Simply Existing

Me writing my synthesis essay (2022 colorized)  How do I write Good-er? I’m sure all have thought at some point that our writing is boring. To be honest, I still do! Maybe it drags on, or there’s a lack of tone, whatever that means. Writing is ultimately a grueling process in which we transfer our thoughts on to the page and try to make it palatable. So, I thought I’d toss out a couple tips or something like that. Your First Draft is Going to Suck Yeah, you heard that right. Unless by some divine miracle you write perfectly like the 6/6s we read in class, your first draft is always going to be bad. The point I’m trying to make is that its fine if your draft looks like a dumpster fire and reads like a train derailing, because you can always revise later. Just get it done so you have some clay to mold. Now, the only bit that I’d say you want to get right first is your thesis, since it affects the rest of the essay.  Put Some Personality into it       ...

(Disclaimer: I myself am just an introvert, not an activist) Should you be an activist at all? Earlier this week, I read a piece from 1849 called  Civil Disobedience,  by Henry David Thoreau. To summarize, it mostly speaks to the importance of protest in the form of civil disobedience, or breaking laws that you believe to be immoral. I’m quite sure that everyone has something in politics they care about, and some are worth fighting for. That’s why activism is a thing. However, I also completely understand if you’d prefer to stay out of it, whether it be because of burnout or stress.     What are you comfortable with doing? This made me think, what about the introverts? I'm sure most introverts would not want to tell the IRS that they're not going to pay their taxes and going to protests may also be overwhelming. So, I thought I'd try to help in that department. In Quiet, by Susan Cain, she explains how most introverts are “high-reactive” which means we resp...

 Why is Sympathy important?               It is our instinct to be self-centered; To do what is in our own best interest. However, living this way can be extremely draining and lonely. In David Foster Wallace’s speech, This is Water, He states that a self-centered life is like being “lords of our own tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation.” To combat this, he proposes that we constantly remind ourselves that the strangers in our lives could be going through hard times. Not necessarily to act on that awareness, but to simply know that we aren’t the only ones with problems. This reframes the sense of frustration you feel when, say, the lunch line is really long. I agree with Wallace on this, but I also want to address something to be careful of when doing this.   Compassion, not Comparison               While it is bene...

  What is negative space anyway?               Negative space is something that is all around us. It exists in art, photography, architecture, and even music! Simply put, negative space is the space that is not filled by the subject of a painting or sound of a note. When you are aware of negative space, you’ll start to notice how most things can be split into positive and negative space.               In art, not many pieces especially play into the use of positive and negative space, but it’s still present. However, pieces that utilize positive and negative spaces cause the viewer to not know where one image ends and the other begins. For example, M.C. Escher’s Sky and Water II. Why do we see images in negative space?               What these pieces of art are largely playing into is...