Metacognition: Detail

      Recently, our English class completed the final draft of our poems. This poetry assignment was rigorously tackled over a four-week period, and the satisfaction that I felt when I finally finished my poem was overwhelming. With guidance, I nurtured and developed the poem until it was something so meaningful and powerful that it fostered in me something that I had never felt before when it came to writing poetry: Pride. As a result of the amount of work that I had invested into my poem, I could not resist being proud of the progress that I had made. I was especially proud of the creative leaps I had made, from a shitty first draft to a true work of art.
     
     However, even before the initial draft of a poem, a creative groundwork has to be laid. To me, this was accomplished through the Emotional Resonance exercise. In this primary exercise, I had to come up with the essence of the poem, or what the poem was going to be about. This may seem like a simple task, but it requires more than meets the mind. A poem cannot be masterfully constructed without a solid base, just as a building cannot be built without a solid frame. And what constitutes as a solid base? A moment. A powerful moment has the potential to be filled with emotional narrative and revolutionary insights. After a period of thought, my poem's moment came to me. It was perfect and undeniably a moment with much potential; it was a bank robbery. With a powerful moment established as my poem's structure, the next step was by far the most difficult. I had to actually write the thing.

     To me, the first draft of my poem was the worst part of the poetry-writing process. Although building a poem based on a bank robbery opened countless doors that I could have taken in terms of emotional narratives, choosing which doors to enter in which order was extremely stressful. The only possible way of completing such a task was to buckle down, and face the writing head on. After around two hours of typing, deleting, and listening to inspirational music, my first draft had been completed. Through the foggy lenses of an exhausted brain, I was impressed at the product of my labor. However, little did I know that the poem with the most amount of work invested in it would yield the worst results.

    Poetry has to aim for clarity through fresh language. I had always known this in the back of my mind, but I did not truly comprehend what it meant until my first draft was returned to me. For a reason unknown to me, I believed that poetry was beautiful through ambiguity. It sounds silly, but I truly thought that by muddying up the water it would make it easier to see whats underneath. Now that I think about it, any logical person would have face-palmed at that thought. Therefore, with this new epiphany in mind, I followed the advice I was given and began to edit my poem. Well, I failed again, as the poem still contained wrung-out language, submerged in gross, muddy water. I was obviously doing something wrong, and eventually came to the conclusion that I had built my poem wrong and started fresh. With the newly acquired insight in mind, I wracked my brain for a way to create a crystal clear poem, and I eventually found the answer. The key is in the details.

      The mistake that I had made over and over again was I wasn't being transparent. Therefore, I made it my goal to be as precise as possible. The first and most influential leap that I made in my poem was when I gave the poem a location. At the time, I was listening to "Calgary" by Bon Iver, and at that moment, I decided to define a setting for my poem. Immediately after doing so, the creative juices could not be stopped. I began writing an extremely detailed poem, and I found that the beauty was truly in the words, not in the ambiguity of the poem. I wrote, in beautiful detail, about the snow coating the grass, the encounter between the robber and the bank manager, and even the decaying teeth of the criminal. After one more edit to completely eradicate cliche language and to extend the story of certain parts of the story, a wonderful emotional narrative was born. I believe that I was successful in writing a poem to be proud of all because of my revelation in writing poetry. Through the arduous and rewarding process of writing a poem, I revealed the beauty of language, the beauty of words, the beauty of detail.

Get Organized: The Garage

      For this thought experiment, I completely cleaned and reorganized my garage. Out of all the places in my house, the garage has to be the one with the least traffic (pun totally intended). The only time that the garage is ever occupied is when we are going to and from the car. Therefore, over time, dust, leaves, and cobwebs began call the garage their home. It wasn't a small chore, so my mom told my brother to help me out.

      Before we began the process of tediously cleansing the garage, I just took a look around to see what I was about to deal with. Truth be told I was uncomfortable standing in the midst of the place. The grimy conditions had penetrated all corners of the room, and I was unsure whether I was even in my clean, comfortable house at all. I am no clean freak, but I felt the instant need to clean up that garage to the best of my ability because I did not feel comfortable knowing that a desolate spider nest lay behind my back door.
My brother and I cranked it out over the next forty minutes. Our approach was efficient and methodical. We first took brooms and swept the leaves and dust that coated the floor. It took an extra effort to completely vacate the small cracks that patterned the ground. Then, my brother hosed down what the brooms could not sweep as I began to tackle the job of cleaning the window. Our garage has a sole window that had become a suburban neighborhood of cobwebs and other insects. I took to the hose and washed the whole mess out of the garage. The hard part of the process had been completed and all that was left was to put misplaced objects where they needed to be, and my task was over. Although the work was tiresome and trivial, it felt good knowing that I was working towards a goal that would ultimately make me more comfortable in my home. When I saw the fruits of my labor, I was glad that I had invested the time into cleaning my garage.

