Happiness, Meaning, and Personal Ethics
Project Reflection
For this project we dedicated an entire unit to looking into happiness and meaning in life. For the project we were tasked with creating our own personal philosophy on happiness and meaning in life. My personal philosophy on how happiness and meaning in life is created is that “Happiness is not created from the possessions you own, or the achievements you earn, but comes from the tight knit relationships and the experiences you have.” This philosophy that I had on happiness and meaning comes from the tragedy my family and I have endured throughout the last six years. I chose to represent this through a slideshow of pictures that show how we still have had lots of cool experiences together that drew us closer even through all the hardship. This is how my happiness and meaning has been created and where I believe it truly lies within humanity.
This entire project made me realize that there isn’t a specific reason that I exist and that I will probably never be able to say why I am here. What I do know is that I do exist and while I am here I should make the most out of my existence. While I had the philosophy that happiness comes from the relationship you forge with people through hardship and the experiences you share, I was also very intrigued about how as humans we are losing our connection with very important things like the earth and food. This made me think about my personal ethics and how they play a role in my happiness and meaning. From this project I have developed a deep perspective on what my role with food, earth, and the resources it offers should be. A quote by Aldo Leopold represents my ethic with the land and it resources perfectly "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” When I am in certain parts of nature it can make me feel really happy and preserving the beauty of it is important to me, not to use for our own personal gain.Since I am still young as time goes on my perspective on happiness and meaning could totally change, but right now this is where it stand after having completed this project.
The only thing I wonder about now pertaining to happiness and meaning is, when are we going to wake up? I feel like we as humans have gotten away from what truly matters and that we should go back to our roots to rebuild our connection with the earth, food, and our family and friends. We have the capabilities to make this happen I just hope it is not too late.
For this project we dedicated an entire unit to looking into happiness and meaning in life. For the project we were tasked with creating our own personal philosophy on happiness and meaning in life. My personal philosophy on how happiness and meaning in life is created is that “Happiness is not created from the possessions you own, or the achievements you earn, but comes from the tight knit relationships and the experiences you have.” This philosophy that I had on happiness and meaning comes from the tragedy my family and I have endured throughout the last six years. I chose to represent this through a slideshow of pictures that show how we still have had lots of cool experiences together that drew us closer even through all the hardship. This is how my happiness and meaning has been created and where I believe it truly lies within humanity.
This entire project made me realize that there isn’t a specific reason that I exist and that I will probably never be able to say why I am here. What I do know is that I do exist and while I am here I should make the most out of my existence. While I had the philosophy that happiness comes from the relationship you forge with people through hardship and the experiences you share, I was also very intrigued about how as humans we are losing our connection with very important things like the earth and food. This made me think about my personal ethics and how they play a role in my happiness and meaning. From this project I have developed a deep perspective on what my role with food, earth, and the resources it offers should be. A quote by Aldo Leopold represents my ethic with the land and it resources perfectly "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” When I am in certain parts of nature it can make me feel really happy and preserving the beauty of it is important to me, not to use for our own personal gain.Since I am still young as time goes on my perspective on happiness and meaning could totally change, but right now this is where it stand after having completed this project.
The only thing I wonder about now pertaining to happiness and meaning is, when are we going to wake up? I feel like we as humans have gotten away from what truly matters and that we should go back to our roots to rebuild our connection with the earth, food, and our family and friends. We have the capabilities to make this happen I just hope it is not too late.
Written piece
"Voices From the Animas"
Project Reflection
2. During this project I learned so much about the spill, the effects it had on different communities, the environmental effects, and who should be at fault. For this project I really focused on the effects this spill had on different communities and particularly the Navajo Nation. When the Gold King Mine spill happened I was working up in Montana in the backcountry and was unaware of the spill until I later got out so I did not get to see the river orange. By the time I got back and heard from locals and my family they were pointing at the Navajo Nation as the people who were affected the most and who need the most help. The Navajo Nation values the river deeply and believes that it signifies life and this spill affected them in many ways. From focusing on how the Navajo Nation was affected it made me question the federal government and made me realize that I have trusted them for too long. The reason being for this was how poorly treated the Navajo Nation was by the EPA and the EPA’s inability to act quickly and give them the support they needed in a desperate time of need.
3. What stood out to me the most during this project was how much the junior class and the community cared about this issue. I felt like the work that I was doing and that everyone else was doing was very meaningful and meant something to us and the community. In my interview there were definitely some things I would have done differently to make the interview flow better and perhaps relate more to my original focus. My original plan for the interview piece was to interview somebody from the Navajo reservation about their perspective on the issue, but since it didn’t work out with scheduling I interviewed Jimbo Buickerood the Public Lands coordinator of San Juan Citizens alliance. Since it was someone different than I originally expected I came up with a different set of questions, but afterwards I felt like it would have been possible to have asked him more questions relating to my original focus since I knew he would have had good knowledge about it considering the fact that he said the Navajo Nation were the people most affected by this disaster. To make it flow better I should have asked my questions in order and it would have made the interview sound more organized. My interviewee had very deep insights about the spill and contained lots of knowledge about the river itself. During the interview I found myself agreeing with his perspective on the spill, but realized that his perspective was much more concrete than mine due to his many years of being affiliated with the river. From the whole process I learned that there are multiple perspectives on a topic and that it is important to explore them before forming an opinion.
