Thanks Pete

Happy Thanksgiving!  During Thanksgiving I'm often reminded to be thankful for the food I have, the house I have, my clothes, my parents, my school, and of course my friends. There are several people I am thankful for in our English class, however because the assignment is only requesting one person the person I am thankful for in this blog is Peter.  This is the first year that we've had classes together and although we were friends last year I feel like we've become much better friends this year.  I don't think that there is much to say except that I'm very thankful to have him as a friend. We both have a similar sense of humor and whenever we are together we always have a good time.  I'm thankful that I really got to know you better this year Peter and I don't think English or P.E. would have been nearly as fun as they are if I didn't have them with you.

Song of Myself

In today's world there aren't enough people who think like Walt Whitman does, people that truly celebrate themselves.  People today can't celebrate themselves because society and the people that we as a society see as role models have taught us that we always need to reach for something more.  That there is no way to stay content with oneself as is.  Through this poem Whitman is going against these societal norms and this want for more.  He is being his own individual and deciding that what he has done with himself and with his life is really something to be celebrated.  I wish that I had the same mentality as Walt Whitman, but unfortunately I don't.  Of course there are parts of my life that I am happy with and are worth celebrating, but I couldn't go as far as saying that I could celebrate my entire being as a whole.  Whitman was content with his place in the world and he was fine leading a simple life in nature, but as time passed and society in the world and especially society in America changed we began to always more.  More money, more power, more fame, more political status, whatever it was, society has made it so that you can't be satisfied until you become the best there is at that thing.  Even then, however, after you've got money and power or whatever it was you wanted it isn't good enough to just stop and enjoy yourself.  People will just begin to turn to you to find out what your doing next in order to see what they should strive to be.  It becomes a cycle as new "role models" rise to the top and create standards for the next set of "aspiring role models." In a way, because of our need for more, the people of our society have lost their individualism and are moving farther and farther away from the transcendentalist ideas that enabled Whitman to celebrate himself the way he says he does.  Our society has just become a huge cycle of conformity.  I wish that I could celebrate myself and only myself, but unfortunately I consider myself a part of the conformity in our society and I just don't think that it is possible.