Final Blog Post

Every single day seems to be the same to me before the pandemic; it was a cycle of waking and getting ready to go through the day, whether it be school or work. The days went by so fast that it was already a new week. However, since the pandemic has been going on for so long, it is hard to imagine how time flies. I have been in bed rereading How the World Think, Sick Souls Healthy Mind, and Why Grow Up. For a couple of days, I spoke to each of the authors individually on our zoom meetings. I wanted to hear their thoughts and answers to the questions.

1." What does it mean to grow up? Why should we?" 

2. "What makes life worth living?"

Susan Neiman, the author of "Why Grow Up", clears her throat and began to speak politely. I remember being a part of this panel, and Julian Baggini asked, "Should we work less?" I immediately said that is not the right question to ask. I think why we need to grow up is a better question to understand society's perspective growing up. Adulthood has always been looked down upon, as being a dull part of our life." The problem is not grown-up recognition that reality never quite matches the ideals we have for it. It's far worse and more systemic than that." (WGU 188). The media deceives our views of adulthood by making us think that luxury would make us satisfied." We're besieged by mixed messages. Half of them urge us to get serious, stop dreaming, and accept the world as it is....The other blast us with products and suggestions to keep us young." (WGU 193). Our expectations change, we assume the products we purchase wouldn't last long, eventually, we have to replace them. Growing up means realizing that no time one's life is the best; it is about resolving to savor every second of the joy each moment contains. Life is worth living, we began helplessly and gradually gain independence and self-determination."The ability to see your life as the whole it has become allows you to see the strengths with which you've lived it, and develop a sense of your own character. Integrity is never static; it's too easy to lose for that. It's rather a matter of determination: you've begun to figure out what sort of person you want to be, and you resolve to work harder to become it."(WGU 204).

A couple of days later, I spoke to John Kaag, the author of "Sick Souls, Healthy Minds". To have his insight into the matter. He answered thoughtfully, I've always admired and cherished James's philosophy, I think he saved my life, there is a William James's quote that works well when I am having a bad day, "Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will create the fact.". I have been on a podcast where we discussed some aspects of my book, as well as sharing personal stories to understand how to live a healthier life and cope with depression and anxiety with William James. In my opinion, "the highest activity of human life is learning for the sake of understanding the world and ourselves, because, in short, to understand is to be free."(SSHM 78). When we are children, we are easily influenced by our parents and their ideals. It is not until later in life, sometimes much later, that we begin to break away from our parents' beliefs and start our own." (SSHM 152). In a community, a responsible person is accountable for the standards or rules, but we must also be accountable for ourselves, does our action bring some significance in our activity? We create meaning in our lives through every decision we have come across, our free will should allow us to make life worth living. At some point in our life, "[e]ach of us suffers in our own unique hellholes...We don't suffer exactly the same miseries, ever, but this difference should be enough to engender a bit of compassion for those among us." (SSHM 157). The way we approach life as we age, we change, and who we are becoming is the process of losing and finding yourself again, and getting over who you think you should be.

Lastly, I asked about Julian Baggini and his thoughts about what can Westerners learn about growing up and understanding what makes life worth living. In my opinion, "living for today becomes a shallow pursuit of fleeting pleasure that always leaves us starting each day empty, needing another 'experience'. We are constantly dissatisfied, forever grasping at moments that eludes us. Instead, we need to learn to savour without grasping, to caress the moment rather than to grab it (HWT 145). I remember a Buddist came to a lecture as a guest speaker, and he said, "if we live with a good heart, good ideals, and good action. Life will be good." At the time I knew very little of Buddism. When it comes to growing up, we have to think about who we are and what makes us, us. I did a TED Talk a couple of years ago, that talks about this concept. "A watch is not a watch because of its parts, but because of it purpose." We are a collection of experiences, throughout our lives, we continue to change, but we can control the directional change in a way we are shaping our true selves like water. In my interview with Robert Lawrence Kuhn, we discussed if death is final, if we were to live for 300 years, would be the same person? Our memories are more of a construction of the past rather than a recollection. Growing up is a change for ourselves, life changes along the way, and we gain new experience that helps us be part of us. Self-cultivation helps achieve and reflect on our virtues to bring harmony to fulfill our role of who we are, among others. “Far from rational and autonomous, we are intuitive, emotional and heavily influenced by others in our environment.” (HWT 68). Your chances of finding the right way are improved if you are willing to see the world as it is, independently of your values. 

