Emerson Day 7

This was the last day of my Emerson assignment. I spent today at home cooped up and doing homework, so not much exposure or talking. Overall, the assignment has been an eye-opening experience. I learned more about the thoughts that I express towards others and I learned about how one person's brutal honesty can affect other people's thoughts. If one is honest with another, they will be honest with you. I also learned that although Emerson is an iconic and important figure of American Literature, but that does not mean that we should all follow his words. We are not ourselves without the words that describe us. If we constantly spew a stream of honest consciousness, we risk hurting others and when we hurt others, we are alone. We can very easily lose ourselves in our own opinions and, by the same token, the opinions of others. If the philosophy of isolation works for you, then you do you. For the rest of the world, most people find it more important to make better connections with the people around them than strengthening ties within themselves. The whole idea of transcendentalism is going back to Nature to find ourselves and to be ultimately human, but in my opinion, we cannot accomplish this without contact with others. Other people make us who we are, so being honest breeds more honesty. Emerson was right about being yourself and staying true to your own path, but speaking your mind should be a person's own choice and although we would like people to be brutally honest, they are not always. The only solution to this, the way I see it, is for people to simply put out their thoughts in a way that makes sense, but drop harsh words. If people want to hear the truth, they will tell you. It is not a person's job to spread their opinion unless their opinion is asked for. In this way, the ways of Emrson should be understood and followed more loosely in today's society because things have changed since Emerson was alive.

Emerson Day 6

Yesterday was Day 6 of the Emerson assignment. I have reached the point where the days are more constant. What I mean by that, is that whereas before I was still getting used to the assignment, they have finally hit a spot where I have gotten used to it and it comes more naturally. I know I said before that being honest with people must be second nature because people did not notice much difference in my demeanor, but that does not mean that it was easy to suddenly make it a habit to always say what I'm thinking. As kids, my generation was lectured excessively on thinking before you speak so even though I can try to always speak my mind, I cannot shake that which has existed there for a long time. That being said, I am still prone to mistakes or circumstances in which I speak without thinking. Still, it is hard to override the instinct and suddenly make a seemingly reckless decision to say something despite whether it hurts someone's feelings or possibly affecting yourself. This is where Emerson's ideas can be problematic. If someone wants to cut off all ties with humanity and live among nature, his philosophy works. However, there is a much better way to get across your thoughts and ideas without risking anyone else in the process. One simply has to think about a nicer way to say things that still gets across the honest things that they want to say.

Emerson Day 5

So it is Day 5 of the Emerson assignment and I am more than half way done with this thing. Yay....? Today, for some reason, was particularly difficult. I am not quite sure why, but I found myself holding back unintentionally and then noticing myself holding back and almost forcing the words out. It was super weird. I also spent the majority of the day in New York City, but I am now back home sweet home! I found myself contemplating how odd the assignment was and then why I seemed to be having such an easy time with it. The simple answer to this would be that I am naturally honest with people...but is that really it? I guess I must have been taught that "honesty is the best policy" so that I would not have to think about it. However, I am also human and therefore, like most other humans, I lie so that could not possibly be just it. The more I began to think it made sense: being honest with others means being honest with yourself. Some people have it in their nature that they subconsciously beat down negative thoughts and say more positive things. That is not to say that I am positive all the time, but most people do not speak their minds for fear of hurting others or themselves. However, it still counts as speaking your mind if you think positively and spew those positive thoughts. This may be my answer.

Emerson Day 4

It is Day 4 of my Emerson assignment...and also Thanksgiving! Today I went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and observed some very interesting things. While I was there, around Columbus Circle, there was a HUGE police presence everywhere. One article I read said that they had sharpshooters, dogs, plain clothes police, etc. I found that although the police were there to show that there was a presence and to detect threats, they were also greeting people and being very nice to my sister and my mom and wishing us a happy holiday! There were also hundreds of people on all the balconies in the mall at Columbus Circle. I noticed that there were several people behind me that were young twenty-somethings who were talking a lot and seemed to be spewing whatever came to mind. One guy who was behind me kept talking about how stupid the balloons were and then the girl next to him was complaining that the parade ended with Santa's float. Something interesting about what I have observed so far about people, is that the younger they are, the more they are likely to speak whatever is on their mind regardless of their surroundings. Maybe it has to do with the fact that young people are more arrogant and more ambitious, but it also could be that young people tend to question society more than people over 30 do. Overall, it was very fun and I guess in a way they were carrying on Emerson's legacy in today's society.