4. From exhibition my big takeaway was that there are multiple perspectives on an issue and that it is important to listen to them if you don’t agree with them. This exhibition made me realize the importance of that and that if we remain one sided all the time were never going to get anywhere in resolving issues and making the world a better place. The listening event had a deep effect on me as well because I really take things in when I listen and give someone or something in this case the interviews the time of day. During this exhibition it felt funny not being able to formally present something, but honestly I liked that better about this exhibition because it can get boring at times just standing by your project and informing people about it. This format gave parents and other community members attending to see a lot of the different projects and perspectives at once and to be able to interact with us in a less formal way. Also, since it was done electronically it gave people who don’t live in the Durango area a chance to listen to not only my interview, but other people’s as well, for example my Grandma and granddad who live in Wisconsin got to listen.
5. The biggest personal and social lesson that I learned during this project was that it is not important to find people to blame for what happened, but accept what happened and try to fix it and learn from what happened. Many people are very quick to speak out when there is a problem, but not enough people listen. I have learned that listening to multiple perspectives is the only way to truly understand a problem to come up with a good solution to it. While it is not always easy to be a good listener and value someone’s perspective it is crucial to do so in order to truly understand a problem.
- The Voices from the Animas project was a four week long project that was about the Gold King Mine spill that happened right near Silverton Colorado. During the course of this project we explored the true impact this spill had on the environment and how it affected different communities. This involved reaching out in the community and interviewing different people about their perspective on the issue. After the interviews were conducted we uploaded them to an archive on storycorps called Voices from the Animas to later show at exhibition night. Another key component to this project was the science side where we took water samples from six different locations along the Animas River watershed. We then ran tests to test for the presence of different ions taken from the Animas River watershed. Understanding the chemical side of this project better helped me understand multiple perspectives of the people who were interviewed and my interviewee.
2. During this project I learned so much about the spill, the effects it had on different communities, the environmental effects, and who should be at fault. For this project I really focused on the effects this spill had on different communities and particularly the Navajo Nation. When the Gold King Mine spill happened I was working up in Montana in the backcountry and was unaware of the spill until I later got out so I did not get to see the river orange. By the time I got back and heard from locals and my family they were pointing at the Navajo Nation as the people who were affected the most and who need the most help. The Navajo Nation values the river deeply and believes that it signifies life and this spill affected them in many ways. From focusing on how the Navajo Nation was affected it made me question the federal government and made me realize that I have trusted them for too long. The reason being for this was how poorly treated the Navajo Nation was by the EPA and the EPA’s inability to act quickly and give them the support they needed in a desperate time of need.
3. What stood out to me the most during this project was how much the junior class and the community cared about this issue. I felt like the work that I was doing and that everyone else was doing was very meaningful and meant something to us and the community. In my interview there were definitely some things I would have done differently to make the interview flow better and perhaps relate more to my original focus. My original plan for the interview piece was to interview somebody from the Navajo reservation about their perspective on the issue, but since it didn’t work out with scheduling I interviewed Jimbo Buickerood the Public Lands coordinator of San Juan Citizens alliance. Since it was someone different than I originally expected I came up with a different set of questions, but afterwards I felt like it would have been possible to have asked him more questions relating to my original focus since I knew he would have had good knowledge about it considering the fact that he said the Navajo Nation were the people most affected by this disaster. To make it flow better I should have asked my questions in order and it would have made the interview sound more organized. My interviewee had very deep insights about the spill and contained lots of knowledge about the river itself. During the interview I found myself agreeing with his perspective on the spill, but realized that his perspective was much more concrete than mine due to his many years of being affiliated with the river. From the whole process I learned that there are multiple perspectives on a topic and that it is important to explore them before forming an opinion.
4. From exhibition my big takeaway was that there are multiple perspectives on an issue and that it is important to listen to them if you don’t agree with them. This exhibition made me realize the importance of that and that if we remain one sided all the time were never going to get anywhere in resolving issues and making the world a better place. The listening event had a deep effect on me as well because I really take things in when I listen and give someone or something in this case the interviews the time of day. During this exhibition it felt funny not being able to formally present something, but honestly I liked that better about this exhibition because it can get boring at times just standing by your project and informing people about it. This format gave parents and other community members attending to see a lot of the different projects and perspectives at once and to be able to interact with us in a less formal way. Also, since it was done electronically it gave people who don’t live in the Durango area a chance to listen to not only my interview, but other people’s as well, for example my Grandma and granddad who live in Wisconsin got to listen.
5. The biggest personal and social lesson that I learned during this project was that it is not important to find people to blame for what happened, but accept what happened and try to fix it and learn from what happened. Many people are very quick to speak out when there is a problem, but not enough people listen. I have learned that listening to multiple perspectives is the only way to truly understand a problem to come up with a good solution to it. While it is not always easy to be a good listener and value someone’s perspective it is crucial to do so in order to truly understand a problem.
Link to my Interview
Link to class archive
"Rhetoric and Ideology Project"
Project Reflection
Written Rhetoric Project
Link to video of my exhibition performance: https://drive.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/file/d/0BzDN9DOa1uJVMzdHV0JEMzIwNzA/view?ts=56a70777