What We Leave Behind

Image result for if it won't matter in 5 years don't spendWhen we were assigned to research facts about modernism this week, it was very apparent that once I started looking online, there were a few specific things modernism was known for. For instance, every website I looked at included that modernism was characterized by industrialization, rapid social change, as well as advances in science and art. Thinking back to my past history classes, it seemed like every time period I had ever learned about could be simplified and summarized with just a few keywords- so in that case, what would be used to describe the time period we are living in at the moment? Up until this point in my life, the biggest events I can think of are presidential elections, school shootings, and natural disasters. In terms of technological advancements, what comes to mind for me are Tesla cars, virtual reality devices, and the development of robots. In another couple thousands of years, are these the things the beginning of the 2000's will be known for? Or will something huge be happening in the near future that we aren't even aware of yet?
Along with this thought, I was thinking about how you never truly know how impactful one small event in your life can be. Nearly every time I am studying for a test and the clock ticks from 11:00pm, to suddenly 2:00am, I find myself wondering- if I study for fifteen more minutes, will it really change anything? Is it really worth it to stress about this exam anymore? What if this test is actually insignificant in the long run?
During a study break, I was browsing through Pinterest and saw the 5 by 5 Rule:
If it won't matter in 5 years, don't spend more than 5 minutes being upset about it.
Although I think this is a great way to not overstress, I don't find it the most practical because sometimes an irrelevant detail in your life can have a great impact.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 4, 2018 at 11:09 PM

    Hey Sophia! This blog was honestly so eye-opening. I never thought about how small details that I could be doing right now for a couple minutes or even a couple seconds could affect your life. Maybe writing this comment will affect something? I loved how you connected all these thoughts and beautifully related them to each other!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knowledge of the Past

In the quote we were given by Jim Powell in his book Postmodernism for Beginners, it says "... any art attempting to represent the Holocaust should continue to haunt us with its inability to represent the unrepresentable." This means that since the Holocaust was so extreme and inhumane, no form of writing or art will be able to accurately represent it in its entirety. Simplifying a huge event to just words on a paper causes it to lose meaning. Although I agree with this, I still think it's necessary to write about history because it's the only form of documentation we have. This got me thinking- what would happen if we couldn't rely on written history to look back on past events? If we somehow lost all memory and knowledge on history, would we repeat it because we are unaware of the consequences? Humans have truly come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Take the Holocaust, for example, this genocide in WWII happened only 80 years ago. For some reaso...
Read more

Mind Over Body

"That is real freedom." In this quote from This is Water ,   I believe that Wallace is referencing one's mental freedom. Throughout his speech, one main message is fighting your brain's "natural, hard-wired, default setting". When you aren't making a conscious effort to think about your thoughts, you'll go into an automatic state of mind where it's nearly impossible to control your thoughts. Other than mental freedom , this idea reminds me of your mental strength.   One of the most important lessons I've learned throughout my sixteen years is that the most limiting factor in life is truly your mind. I first realized this when playing sports. I've done gymnastics and dance and color guard and synchronized swimming and throughout all of these, I found out that no, it wasn't my physical abilities that were holding me back from performing at my greatest potential, it was always my mental ability. My coaches always told me that every ...
Read more