Happiness project
My biggest takeaway from this project is that you need need to compulsively consume to produce happiness. I have realised that you may find happiness and be content with this rampant consumerism, although that may seem fine, to have real happiness you need meaning that can come from. I have learned that you can find true happiness from helping others and that money doesn't dictate happiness, but meaning does. This is a takeaway that I believe will help me and that I will reference throughout my life, and this is something that I see as the main takeaway from this project and isn't something that I will just forget.
Over the summer I hope to make myself and my community of peers happier. I will do this using the ideas that we have been taught in this project as well as the ideas that I have developed myself related to our happiness. I will work to focus my energy not only on these forms of artificial happiness and work to push this out of my lifestyle and support more meaningful happiness. I believe that this will give me a more meaningful summer which is an important factor having happiness. And if I push my happiness onto my peers it will not only make me happiness but also my peers.
I believe that this project helped me grow as a student because it made me learn the application of the things we are learning in our lives. Generally I look at what we are doing and just see it as busy work but his project was different. After I finished this project I found myself referencing what we have learned and have applied it to things in my life. I think this project will make me a better learner because it will make me persevere more because I see that what we are learning has a real purpose. This project has made me grow a lot as a learner.
Over the summer I hope to make myself and my community of peers happier. I will do this using the ideas that we have been taught in this project as well as the ideas that I have developed myself related to our happiness. I will work to focus my energy not only on these forms of artificial happiness and work to push this out of my lifestyle and support more meaningful happiness. I believe that this will give me a more meaningful summer which is an important factor having happiness. And if I push my happiness onto my peers it will not only make me happiness but also my peers.
I believe that this project helped me grow as a student because it made me learn the application of the things we are learning in our lives. Generally I look at what we are doing and just see it as busy work but his project was different. After I finished this project I found myself referencing what we have learned and have applied it to things in my life. I think this project will make me a better learner because it will make me persevere more because I see that what we are learning has a real purpose. This project has made me grow a lot as a learner.
Sam Southworth
Happiness Project
Section 1
Why are we Happy?
What does true happiness mean? This is a question many have been trying to answer for eternity and everyone seems to answer in different ways. This question has led me to my own answer; true happiness means to have contentment in life due to the meaning that you have found as you adventure through life. I believe that in order to have true happiness it has to have meaning. One thing that brought me to this conclusion is the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In this novel there are citizens whose lives are completely controlled by a corrupt government. You would think that the people would not be happy with their lives, but because of a drug called Soma they are happy and ignorant to what is happening around them. I was thinking about this and realized that their happiness isn't real because it has no meaning. This led me to the conclusion that you can have happiness under false pretences but to have true happiness you need meaning. Another example of this is when people rely too heavily on money to be happy. It seems as if the American Dream has changed from being happy and successful to a petty competition to see who can get the most money and in turn “happiness”. As Meek Mill stated “I lost homies when I got paper, it’s like the more money I made they got faker”. People place all of their hope for happiness on money and when they get the money they needed to be “happy” they realise they aren't any happier. To make our society happier we need to incorporate collaboration and cooperation as a norm, we need to be more connected and more united with our peers, and we need to get more meaning through the satisfaction of others.
We need to work towards happiness in society by incorporating collaboration and cooperation with our community members. We need to work towards the positive result of making happiness into a norm that is embraced by all the members of our society. I believe that if we start to work towards creating a society in which we we work together to achieve a positive result rather than being scattered or working to inflict revenge on an individual or country that we will be happier. As Mother Teresa stated “The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” This quote spoke to me and helped me realize that we can’t achieve happiness as a whole if members of our society are excluded and forced to live life without happiness or a community. We promote this idea of all inclusive happiness in our society, but it seems that the majority of us only cater to ourselves and our own happiness. I believe that if we start to live by a norm of trying to achieve happiness in our community as a whole that we can achieve happiness.in our entire sociaty. When thinking of happiness I think of Newton's third law “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” Although this applies to physics, people don’t realise that it also applies to happiness. If you are nice and give happiness to those around you that is going to come back to you and give you more meaning and more legitimate happiness.