      The mental change that I experienced was much more profound than I had anticipated. I mean, what how could doing a chore possibly benefit someone's state of mind? The truth is, I believe that any type of organization or cleaning can truly affect the cognition of a person. The physical action of cleaning anything, whether it be a garage or your own work desk, directly correlates to the state of your mind. Once I surveyed my newly spotless garage, I felt, for lack of a better term, better. My mind had obtained a clarity and satisfaction that that certain location was now clean and orderly, almost as if my mind had become clean and orderly in return. I had experienced this before when I simply organized my desk, as I seem to work at higher capacities when there aren't papers and binders strewn all over the place. In addition to this euphoric feeling, the act of cleaning anything also leads you to discover or rediscover something new about what you are cleaning. When I reorganized my garage, I came upon countless objects that I had forgotten about throughout the years: battered baseball mitts, my old skateboarding helmet, and I glow-in-the-dark basketball I had received for my eighth or ninth birthday. These objects gave me refreshing childhood memories that acted as a reward in a way of its own.

      This cleansing experiment taught me a lot about the connection between the mental and physical worlds. The brain truly behaves in certain ways that are completely dependent to the orderly nature of its physical surroundings and interactions. Clarity is paralleled in the environment and the mind, and one directly influences the other. I hope to keep this in mind for the future and use this knowledge to enhance the efficiency of myself, in both mental and physical ways.

Metacognition: Writing Poetry

      For a very long time, writing poetry had been an extremely easy process. To me, poetry was simply the creative composition of words in lines and stanzas to develop an artistic story. Therefore, the process was simple. I would first think of one story or event that I could somehow shape into a poem. Then, I would crack down on the meat of the poem itself. I dished out amazing rhymes and organized the words into neat little stanzas that made the paper seem clean and complete. And that was it; the poem would be complete in a matter of thirty-five minutes. This brief process reflects my previous beliefs regarding poetry: it was a giant waste of time. Why go through the trouble of writing a poem when there are easier ways of communicating messages and stories? However, as we began to actually study poetry in class, I realized that poetry was much more than meets the eye.

      Poetry was much more than interesting and extensive than I had previously believed. As we dissected numerous poems from various authors, I began to see the layers of thought and material that lay beyond the meanings of the words themselves. There were literary devices and methods that were present in poetry that I never knew to have existed. I began to see the use of enjambment, extended metaphors, non sequiter, juxtaposition, and even the change in tempo and rhythm of words. Once all of these techniques became available to me, I saw the need to alter my process of writing poetry.

     As we learned how identify these poetry techniques in class, I attempted to use them in my first draft of my poem. My method in writing my poem became almost formulaic, as I analyzed each poetic skill and saw if they would fit well within the realm of my poem. This was completely different than my previous spontaneous approach. I actually took note of the placement of my words, the sound that my words would make in succession, and the layers of information that I could conceal under a few stanzas of poetry. This deep analysis and execution of poetry was completely new to me. I had always believed that good poetry was born from the random spark in the mind and instinctive writing. However, I came to realize that poetry was should be tediously crafted to truly make it beautiful. 

    At first, the formulaic approach to poetry seemed counter-intuitive. I had my doubts thinking that the approach could harshly limit my creativity. However, this was not the case. I found that inputting these techniques into the poem took all the creativity in the world. Manipulating the English language by using the techniques takes an extensive reserve of creativity to accomplish. In the future, I do not intend on changing this new method in writing poetry because I find the formulaic method to be rather rewarding. When I finally completed my poem, it was satisfying to look over the work and visualize the layers of information that I constructed beneath the words. I'm thoroughly surprised by this because I never thought that writing poetry, my previous bane to my existence, could be so satisfying. I'm glad that I discovered this way of thinking because it gives me a new drive and incentive when it comes to poetry, and will definitely be helpful in many other aspects of literature as well.

