Evolution

Human Becoming

Change in Everything

Igniting change in our lives begins when we experience a change in the world. The Earth is revolving at ten-thousand miles per hour and we are all along for the ride. Everything is in motion, interconnected, and nothing is truly still. The atoms between objects vibrate at their own frequency. All that is dormant or stagnant is constantly on the move despite their still appearance. In How We Became Human, Joy Harjo reminds us to, “Remember all is in motion, is growing is you” (42). Every being is always on the move, growing every second I am present here on this planet.

Every day, every second, I am different. My mind is prepared to absorb new information and my heart is ready to experience different emotions. Physically my body has changed inside and out with new cells being made every moment. With another day comes a whole new experience where I am challenged to be the best I possibly can be. My challenge every day is to learn from my mistakes and to show not only others but also myself that I am capable of doing better.

Purpose & Perspective

In a similar way, being a better person involves changing my perspective of those around me. In Kitchen Table Wisdom, Remen talks about “How We See One Another”. She recalls one story where her second cousin held onto her “private image” despite how much had changed for Rachel, her cousin, “still saw (her) as a hopelessly clumsy adolescent” (230). Rachel emphasizes the power that this private image had upon her own character and how it was disheartening. In the same way, I share the experience of fighting other’s “private image” of me as the “short” guy due to my height. I’ve spent nearly all my life seeking a way to grow yet, I had failed to see that my potential far outweighed what physical image I express to others. I’ve been able to get this far in life not because of my height, but because of the height of my character. From this, I have learned to effectively shift my thinking away from private images.

Redefining my Loneliness

Just as we have the power to choose to be better every day, we have the same power over the way we experience loneliness. I deepened my learning on this recently when, one night, my friends threw together a party and only a select few were invited to go. Unfortunately, I was not. I sulked in my dorm room that night confused about what I did to not be invited, feeling lonely and unwanted. While it took me that night to regroup my thoughts, I met up with those friends and asked them to talk about how I felt. In years past, I would have held a grudge and played the victim to get my friends to feel sorry. Instead, I found myself being an adult, understanding the reasoning and accepting it. At that moment, I felt fulfilled. I felt I had made progress in my character. I had controlled what loneliness meant to me and grown from the person I was only a few years ago. While being lonely in my dorm room may have felt negative at the moment, looking back at it I realized that I needed that period by myself to reflect and improve as a person. Loneliness has become a positive time of reflection for me and as Gao suggests, “necessary for the individual to establish themselves and to achieve things” (166). By embracing that loneliness I gave it a positive connotation and before I knew it, I was no longer focusing on being alone, rather I was focused on bettering myself.

Baseless Bias

The first time I tutored at Coleman I was placed with the 2nd-grade class where I met with a young Hispanic boy named H. In the beginning, H seemed like a typical troublemaker in the classroom, refusing to do work and ignoring any form of direction and from time to time spurring out some expletives in Spanish. From that first meeting, I “saw” him only as the rebel he was in the classroom, defining him by this identity of defiance, and could see the way people will judge even more critically based on culture and race. In, a TedTalk short “Unconscious Bias” is defined by the idea that students of color have a tendency to be disobedient and cause trouble. In short, unconscious bias is the idea that one part of who they are defines them as a whole, a bias that I myself experienced and saw firsthand at Coleman. Students like H experience this bias daily and at school when they get into trouble more often than not or find themselves struggling to understand homework in the classroom. This bias creates stereotypes and images of these students that simply aren’t true. In fact, at Coleman, the same population where a third of students were English learners, about 55% of the student population exceeded or passed English literacy and Mathematic state proving that these students have the capability to be great, yet the effects of racial discrimination separate students from who they really are and fabricate an identity for them that is tainted and spun by the unconscious bias they face.

A vibrant flower: Discovering beauty on the inside and outside

The moss on an old tree: Appreciating others history, their stories and life journey.

A small tree among giants: Feeling comfortable to be ourselves even when we are different from our surroundings

Divergence

Different religious idols from different religions.

Divergence is shown in that each religion has their own idea of the values of life, morals and beliefs. By being open-minded and open to divergent thinking in religion, cultures and nationalities are given wider perspectives.

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