Final Essay

"What makes your life meaningful?" 

Even after a year of thinking about this, I am still not sure how to answer it definitively. In my first post of the year, I defined something as meaningful if it took up a good amount of time & it brought happiness into your life. Now, I would no longer say that's true, because it's an over simplified answer to a very complex question, and because I have finally seen that there is a big difference between happiness and meaning. 

Even though I don't have a concrete answer, I will go out on a limb and say that insight is meaningful. If anything, this class has given me a great deal of insight. I realize now how much I appreciate this, and how it's changed the way I see life, both mine and others. The insights I have gained in this class have carried over into other parts of my life, and I would say that now I lead a more meaningful life than I was in the fall. I notice myself thinking about how corporate and folk culture affect my views, and I catch myself often thinking or repeating popular/dominant messages. I now question them, and ask myself why I believe the things I do. I have actually changed my opinion completely on a variety of topics after analyzing where my opinions were coming from. This also allows me to be aware that I am never going to rid myself completely of outside messages; they'll find their way to seep in. But now I can filter them a little better. This is meaningful because now I have more of an understanding of how my life works, and how society works. 

I am also much more conscious of the "masks" we all hide behind. I remember having a class discussion about this in the beginning of the year. I remember Andy called on me and asked if I thought I had a "mask", and I said "No". At the time I meant it, but now I have realized that I do have one. None of us are our true selves at all times, and not all of our comments and actions are in line with our true selves either. We (including me) are often influenced to go with the crowd, and do what is the easiest or most acceptable thing. After all, we all want to be "normal" and fit in to the society, even if we think there are serious faults with it. Not only that, but sometimes even when we try to hear our true voice and desires, the chatter of society can drown them out. My goal for next year is to try to be the most "myself" as I can be. 

And of course, the recent Health, Animal, Food, and Collapse units have given me lots of insights as well. It makes me see things about my life I want to change, and I gained a lot of knowledge that I had previously been unaware of.

Overall, the insights I have gained in class have proven to be very meaningful to me, and I think I'm pretty comfortable with my "Meaning= Insight" definition. I do have an open mind though, and would like to keep changing and adding to my ideas as I experience life. 

I enjoyed this class, and hope to have Andy again next year.