I believe that to work towards achieving happiness in our own lives we need to be more connected and united with our peers; only then will happiness follow. In the pursuit of happiness you need to understand that if you are in a connected society that forgives and stays connected no matter what has happened in the past that you will be happier. As Mahatma Ghandi said in the movie “I am” "An eye for an eye only makes the whole village blind." This quote makes me consider the fact that if we are ununited and always seeking revenge on those who have wronged us we will not have the time to instead seek happiness. People become obsessed with matching their enemies wrongs with more wrongs, and are thrown into an endless cycle of revenge. I believe that if our society strayed away from this compulsive need to seek revenge that we would be happier and would have more time and energy to pursue our happiness. As Mahatma Ghandi stated “Non-cooperation with evil is as much as a duty as is good cooperation with good.”. This quote helped me understand that if you are to make a relationship with someone your happiness will thrive, although if you have a bad relation with someone your happiness will suffer. Many people try to collect as many friends as they can thinking that this will enable them to achieve happiness but fail to realize that they will struggle to achieve happiness if they have a populous of negative relationships. Don’t get me wrong, having these positive relationships is an important ingredient for happiness, but getting rid of the negative relationships is just as important.
If you have meaning in your life through the satisfaction of others, it will validate your happiness and in turn give you more meaning and more happiness. One quote that opened my eyes to the reality of this statement was a quote by Tom Shadyac from the movie I am: “Those who close the door to heaven on others don't realise they are closing the door to heaven on themselves.” When I first heard this I didn’t understanding it and thought he was trying to be deep and smart but thought the quote lacked in structure. But when I really thought about it I understood its meaning; what goes around comes around. If you deny others from happiness you will slowly but surely lose your own happiness and the ones you denied happiness from will still be happy. This further convinced me that if you have meaning in life through the satisfaction of others, it will validate your happiness and in turn give you more happiness and meaning.
Our society already has happiness as a goal for all of it’s citizens but whose happiness is what I believe we need to change. We all strive for our own happiness and make it a priority but we overlook our peer’s happiness. I believe that if we consider other's happiness it will progressively make us more happy. A quote from John Bunyan opened my eyes to this when he stated “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” This quote promotes the idea that you can’t have happiness without meaning and by him promoting this idea he supports it. I believe that something like this quote needs to be ingrained into our society and that it will make us all happier.
Happiness Project
Section 1
Why are we Happy?
What does true happiness mean? This is a question many have been trying to answer for eternity and everyone seems to answer in different ways. This question has led me to my own answer; true happiness means to have contentment in life due to the meaning that you have found as you adventure through life. I believe that in order to have true happiness it has to have meaning. One thing that brought me to this conclusion is the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In this novel there are citizens whose lives are completely controlled by a corrupt government. You would think that the people would not be happy with their lives, but because of a drug called Soma they are happy and ignorant to what is happening around them. I was thinking about this and realized that their happiness isn't real because it has no meaning. This led me to the conclusion that you can have happiness under false pretences but to have true happiness you need meaning. Another example of this is when people rely too heavily on money to be happy. It seems as if the American Dream has changed from being happy and successful to a petty competition to see who can get the most money and in turn “happiness”. As Meek Mill stated “I lost homies when I got paper, it’s like the more money I made they got faker”. People place all of their hope for happiness on money and when they get the money they needed to be “happy” they realise they aren't any happier. To make our society happier we need to incorporate collaboration and cooperation as a norm, we need to be more connected and more united with our peers, and we need to get more meaning through the satisfaction of others.
We need to work towards happiness in society by incorporating collaboration and cooperation with our community members. We need to work towards the positive result of making happiness into a norm that is embraced by all the members of our society. I believe that if we start to work towards creating a society in which we we work together to achieve a positive result rather than being scattered or working to inflict revenge on an individual or country that we will be happier. As Mother Teresa stated “The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” This quote spoke to me and helped me realize that we can’t achieve happiness as a whole if members of our society are excluded and forced to live life without happiness or a community. We promote this idea of all inclusive happiness in our society, but it seems that the majority of us only cater to ourselves and our own happiness. I believe that if we start to live by a norm of trying to achieve happiness in our community as a whole that we can achieve happiness.in our entire sociaty. When thinking of happiness I think of Newton's third law “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” Although this applies to physics, people don’t realise that it also applies to happiness. If you are nice and give happiness to those around you that is going to come back to you and give you more meaning and more legitimate happiness.
I believe that to work towards achieving happiness in our own lives we need to be more connected and united with our peers; only then will happiness follow. In the pursuit of happiness you need to understand that if you are in a connected society that forgives and stays connected no matter what has happened in the past that you will be happier. As Mahatma Ghandi said in the movie “I am” "An eye for an eye only makes the whole village blind." This quote makes me consider the fact that if we are ununited and always seeking revenge on those who have wronged us we will not have the time to instead seek happiness. People become obsessed with matching their enemies wrongs with more wrongs, and are thrown into an endless cycle of revenge. I believe that if our society strayed away from this compulsive need to seek revenge that we would be happier and would have more time and energy to pursue our happiness. As Mahatma Ghandi stated “Non-cooperation with evil is as much as a duty as is good cooperation with good.”. This quote helped me understand that if you are to make a relationship with someone your happiness will thrive, although if you have a bad relation with someone your happiness will suffer. Many people try to collect as many friends as they can thinking that this will enable them to achieve happiness but fail to realize that they will struggle to achieve happiness if they have a populous of negative relationships. Don’t get me wrong, having these positive relationships is an important ingredient for happiness, but getting rid of the negative relationships is just as important.