League of Legend champion Illaoi mini-game: Trial of the Kraken Priestess

"Without change, something sleeps insides us, and seldom awakens."- Illaoi, League of Legends

The concept of the video is to express the game's fictional religion and how it is represented in the world of Runeterra. Illaoi's religion is about life serving the universe under the god, Nagakabouros. Which is supposed to represent the mental construct of human's limited perception and intellect. The faith requires you to approach your subconscious with questioning doubt and have total certainty, simultaneously. Her trial involves the soul's constant cycle to transition and rebirth, she encourages people to follow their dreams no matter how difficult it is. Life is like the ocean, it is always in motion, and we must move along with it, the tides change along the way, and we must find a way to follow, instead of fight against the currents.

Throughout their childhood years and into adulthood. Anna tries to rekindle her friendship with her sister Elsa.

Frozen and it's sequel genuienly shows the aspect of  growing up and trying to understand is life is worth living. I'm manly focused on Elsa's character, where she is possesses ice powers and she unable to understand how to control her powers. She genuinely has anxiety and has no way to control her emotions asides not trying to express how she feels.There is amount of symbolism within each of the movies like the clothing, opening the doors, the color of the ice, and the titles of the songs.  Iconic songs like Let it Go and Show Yourself which represented the transformation of an idividual finding theirself. One scene in particular that stood out to me is when Elsa is scared and you can see hear having a difficulty trying to calm herself, and slowly you can tell she feels defenseless and restrained in her ice palace,because she is overwhlemed with fear. While in the second movie, Elsa finally realize who she really is, it's a self-discovery So in a way, it represents pragmatism of moving forward and pick that door to an oppoturnity of a revealation and more. Elsa understands she doesn't need insecure of who she is, she is able to move forward from her past.

About a couple of months ago, I remembered receiving a text message from my friend group; the five of us are best friends since freshmen year of high school. We all talked about how we are busy with our college, our part-time jobs, and we never had the opportunity to hang out as we had in the past. I am not sure who made this statement, but she said, “Even though we are all adults, I don’t feel like I am. There is so much responsibility to do.”  I understood how she felt at the time. It seems like society gave this placeholder to us, entrusting that we are ready to face the world. I spoke to my friend about my thoughts, “There are some children who can be mature and there are some adults who can be immature despite their physical age.” These days, when you hear people talk about politicians “act like kids complaining” whenever they discuss serious topics. It makes you wonder if they are trying to defend their ego. When you are around 16 years old, you get to learn to drive and get licenses, maybe get a part-time job. When you are 18 years old, you are considered an adult, and you are allowed to vote, and when you are 21 years old, you are allowed to drink.

It is similar to Neiman said about Rousseau’s paradox: “We cannot construct a decent society without a critical mass of grown-ups, yet we can hardly create real grown-ups within a society that doesn’t want them.” These societal and beauty standards have made us hesitate about embracing the cycle of life and growing up, instead, it tells us to make a façade that we look the best and we are enjoying the greatest moments of our life on media. When we are at school, we learn and memorize information, sometimes we have to use methods to reach the answer, but when it comes to adulthood or facing reality, I feel like we haven’t learned how to react to some situations. In life, it is more than just paper and pencil, every obstacle is different from a graded test, there is not an answer sheet about how to face life. 

You have to learn and experience everything that life has to offer, whether it be painful or painless, it is up to the person to decide what is best for themselves. We all change at some point, in the moments in our life we must cherish it before things fade away. I think what makes life worth living or meaningful is to find an opportunity in our journey to help and create an impact on others. This process allows us to see our character development and how wide our mind and vision has spread.