Emerson Day 3

So right now, I am writing from a computer at CBS News HQ in New York. I have had a pretty exciting day so far. Mostly, I got strange looks from people, but that is most likely because there are more people and they don't know my mission (*evil laughter*). At this point, my family has gotten pretty used to it, so they know not to take offense to any of what I have said. This comes at quite an interesting time because we are in the aftermath of the Paris Terror Attacks and as a result, many world leaders are speaking out on the tragedy. All of the world leaders are talking about staying strong and also setting up more security measures, but in a position of power, one cannot always say what is on their mind because of the repercussions from the people of whatever country. In this way, this Emerson assignment brings up a pretty interesting point: if one has freedom of speech and is going to say what is on their mind, given their place in society: should they? For example, I am just some little fifteen-year-old from New Jersey. I can say what is on my mind and it will not affect anybody except my family and friends. If I was the governor of my state, I have to take into account the various political views of people in my state and the affect it would have on people's judgement. If I was the president of the US, I would have to care even more because if I said, "Every should go eat fries today," some people would start shoving their faces full of french fries and even maybe buy stock in Yukon Gold potato companies. That being said, if one monitors their speech all the time, he/she loses the personal touch and people won't be able to relate to them. That is the dilemma that politicians and others in power face every day. Some people are very good at it, some people try so hard to do the right thing, and some people end up in the news because of it. It is the line we must walk.

Emerson Day 2

So yesterday was Day 2 of living by Emerson's quote. So far, it's going pretty well. Being able to say whatever is on your mind is incredibly freeing. Yesterday, I found out about my audition results from the previous week and I was very happy when I got the role that I wanted. Usually I would be very quietly happy about it, but yesterday I was able to rejoice verbally. It was also nice to be able to say to my friends what I really like about the show or what I really like about the role. Speaking what is on your mind tends to take away your inhibitions and not necessarily in a bad way! People tend to associate speaking your mind with hurting other's feelings, but it can also mean bringing yourself and others closure of a matter. More often than not, people also respond well to brutal honesty because it is better than being lied to constantly. Nobody wants to believe that they are perfect and live in a bubble, rather than believe they are imperfect living in the real world where they can make themselves better. Today will be interesting though, because I am visiting my dad's workplace. He works for a television company, so I cannot typically speak my mind if I don't like a particular show that his company produces otherwise it culd compromise my dad's job.

Emerson Day 1

It is Day 1 of my Emerson assignment. I was asked to live by a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance essay for a week and observe how I approach my life differently as well as see how people respond to me. The quote that I chose is "Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today."To me, the quote means, being brutally honest with people in real life, even if it means contradicting my past beliefs of the aspect in question. I do not have much to report so far as it is only the first day of the assignment, however, I have already observed that most people do not notice a difference in my demeanor. This is both good and bad because it means that they think I am honest with them all the time, but that also means that they cannot tell the few times when I'm not saying what I'm thinking. Normally, I would say that I am honest with people about everything and if I am thinking something else that could possibly hurt someone's feelings then I will keep it to myself rather than say it out loud. I am not quite sure if that counts as lying. It's just not saying what I'm thinking. In that way I guess it's more of a half-truth...? I also have told some people (my sister and my closest friends) that I'm living by a quote for a week as a disclaimer that if anything seems particularly harsh, that it's because I'm not allowed to have a filter for a week. This may be hard for me because I am not used to just always spewing harsh realities at people regardless of if I hurt them or not, so I may have a bit of trouble with this. I guess we'll see!