If you have meaning in your life through the satisfaction of others, it will validate your happiness and in turn give you more meaning and more happiness. One quote that opened my eyes to the reality of this statement was a quote by Tom Shadyac from the movie I am: “Those who close the door to heaven on others don't realise they are closing the door to heaven on themselves.” When I first heard this I didn’t understanding it and thought he was trying to be deep and smart but thought the quote lacked in structure. But when I really thought about it I understood its meaning; what goes around comes around. If you deny others from happiness you will slowly but surely lose your own happiness and the ones you denied happiness from will still be happy. This further convinced me that if you have meaning in life through the satisfaction of others, it will validate your happiness and in turn give you more happiness and meaning.
Our society already has happiness as a goal for all of it’s citizens but whose happiness is what I believe we need to change. We all strive for our own happiness and make it a priority but we overlook our peer’s happiness. I believe that if we consider other's happiness it will progressively make us more happy. A quote from John Bunyan opened my eyes to this when he stated “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” This quote promotes the idea that you can’t have happiness without meaning and by him promoting this idea he supports it. I believe that something like this quote needs to be ingrained into our society and that it will make us all happier.
Model United Nations
What are you most proud of about this conference?
I am most proud of my performance and confidence in the UN conference. I think that in the conference I put my opinion into the conference and that my opinion mattered and swayed other countries opinion on which resolution to pass. I also think I thought of things to add to resolution 1B that made other countries vote on our resolution (Resolution 1B) and not veto our resolution. I think that in this conference I got out of my comfort zone and I think that it payed off in the conference and that my confidence in the conference was noticeable. This skill of confidence in public speaking is something that I want to bring into my other projects and something that I want to work on and master. In conclusion, I am most proud of my performance and confidence in the UN conference.
What did you connect with most in this project, and how did that affect your conference performance?
The thing that I connected with most in this project was the living conditions in North Korea. I was shocked when we first got into this project due to us watching a documentary on North Korea and how the people there are treated. I really connected with this and it got me interested because it is something that I have never had to deal with and it was something that I didn’t really think existed to this extent. This part of the project got me interested and pushed me to start doing more research to see the background on this issue and if anyone has tried to resolve it. The thing that I connected to most in this project was the living conditions in North Korea.
What was the most important thing you learned in this project? why?
The most important thing that I learned in this project was that the decisions made in this world take much more work to finalise than I thought. I used to think that decisions regarding things such as how Palestine’s land is distributed was decided by their local governments but this project has brought light to me and shown me that this thought was wrong. Through this project I found that even small decisions are decided by all the countries in the UN. I found this interesting and appreciate knowing this information. I think that the most important thing I learned in this project was the fact that even small decisions are made by everyone involved in the UN as opposed to just their local government.
I am most proud of my performance and confidence in the UN conference. I think that in the conference I put my opinion into the conference and that my opinion mattered and swayed other countries opinion on which resolution to pass. I also think I thought of things to add to resolution 1B that made other countries vote on our resolution (Resolution 1B) and not veto our resolution. I think that in this conference I got out of my comfort zone and I think that it payed off in the conference and that my confidence in the conference was noticeable. This skill of confidence in public speaking is something that I want to bring into my other projects and something that I want to work on and master. In conclusion, I am most proud of my performance and confidence in the UN conference.
What did you connect with most in this project, and how did that affect your conference performance?
The thing that I connected with most in this project was the living conditions in North Korea. I was shocked when we first got into this project due to us watching a documentary on North Korea and how the people there are treated. I really connected with this and it got me interested because it is something that I have never had to deal with and it was something that I didn’t really think existed to this extent. This part of the project got me interested and pushed me to start doing more research to see the background on this issue and if anyone has tried to resolve it. The thing that I connected to most in this project was the living conditions in North Korea.
What was the most important thing you learned in this project? why?
The most important thing that I learned in this project was that the decisions made in this world take much more work to finalise than I thought. I used to think that decisions regarding things such as how Palestine’s land is distributed was decided by their local governments but this project has brought light to me and shown me that this thought was wrong. Through this project I found that even small decisions are decided by all the countries in the UN. I found this interesting and appreciate knowing this information. I think that the most important thing I learned in this project was the fact that even small decisions are made by everyone involved in the UN as opposed to just their local government.