Blogging Around

Andy Han wrote a blog titled "An Inconvenient Truth: My Dream Might Not Come True". In this blog, Andy describes his mental struggle in overcoming numerous obstacles when it came to reaching his goal of one day becoming a doctor. The message was clear, no matter how dismal the path may seem, you must never lose faith and strive to live your dream. In response, I wrote...


Andy, I really like the message behind this post. Your mindset of overcoming every obstacle is legitimately inspiring. When someone isn't dealt the right hand, he/she shouldn't throw those cards away. Optimism is the perfect response to any situation. However, I don't think I have it in me to be completely optimistic. 

Throughout all of my life, my father had always told me that life is unfair. Actually, life is downright cruel. I am forced to realize that some things are simply impossible for me to accomplish. My dream had been to be a musician or work in some field pertaining to music. However, something tells me that reaching my goal will be impossible. The music industry is extremely selective, and depends on a whole lot of luck. My talents will never measure up to those whose lives revolve around the musical world. That is something I will have to live with. So in short, I believe that you should strive for all that is within reason. Some things are just unattainable, but Andy, go save some lives.

Kali Croke wrote a blog titled "iMedia: "Society" by Eddie Vedder. This blog analyzes Eddie Vedder's song from the movie Into the Wild. The movie was about a young man who cuts his ties with the civilized world and hitchhikes all the way to Alaska. Kali went off of this and wrote about society's affect on the minds of people and the limitations that they set on the mindsets of the human race in terms of greed and material possession. To this, I responded...


This post does a fantastic job of illustrating society's unrelenting grasp and influence on the minds of us all. Society manipulates, shapes, and at times even controls our thoughts and emotions, like "a tight rope around our subconscious." However, I do not believe that society is a completely terrible thing. There is another aspect of society that molds human behavior and thought: the cultural aspect.

As human beings, we live our lives under the guidelines and rules established through centuries of culture and civilization. All of this rich history has molded society into what we experience today. Yes, this does include patriarchy, a lust for material goods, and racism. However, it is also responsible for music, friendship, arts, and the other beauties of life. I cannot imagine a world without these wonders, and if society is influencing my thoughts at this moment, then so be it.

For this reason, I embrace society instead of reject it. In a way, society influences all of our minds, but in very different ways. As contradictory as that sounds, it is true: society nurtures individuality. 

An Inconvenient Truth: Politics

      The United States of America is known as the land of the free, the land of endless opportunities. At the head of this wonderful nation lies our government, a democratic republic with a charismatic and intelligent individual holding the reigns. This is our president. He is the one who toils for the people and fights to preserve the rights that Americans hold so dear. When I was an uninformed child, I believed that the elections were an efficient and effective way of choosing the right leader to propel our nation into prosperity. However, after closely observing this year's presidential elections, I have come to realize the saddening truth. The method of electing our nation's leader is a giant political mess.

      At the center of this politically charged jumble stands the men competing for the most important job in the country. My initial discovery when analyzing the 2012 elections were the actions of the candidates themselves. After listening to countless talk shows and programs on what each candidate planned to do concerning important topics from health care to gun control, I couldn't find myself believing anything both Romney or Obama was saying. In my opinion, the candidates were only attempting to appeal to the variety of ethnic groups and income classes that inhabit this nation. In class, Mr. Williams even said that candidates tend to adopt extremely republican or democratic viewpoints in order to appeal to the extremists and later comfortably shift into viewpoints that appeal to the rest of the voting population. This includes recounting previously stated stances. I believe that it is time to address the elephant in the room (no pun intended). Is it okay to elect a man who will eventually lead our nation whose eyes are focused on the throne and not the future of the country? There is the argument that getting elected is the first priority, and from there the president is able to make changes to the country. However, I don't see how a president is allowed to rise to power by stating plans that he may not even believe in or will not even follow through with. I know that at the end of the day, this meaningless banter works and gets candidates elected, but is this truly the path our nation should be on?

      An inconvenient truth lies within the claims that candidates make. In every election, the individual that is running against the former president always makes it a point to blast the efforts and progressions of the president's previous term. Because of the wedge between the ideals of the republicans and democrats, the opposing party always recants the progress of the former Commander in Chief. A four year term is a small blip in the huge scale of history. I believe that no significant changes can be made in the small course of a presidential term. To make things worse, if every new president has an opposing mindset, I do not see a significant course of action to mend our countries problems like the national debt and ridiculous health care costs. This wild ride of contradicting actions welds our nation to the floor, and it's going to take a very expensive power tool to lift our nation back into motion.

