just the plan my mom had for me? I'm suddenly feeling a bit like a diaper - not just absorbent, but full of crap. The author of this self-help article suggests that to find ourselves, we have to stop fooling ourselves. That's the scary part: when we aborb the personality traits of others in our lives, we aren't just fooling them, we're fooling ourselves. Worse, the entire genre, 'self-help,' clearly demands that we have to fix this ourselves. No one else can tell us who we really are. Not to downplay a quality education, but the beauty of college is that we have an opportunity to get to know ourselves. Some of us may even have to ask the hard question of whether we even want to go to college, or whether our parents talked us into it. Scary, isn't it? The article also suggested "taking a look in the mirror." The thing about mirrors is that if you want to see yourself, you have to stand right in front of it. If you stand off to the side, you won't see your own reflection, you will only see the reflections of the people around you. Even Taylor Swift (and trust me - I'm NO Swifty) relates to how scary that can be: "I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror." Am I ready to stare directly in the mirror? Are you? I may have to work myself up to that. Maybe the relection of my laptop screen is a good enough for now.

Image Source: Saved from my Pinterest Account.

Comments

Maybe just one more chapter...

Happy 6th week of college, everyone! I can hardly believe how fast time flies. This evening, I read the Medium article, "What Are Mini Books and Why You Should Publish Them?” . I thought it made some valid points. I believe reading is essential. When one is a well read individual, it improves his or her abiltiy to relate to his or her peers. As it often pulls from literature, being well read also allows one to better appreciate various forms of entertainment. Reading a book that others also read or have read is means of social connection. Unfortunately, in today’s world, our time is limited. So many demands are placed upon our time, we often don't have the leisure time required to become fully engrossed in a lengthy novel. Despite this, there is a solution: mini books. (I, a lover of all things miniature, am intrigued by this concept.) "Mini books are designed to be consumed in one or two sittings, which is exactly what today’s busy readers love” (Thompson). Do ...

Technology, the Murderer of Small Talk? Guilty as Charged.

Howdy fellow Pioneers. Have your assignments been raging war with your sleep cycle? I've been staying up later than usual myself, trying to keep up with my classes. It's not all bad, though. I love me some sleep, but some of my assigned reading has been pretty interesting. Take this article for instance, "Technology, the Cause of Possible Mutilation and the Murder of Small Talk. I say, somewhat hypocritically, (I am using the internet right now, after all) that technology has done nothing for most people's social skills. I can safely say that Ijeoma Anaka agrees with me, as her article was all about the pitfalls of modern technology. She goes so far as to claim that iPhones, laptops and other technological devices are destroying our ability to communicate IRL (see what I did there? ;)) Is my beloved iPhone really ruining my health, or worse - my social life? That what this article asserts. More convincing might be my friend, Gabby, who is having...

Stormtroopers...The Mask Comes Off.

Happy Friday Freshmen Troopers! We've made it to the end of another week (whew!). I get a little bit slap happy by day 5, and start to have trouble focusing on my studies. Thanks to the internet, comic relief is never far away, and after my Principles of Management textbook, everything seems a bit more funny by comparison. "Troops (1997) Star Wars" Do you remember Space Balls? Well this Star Wars parody, I found isn't quite as funny as that, but it's still good for a laugh. I grew up with 2 older brothers who took the Star Wars movies very seriously. Being older than me, they usually controlled the remote. I must have seen the entire Star Wars franchise a dozen times at least. I never understood the grip it had on them, which might be why I enjoy seeing it poked fun of. There's just something comical about seeing those terrifying, armor-wearing Stormtroopers portrayed as bumbling, intergalactic policemen. Gone is their aloof, mysterious n...

Darcy's Blog

Search This Blog