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This is my ramblings of my experiences at Edge Hill University in England with a picture or two

Friday, December 2, 2011

The Best Things Are Unexpected

I have to say when I first signed up for this class, there was a part of me that was not looking forward to it. I had it in my head that it was going to be just like any other literature class where the professor/teacher just gave you a book and then discussed it and when on to a completly different book. I loved this class because it was not that. We read all types of books but each book tied in together. It forced us to look deeper into it and understand the connections in our own minds. I loved how this class opened our eyes to ourselves in society whether it was "traditions" that we follow or how easily we fall into plentitude. I see myself going in to my job at a grocery store and seeing myself looking down the cereal asile and wondering why we need all of them, and I do the same for coffee. Why can't we have regular and decaf and be done with it. Why do we need 5 different name brands and 3 off brands. I even see this in my friends. My best friend wanted to buy a new big screen tv but he had just reciently bought one 2 years ago and all I could say to him is you have one that works just fine, why do you need a new one?
I found a quote the other day that really made me think back to Culture Jam when we were talking about the skewed view that we have in ourselves, how we view ourselves, and even other problems. We are always quick to blame society.
"Everyone is so quick to blame society for our faults and flaws, but we are society."
 
This quote is so true and this class made me realize that. We are not forced into buying the new smart phone every three months or that new tee shirt when we go shopping. We do it because we want to and then we blame society for making is and using it as a scapegoat. We are society and if we want society to change the first thing we have to do is change ourself.
 
I love how this class constantly made me thing and rethink about my life and my place in the world. I love how we were talking about how books can be dangerous and I said how it can plant a seed in your head and it grows from that. I believe that is what this class did, except not for the bad. The Professor chose specific books in which we read and it planted a seed in our head that we didn't know about, and now our views our changing. I honestly didnt realize that they had done this till about five seconds ago. I loved this class and I am sad that it is ending but I have to say that I have taken some amazing things from it and it rekindled my fire for literature.
 
 

4 comments:

  1. Wow Kristen, well done!!! I agree that this class has opened my eyes so much, and just reading this blog make me rethink everything! That is such a powerful quote about how we make up society. So blaming society is really blaming ourselves. It is so true that it wont change until we do. People always say, how can I really make a difference? Well, changing yourself already made a difference whether you affected anyone else or not. You make such great connections and you always have mind blowing ideas. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to work with you this semester!

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  2. Good Old Plentitude in our world is why there are 100 cereals and 10 different types of coffee. I love the quote also and agree with Linds you did in fact change society by looking at yourself and changing. To think if 1% of the world did that what a better place it would be. You are very intuitive and intelligent young lady and I enjoyed all of our conversations. You dug deep always!! Don’t change keep the ideas you learned from this class and keep loving your literature.

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  3. I loved your post. You talk about how your friend needed that new TV, that's exactly how my sister is being right now also. She wants a bigger better one for Christmas! I also agree that this class has opened up new views to me about society that I never realiezed either. I can tell you got a lot out of this class and I believe it will all be very beneficial to us at some point in our lives.

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  4. That was great Kristen! the quote really did it for me!! that is a great point, everyone is quick to blame one another, when if society would come together as a whole; life would be SOOOO much easier, and everyone would get along! unfortunately our societal structure prevents this, which is why we have the issues we do. I also agree that this class constantly had me looking in the mirror and thinking: " Am I one of those that are destroying soceity?" because as we all know no one is perfect human. I personally believe everyone in the country should take a course along these lines; so their eyes could be opened to the sad realizations of present day America.

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