Love Love

Carpe Dium

Philosophizing does not come easily to me. That is why I took this course. I wanted to expand my mind and really try to become a philosopher. With our first test under our belts and moving on to Ishmael I have discovered that yes, I can be a philosopher just as much as the student sitting next to me. Henry David Thoreau’s Life in the Woods was an essay that I could really relate to. I feel like most of my life I am just going through the motions and not living life to the fullest. His quote “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” was an eye opener to me in that I do not want to lead a life of quiet desperation. Many masses of men do lead quiet desperation, you can see it driving in rush hour traffic. You can see it when you go to get a cup of coffee. Many people on this earth are simply going through the motions and just trying to survive life rather than live it. I want to “seize the day” if you will and make my life overflowing with experiences and meeting new people. Being a girl, I have also become quite attached to my belongings. My purses, my boots, my sunglasses, and so on. Thoreau wanted people to get back to basics and get rid of all of your material things and live without those things for a while. This also really spoke to me because I am very attached to my things, and I don’t know what I would do if they were taken away from me. I would feel as though a part of me was gone. And that is something that is frightening to me. No person should be that attached to their things.

It is honest to say that this essay has shown me another path in my life and it is my personal goal these next few months to really try to branch out and live by Thoreau’s philosophy. To achieve this goal, it will take a lot of work and I will really have to try. I have to be okay leaving my cellphone behind and I need to work on being okay with not wearing just the perfect outfit out for the night. This move towards simplicity is something that I feel compelled to do to make my life more fulfilling. I do not want to lead a mediocre life, I want to live life to the fullest so I can look back and be happy with the things that I did.

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