Reflection Essay #6

Many of the friendships I have in life are utility friendships. While I have quite a few pleasure friendships, I would still have to say that the majority are utility friendships because we don't often share more than the benefits received from being a part of the relationship. The closest relationships I can relate to the friendship of virtue are with my roommate and best friend from home. The largest thing that would need to change to acheive this is the aspect of complete equality and good intentions though. I often find that, either they or I act on selfishness instead of the well being of the other. However, both of these friends are the closest I have to perfect equality and I value both of them for being a part of my life.

The largest incident challenging my core beliefs happened during the last couple years of high school. Being raised in a christian home, I had many beliefs instilled in me from an early age. However, once certain events in high school occurred, it led to the questioning of my sexuality, as well as my religion. I used to deal with it by mentally abusing myself if I felt that I strayed away from the person I "wanted" to be. There were very many times during this period of my life that almost every reaction I had was purely a product of my emotion. My lack of concern for the consequences usually ended up leaving me feeling more insecure than if I had tried to react with more of an open mind. After going away to college, the independence I had finally gave me enough time to figure out that I was who I was, and the only way to reach my dreams was to accept and embrace the part of me I was trying so hard to eliminate. Dealing with this challenging life experience ended up shaping who I am today. And that person is a much happier and successful person than I ever imagined possible. 

Reflection Essay # 5

The first childhood memory of creativity and imagination to come to my mind is about a game one of my childhood friends and I used to play. We were super into the Power Rangers and we would always make believe our own adventures fighting against evil with the power to transform ourselves, teleport anywhere, and operate giant robots. We both had trampolines so we would bounce around and try to replicate all of the fighting moves and other crazy stunts we saw the Power Rangers do. I always remember it being so much fun to just escape to a world of imagination.

Recently, I feel like I have utilized creativity to solve a problem in many different instances. The most significant instance I can think of relates to my participation in Xi Man on campus. As a part of the show, I needed to figure out what I was going to wear during the different competitions. One of the costumes I had come back to school with from home ended up getting slightly destroyed because I ended up getting stuck in it and had to tear my way out. However, rather than just giving up the idea or finding a different costume option, I thought about how I would be able to make it work. After finding a few clothespins and some other articles of clothing I didn't care about, I was able to successfully finish my costume. It actually ended up working out better than it would have if it didn't break in the first place!

The most significantly creative moment out of the superheroes we have covered in class is from the movie Captain America. The event that I remember most vividly is when he is at the military camp and retrieves the flag, much to everyone's surprise. He observed the other attempts fail and thought of alternative ways to finish his task. It ended up making the task much simpler and it bought him a lot of respect. Due to his creative response, it aided Captain America's growth as a respected individual in the camp before he was physically changed by the experiment. This act helped illustrate the kind of person that was "inside" the superhero we know as Captain America.

Reflective Essay #4

If I had to create a "fiction suit" for myself that would interact with a superhero, it would be to interact with Spider-man. I would be trying to take a picture of him beating up some bad guy, and a large chunk of building would start to fall above me. Spider-man would swing down and grab me, the set me down somewhere safe.

Over the weekend I went home which actually provided me with the perfect opportunity to let one of my friends know how much I appreciate him. We happened to be driving around when the conversation came up. He was telling me about something nice that another friend of ours did for him. This reminded me of all the times that he had been a good friend to me. This thought led me to simply telling him that he was a really great friend and I really appreciated getting to hang out with him. He responded, explaining similar feelings to mine and then the conversation returned to other various stories from the past few weeks. I feel like sharing my thoughts with him went really well, and receiving similar feedback made me happy. I will say, my initial feeling about the conversation was that I was stating an obvious fact out loud. However, I feel like the interaction was beneficial to our friendship. It felt great to openly share everything with him and I am looking forward to our next chance to hang out!

Reflection Essay # 3

This past week in reflections class was short, but it covered a lot of information about superheroes that was very interesting to me. The readings we had went in to detail about various heroes and sort of gave a picture of what is going on the inside instead of what you may see on the surface. It was very fascinating to see all of these underlying traits because they could be so easily connected to my own life.

One of these topics that I found particularly interesting was the day we talked about why a hero would choose to be a hero. While the characters portrayed in the comics, movies, and television shows have the tendency to make their “super jobs” look easy, taking a closer look at what their jobs actually entail show it for what it is. Being a super hero is a sacrifice in many senses. They may be imbued with fantastic powers, but the decisions they have to make with their lives are not easy. They are ever vigilant and righteous. Those two traits alone are nearly impossible for anyone, including myself, to hold up for a whole day. The superheroes we have been talking about do it all day every day and they never seem to grow weary.

Seeing that these superheroes are fictional, it makes sense that they are capable of doing what we would consider impossible. However, that does not mean that we should overlook their good deeds. I think that if anything we should embrace the selfless way of life that they exhibit. They are the ideal examples of how one can live a pure and good life. They also teach how to deal with the threats of evil in ways that don’t, in turn, make them just as treacherous. I feel like if more people made an effort to walk in the life of their favorite superheroes, it could go a long way to making the world a better place.

This is still just the beginning of the inner workings of superheroes. I am excited for the upcoming topics we will be covering in class. I am also really looking forward to taking my own values and ideals and creating my own “super identity.” 

Reflection Essay # 2

              This week in Reflections Class, we took a closer look at some very important aspects about superheroes. Such aspects were the superheroes’ secret identity versus a “real” identity, the morality superheroes have, and the rise of superheroes in a specific historical context. All of these are very crucial to understanding the superhero and how they carry through with their magnificent existence. Throughout looking at these concepts, we took a look at how these things can connect to our own lives. There seems to be a lot to learn about superheroes.

