Crappy Thesis Idea

With life's unexpected battles we unravel things that help and hinder us in the ways that changes the world around us, through pain, sadness, and happiness.  All in which behold they way we can survive as a person.

Analyzingand intergrating quotes

Source: Interview with Dr. Kennedy, Quote

“More focus on a exploring a person’s deep calling…”

Life’s battles are let alone some of the most difficult things we humans will ever face but with, “more focus on exploring a person’s deep calling..” we may be able to uncover more than meets the eye with the people that are around us every day.  Emphasizing how we all have a certain calling in the world, compared to those who banish all in which we believe in as a person and tell us that what we choose is wrong.

Source: Article, What’s left behind (Web link)

“sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.”

One cannot seem to allow the demons that surround them to drag them back in to darkness, although some people know without a doubt that they have a “sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past” that may come and possibly rebuke them into the life that they once lived as a person. In many ways this confirms my belief that people cling onto the hopes of what they once knew, the nostalgia of what they once had and want again can cause people to do some crazy things.

Source: Article, What’s left behind (web link)

“facing a threat in their present circumstance”

Every day there seems to be something new that is out there to try to harm us in some sort of way.  Whether physically, mentally or emotionally, it’s an every day struggle that some people can’t handle, “facing a threat in their present day circumstance” is too much for them to bear as good things turn to worse.  No one can prepare them for what is coming.  But acknowledging that we are capable of great in the world illustrates how people can change the outlooks of others and implies that we can change everything around us if we want to do something revolutio

Interview With Dr. Kennedy of the English department

From Dr. Sheila Kennedy, Associate Professor of English

 

1.Who were your heroes while you were growing up?  Why? 

My Parents, some of my teachers, my brother.  My parents: because they suffered very challenging childhoods—my mom during WWII, and my dad because his parents died when he was a child, and they endured and showed us love and tenderness and the importance of responsibility and generosity and meaningful work.

 

My teachers: It seemed like they knew everything—and I wanted to know everything too.  They encouraged my curiosity, created a safe place for learning, and shined a light on my strengths, for which I am very grateful.

 

2.What kind of person did you see yourself becoming? Did you become that person?

Hmm…I am still very much a work in progress.  I saw myself becoming someone who would advocate for others, work with young people, and do something with words, for something meaningful and useful.

 
3.What events in your life altered you from your path?

I haven’t been altered too much, really.  The only thing perhaps is that as a mother and a full-time professor, I don’t always get to work on my own interesting projects.  Projects that I’d like to work more on require a lot of time and focus and that’s not always easy to create.   

4.Do you ever wish you could've done something else instead of what you're doing?  Yes—I wish I could have worked for The Chicago Tribune when print newspapers were the primary source of news.  In our house, we had three newspapers delivered each day and two news magazines each week and various other magazines as well.  I grew up valuing the news and I worked on my school newspapers.  So I wish I could have had a desk at the Tribune Tower, investigating stories and writing important pieces of journalism, advocating for people or ideas. 

5. What are you looking to do in the future?

I’d like to use writing and teaching writing to help others discover and develop themselves more wholly, and to write about their life experiences. This is a different form of teaching writing, with more focus on a exploring a person’s deep calling, spiritual development, and self-understanding.

 

 

6.What did you want in life then compared to what you want now?

I used to want 12 children!  We have two—my husband and I realized we didn’t want to be outnumbered!  I grew up in a large family, and as challenging as it was sometimes—one bathroom for nine people!—I loved growing up with this variety of people around me.  So I thought I wanted that, but then I realized just how challenging it is to do a good job raising children, so our two are splendid.

 

My wants between then and now are actually pretty similar, and pretty simple: be with family and friends, be outside, read books, write, enjoy the arts, go for walks, hold hands, have good conversations, create things, get to know myself and others better….

7.Do you think God guided you in any certain way?

God…I sometimes have a hard time with that “name”; it conjures up the old man with the white beard in the sky.  However, when I equate God with love and spirit and soul then I can easily say that God or love or spirit or soul guides me, everyday.  Even during difficult times…as if to say: no matter how this is right now, you are right where you need to be, to learn what you need to learn, so pay attention.  And the more time I take to pause and listen for that presence, the more I learn and do better next time, and the more in tune I am with the universe.

8.Were there any people who helped you in life to make these decisions?

My brother John.  He suggested I join my high school newspaper, and from there I realized that I loved writing.  I’m very grateful for him.

 

9.What does the word vocation mean to you?

For me, the word vocation means to feel a sense of connection to what you long to do, and what you’re good at, and serving something beyond yourself—an integration between the best that you have to offer and something in the world that truly benefits from that—and finding deep meaning and purpose in that.  It’s inspired by a famous passage by Theologian Frederick Buechner: ‘Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need’.  And our job on this earth is to find that out, and then be it, do it.

 

You Create Life as You Wish - Neale Donald Walsch

Summary of Academic Source

From Individual choice to social good article.
Life is nothing more than a unique, intricate web of choices in which the water droplet drips upon and then falls.  But some times we are put into something we cannot control whether it be from nature or an experiment that we are asked to contribute in.  In this experiment, 33 women were given options and they chose the options on what they want and see how in the end it effects their social needs and abilities afterwards.  Upon the research I gathered from reading these women all experienced some different array of events happening after the choices that they made.  Some for the good others not as good, but each woman brought some sort of new significant enlightenment into their lives after  this experiment.