      I always hoped that the elections and politics were a foolproof way of electing an individual that could harness the powers of presidency and drive our country into the right direction, but I don't think that is the case anymore. Maybe I am just a pessimist and a skeptic who doesn't value the good in the system, but I simply don't see it. There are too many obstructions that prevent an election of my description. The sad thing is, there is absolutely no way that the system will be changed. The only thing I can do is ride out the wave and live with this grand inconvenient truth: Politics is a mess.

Best of Today: A Moment

      Today in class, we watched a video that really stood out to me. It was a video that was simply titled "Moments". The artistic piece consisted of a montage of seemingly random clips, where each one showed a brief moment in someone's life. The clips varied from mundane tasks like an old woman eating cereal to simple pleasures of life like a man casting his rod into the lagoon. Meanwhile, the entire collaboration was accompanied by and edited to the rhythm of a serene soundtrack. Although our class focused more on the artistic and poetic aspects of the video, it wasn't the emotional crescendo or the expertly placed transitions that grabbed my attention. These artistic aspects only amplified the "real deal breaker". In fact, the message of the video is what caused me to take such interest in the topic. In a mere four minutes and seventeen seconds, the video exclaimed the beauty of the current moment; the beauty of the present.

      If the present is as enticing and interesting as the video suggests, then why does society disregard the current moment? It is a shame that people are completely unaware of the beauty of now. I am also at fault. As I reflect upon my life, there has never been a moment in my life when I noticed the poetic and wonderful nature of showering, taking a walk, or riding shotgun in my brother's car. As ridiculous as that sounds, it is a damn shame. People, myself included, only tend to inquire into the future and reflect on the past. The shower is a preparation for the day to come, the walk is about getting to school on time, and the car ride is fast way to the Chipotle that will satisfy the deprived stomach. Society has become obsessed with the hurried mindset, and there is no room for the present in that limiting frame.

      From the day a person is born, society begins to craft and shape his/her mind to adapt the hurried mindset. I was looking to the future for as long as I can remember. In fact, I had foreseen my life plan since I was six years old. It was to do well in school, graduate elementary school, ace classes in middle school, move on to high school, score insanely well on the ACT's and SAT's, get accepted into an impressive university, graduate with a degree in something worth it, find a job, find a wife, buy a home, raise a family, retire, and die. Sounds fickle, doesn't it? So far, every step of the way, I had looked on to the next step in this grand plan, just as everyone else does in this faulty system. There is no reason why this should continue. This mindset of always looking ahead makes no sense to me, but it is so prevalent in my life and in the lives of others.

      What is so appealing about the future and the past that trumps the necessity of embracing the present? I couldn't tell you even if my life depended on it. That is because the present is much more relevant than the future or past. The past are events that have happened, and there is no reason to be constantly worrying about events that can never be changed. On the other hand, the future is completely unknown. One cannot predict how his life will twist and turn to change the outcome. The best thing someone can do is to live in the moment. The focus should be on riding those twists and turns and actually observing the life that actually matters: the life that you are living right now. The video "Moments" really made that register in my head. I hope that everyone will learn that if you want to see life's best moments, just take the time to look around.

Best of Week: Sex vs. Gender

     Throughout the week, there has been an onslaught of questions and discussions regarding the distinctions between sex, gender and the roles that people are given by society. This interesting topic of the difference between males and females was sparked by Orlando's strange transformation from a man to a woman in the third chapter of Virginia Woolf's Orlando. In the fictional biography, Orlando had underwent a mystical procedure that had morphed him into a her. In addition to this interesting change, Virginia Woolf made it a point to show that the Orlando's identity had remained the same and that there was no key difference after the transformation besides the obvious change in sex. This clearly dictates Woolf's opinion that there should be no distinction between the roles that males and females play in society. True to the Academy standard, the discussion that ensued contorted into a variety of tangents which included an inquiry into the male and female mind and homosexuality.

      In order to tackle the incredibly charged topic of the sexes, our class first had to define the following terms: Sex and Gender. To me, they were the exact same thing. I believed that these two terms were used as a way to identify oneself as a male or a female. However, with the help of the omniscient internet, the class had eventually come to the conclusion that sex and gender were completely different things. In fact, when you are talking about someone's sex, you are addressing them in a strictly biological sense, either male or female. However, a person's gender is referring more to their cultural, behavioral, and psychological traits that are usually associated with their sex. This sparked an incredibly interesting thought in my mind. Was it possible to be a male sexually and be categorized in the female gender? Was that homosexuality? There were many questions that were bouncing around in my head like rapid fire. 