Model UN Project Description
Here at Animas High School we do a Model UN project in our ninth grade humanities class. In this project every student is assigned a country, with the exception of two students that are assigned the role of being UN conference moderators or Chairs. After we got assigned our country we researched conflict in the world, such as North Korea's nuclear program or how Israel got Palestine, we then researched our countries stance on the conflict. We then wrote Policy papers and resolutions to the conflict based on our countries stance. After we wrote policy papers and resolutions we had a model UN conference based around the conflict in which we read speeches we wrote on our stance.
Links to my Resolutions and Policy Papers
North Korea Resolution
https://www.scribd.com/doc/296991094/Resolution?secret_password=xaWUtof4JC4r2X7q27GX
Israel Palestine Resolution
https://www.scribd.com/doc/296993827/Israel-Palistine-Resolution?secret_password=UeeHbc2rPFD7rZVE1fxo
North Korea Policy Paper
https://www.scribd.com/doc/296994038/North-Korea-Policy-Paper?secret_password=nt7rhK2OuOaEJ81iCWAA
Israel Palestine Policy Paper
https://www.scribd.com/doc/296991350/Israel-Palestine-Policy-Paper?secret_password=rcuOuc2qlLFNEvy97JAD
https://www.scribd.com/doc/296991094/Resolution?secret_password=xaWUtof4JC4r2X7q27GX
Israel Palestine Resolution
https://www.scribd.com/doc/296993827/Israel-Palistine-Resolution?secret_password=UeeHbc2rPFD7rZVE1fxo
North Korea Policy Paper
https://www.scribd.com/doc/296994038/North-Korea-Policy-Paper?secret_password=nt7rhK2OuOaEJ81iCWAA
Israel Palestine Policy Paper
https://www.scribd.com/doc/296991350/Israel-Palestine-Policy-Paper?secret_password=rcuOuc2qlLFNEvy97JAD
My Socratic Seminar Reflection
During the socratic seminar that we did recently in response to our reading of Mexican Whiteboy someone said something that made me think and had made me think about it ever since, that comment was “Maybe Danny give up or puts less effort into something due to his ideas of race.”. This made me think because it let me have an insight into the lives of minority groups and how they may think about themselves. This is an issue that many people face, but it make me think about how I may be the cause of someone feeling this way, not specifically me but just people that are in the agent group category in general. This was interesting to me because of the emotions it casts on many people every day.
One connection that I can think of from this discussion is that I have been in areas where I am the minority of the group and I have felt emotions that others may feel everyday. An example of this is when I am put into a group of people of a different race than me, it makes me feel out of place and like I am inferior to the people I am with just do to my race. This is interesting because I have people that are a minority with me everyday but I do not really feel any different and to really notice it you have to be in the other person's shoes.
I think that in this seminar I brought in some ideas that disagreed with what others had said and I think that this added to the conversation and gave more depth to what others had been saying. I think one thing that I could work on in the next seminar would be to be a little more involved with the flow of ideas and not just drop sort of off topic ideas into the conversation without warning such as when we were talking about where Danny stands economically and I brought up race.
My favorite quote from the book was a quote that I found really well written and able to describe the situation perfectly and that quote was “Nobody paid him any attention anyway because he was Mexican. He roamed the school halls with his head down like a ghost. Drifted in and out of classrooms without a peep. Nobody even saw him as a real person. But down here, where everybody's skin is dark, everybody seems to be coming at him.”. This quote made me really understand the situation he was in and that helped me get a deeper relation to the book.
One connection that I can think of from this discussion is that I have been in areas where I am the minority of the group and I have felt emotions that others may feel everyday. An example of this is when I am put into a group of people of a different race than me, it makes me feel out of place and like I am inferior to the people I am with just do to my race. This is interesting because I have people that are a minority with me everyday but I do not really feel any different and to really notice it you have to be in the other person's shoes.
I think that in this seminar I brought in some ideas that disagreed with what others had said and I think that this added to the conversation and gave more depth to what others had been saying. I think one thing that I could work on in the next seminar would be to be a little more involved with the flow of ideas and not just drop sort of off topic ideas into the conversation without warning such as when we were talking about where Danny stands economically and I brought up race.
My favorite quote from the book was a quote that I found really well written and able to describe the situation perfectly and that quote was “Nobody paid him any attention anyway because he was Mexican. He roamed the school halls with his head down like a ghost. Drifted in and out of classrooms without a peep. Nobody even saw him as a real person. But down here, where everybody's skin is dark, everybody seems to be coming at him.”. This quote made me really understand the situation he was in and that helped me get a deeper relation to the book.