            To begin, I would like to talk about a couple of the concepts we covered during class. The first one I would like to mention is about the superheroes’ identity. The aspect of the secret identity versus a real life identity is such an interesting characteristic of superheroes to me. The contrast shown between their dual lives is sometimes mind-blowing. However, I have learned how important this is when you take into account for all of the people that could be harmed if the enemy knew of the superheroes’ personal life. An example that reminds me of this point is from the first Spiderman movie. The Green Goblin gets a hint that Peter Parker is behind the mask. This leads to the attack on Aunt May. Peter Parker then understood the importance of remaining anonymous, as did I.

            The next aspect of the superhero that I found fascinating was the apparent system of morals that each superhero operated by. This struck me as a very “human” characteristic because we humans usually run off of a set of morals as well. Superheroes just seem to be much more steadfast at holding themselves accountable to a near perfect state. An example of this that came to me instantly is of Batman. The way he clings to his no killing policy stands out more to me than that of other superheroes in many cases. There are so many instances where he has the opportunity to end them forever, but he chooses instead to have them face the law. Despite their nearly inevitable escape, he continually follows this way of dealing with his enemies. I have a lot of respect for this kind of loyalty to one’s ideals.

            Many of these aspects have some relation to my life. As mentioned in class, I do not have a secret identity. However, I do have different “identities” for the various groups of people in my life. I act a lot differently around my family members than I do my friends. In example, I watch my language more at home whereas I let some four letter words slip out when I am with friends. And while that may not be the best comparison to secret identities, it definitely illustrates the point of sometimes having to hide parts of who you are from others.

 As I mentioned above, it is very easy to connect to the superheroes when looking at morals. My morals aren’t quite as vigilant as those of Superman or Batman, but the basic similarities do exist. I can always empathize with Batman though. I don’t think I would be able to kill anyone, but boy would I enjoying kicking the crap out of some corrupt politicians, among other villains, before shipping them off to the dog house. To be Batman, what a life that would be! There is still a lot to learn before I can commit to a life like that. It is clear now that there is a lot more than meets the eye with superheroes.

Reflective Essay # 1

Will Deuerling

INTG-323

M. Harrison

30 January 2012

Who’s your favorite superhero?

            This first week of class has been a great experience. I am really excited to see the direction of the class as I progress through the semester. This week we went over the general history of superheroes, a “superheroes 101” of sorts. That brings me to this reflection, which asked who my favorite superhero is. I would have to say that my favorite superhero is Wolverine from the X-Men. There are many things that I enjoy about this character, and I have some vivid memories from my past pertaining to him.

            To begin, I will talk about what I find in Wolverine that I like. In general, I have loved the X-Men my whole life. The idea of younger people finding out that they had super powers that make them “different” was so cool to me. What I specifically enjoyed about Wolverine was his overall attitude. He was definitely an Anti-Hero because he was very violent and vengeful; however these traits play into what I like about him.  Throughout the movies and the old shows that I have seen Wolverine in, he was always passionate about what he was doing. While he may have acted reckless many times, he was always backed by this amazing drive to keep fighting for what he thought was right. This commitment to himself and his ideals was very inspiring. The other X-Men were in no way NOT passionate, but many times they seemed to just go with the flow to do what was right. Wolverine stuck out because of his personal feelings that seemed to fuel his rage as well as his drive to bring wrongdoers to justice.

            As a child, it is easy to understand that I didn’t have quite the same understanding of Wolverine as I do today, but I enjoyed him as a part of the TV show all the same. I always laugh at how nostalgic I feel when I see the old images of him in his bright yellow costume. I vividly remember dressing up as Wolverine one year for Halloween and finally getting a stab at taking on the bad guys in a bright yellow jumpsuit. Of course, having some fake claws strapped to my hands was exciting and empowering as a kid too. Having this costume at my disposal, I also remember countless hours of playing around the neighborhood with my friends. We would run around attacking imaginary bad guys with our amazing and fantastic (yet also imaginary) super powers. I always loved fighting my imaginative evil as a kid because I was passionately invested in making the experience as real as possible for myself. Looking back at it now, I could say with a fair amount of certainty that my passion in playing was a parallel connection with the passion seen in Wolverine that I mentioned earlier.

            Though cartoons and comics featuring superheroes are commonly associated with entertaining kids, I think they can be the “ideal model” to look up to in some real life situations. When looking at the question, “How might imagining ‘What would Wolverine do?’ help you solve a problem or deal with an issue in your adult life?” I thought of a very personal, but appropriate example of this happening in my life. My first thought was about what Wolverine might do in any given situation. I came to the conclusion that he would do whatever it takes to be himself and never back down to those that didn’t accept that he was “different.” I can’t compare his acts of violence and the fear he generated to my life, but his pride in being different and his commitment to stand up for himself fits the bill. His pride and confidence in being different connects with my feelings relating to my sexuality and my discovery of who I am. Fortunately, I have never experienced any personal oppression for being gay, unlike Wolverine who faced many problems due to his being a mutant. However, I feel that I deeply understand his acceptance of being different and the desire for others to do the same. Looking at this connection to my life today, embracing an attitude similar to Wolverine’s would help me to sustain a sense of confidence in who I am. I guess I owe him some thanks for setting an example to follow whenever I am faced with negativity for being different.