      To answer my own question, I now know that no, having a female-like gender while being a male is not homosexuality, and I am about to explain why. Mr. Allen had brought in a book (which title has completely eluded me) that details recent scientific studies of the mind. The studies state that male minds typically are more apt to be mathematical and literal. On the other hand, the female mind is more likely to comprehend emotions and be more sensitive. The words "more apt" and "more likely" are key here. This does not mean that every man thinks like a machine and every woman cries when insulted. In fact, every person on this planet has a part of the opposite sex's "mind". The point that I am trying to reach here is that if the definition of "gender" is behavioral and psychological traits that a person exhibits, then why are people defined as having a male or female gender when every person has both traits? Gender, as I learned previously, is not the same thing as sex. Sex is defined as black or white. You are either a guy or a girl and there are no exceptions. However, I have come to realize that gender can be described by more than black and white, there can be reds, blues, and an army of other colors and hues in there as well, and it is not fair to make the assumption that a person has either a strictly male or strictly female gender. 

      Society is too ignorant to acknowledge this. People cannot make the distinction between gender and sex, and as a result, they cry homosexuality when a person exhibits an unexpected quality. This is simply inconsiderate. Homosexuality is only defined by the attraction to the same sex. Gender has absolutely nothing to do with this. For example, Mr. Allen also spoke of a Native American author who had a very sensitive side and was frequently called gay. The author (whose name also eludes me...) said that if he is gay for being a sensitive man, then he is gay, but in terms of the sex that he has, he is completely heterosexual. As we saw in the documentary Tough Guise, society pushes the thought that a man has to act like a person with a thick leather skull and gargantuan muscles, and a woman has to be a beautiful and emotional being. Just because the author had long hair, and cried when someone close to him died, he was immediately pegged as a gay person. I hope that one day, these ridiculous assumptions will be thrown into the wind. In order for people to progress as a species, we cannot keep limiting the mind as sex specific. The difference between gender and sex is too profound to ignore.

Captured Thought: A Lasting Legacy

          Recently, I have encountered a thought that I find to be extremely profound. While reading the book Orlando, a fictional biography by Virginia Woolf, an interesting idea was introduced to me. The protagonist was wandering the family sepulchre when he saw that all that was left of his ancestors was a hand, a skull, and other skeletal remains. These men had fought in wars and raised families but all that was left behind were bones. At that point, Orlando realized that he wanted to be remembered for more than his femur and clavicle that would eventually be buried alongside his ancestors. Orlando wanted to leave an astounding legacy through literature that would be recognized until the human race itself died out. The notion of a lasting legacy was imprinted in my thoughts ever since I read that passage. I keep asking myself, what do you want to be remembered for when you're dead and gone?

         I feel like this question had always been lingering in my brain, but I had not given it much thought until I read about Orlando's epiphany. Before, this question took the form of, "What do you want to do as a career when you graduate college?" Now I know that the better inquiry is what legacy or imprint I would like to leave behind. I had always put off the idea of what I would do with the remainder of my life thinking I had a lot of time to contemplate the thought. I mean, I am only fifteen years old, and I have been told that even college students have not figured out what path they would take. But now I realize that attempting to find out exactly what impact I want to make in this world is an extraordinary challenge.

         My goals are different than Orlando's in the fact that I have no interest in creating an "immortal legacy". I do want to impact this world in a way that means a lot to me personally, but I could not care less if I invented a groundbreaking technology or discovered  a new element. Although those would be amazing achievements and I would revel in the fame and fortune that would ensue, I would be perfectly content by impacting this world in a simple and satisfying manner. If I left this world with a grateful and loving family and was respected by my friends and colleagues, I could die a happy old man knowing that my impact was definitely profound. However, the specific legacy that I will leave behind is a complete mystery to me. As I age, I am certain that my priorities and values will evolve. However, with determination and tenacity, life has the tendency to work itself out. I am sure that my legacy will make me proud.

        Nothing but benefits comes from human aspiration to be or create something great. The world will be more beautiful, efficient, and thrilling. Why should the population live life without the incentive to leave any kind of legacy, grand or satisfying? Like Orlando's spark of insight, I hope that this thought captures and ignites the minds of the whole world around me, and people will strive to be remembered for something better than their bones.

-Minho Park