English for me was...
It was challenging, intriguing, yet satisfactory. For me IB english was a subject that enabled me to explore beyond that which I though I was capable of. Learning in this subject was not only about the language itself but also all that comes with it. Translation, culture, emotions, and morality were among many elements that were key during class. As I make this portfolio I am looking back at how much a progressed during the course of the last 2 years and I can say that I am happy with what I have achieved. If I was to express what english class was for me using one word I would say it was.
Evidences
Mimic poem.
Encapsulated in solitude, stands the ever-present silence of nature.
Hiding, living, watching, luring the outlandish.
And under the rain a boy stands,
Its reflection projecting on the water
Plop Plop a disappearing image of what once was a boy.
The man who stands,
He who reflects, and he who reviews.
He who imagines, and he who envisions.
He who overcomes, what he is yet to perceive
A boy, inside, afraid to see beyond the clouds.
Thoughts, Thrill, Thunder.
Thud! Awaken by his presence
He contemplates, considers, and finally, he continues.
Open Minded.
The making of this poem was special for me as it enabled me to express freely about a topic of my choosing. I would say this evidence is related to the IB characteristic of Open Minded because it was a project in which thinking outside the box was encouraged and in which I tried to do something different by basing it on an image I took and imagining a certain scene. Through this evidence I have also learnt the capabilities of poetry and how I am able to express something such as an image through a poem. It was interesting doing all this unit on poetry as I believe it is a completely different style of writing and expression than an essay for example. I was amazed at the potential to express emotions through poetry as well. Finally I would like to add that it was not an easy task and even though in a poem you are not writing as much the way you are writing it matter a lot. This means that each sentence is carefully thought.
Poem Voice Over:
Symbols in the Great Gatsby
The omnipresent viewer
Above us all
Do something wrong
And he’ll see it all
The death on the street,
The cheating of the neat,
The mischief in ashes,
The rattle in the darkness.
Two blue windows with full view,
Two Judges who overlook
A reminder of our place
In this terrible space
He lacked respect,
No hesitation to inspect
A fear to some
A god to others
Needless to say
There are no exceptions,
There is no archer
To this terrible watcher
Inquirers.
I believe that this evidence is an example of the IB characteristic of inquirers as it resembles a representation of a a certain meaning that's implicit within the text. During this work I not only learned the meaning of what T.J Eckleburg's eyes meant but also turning that message into a poem. It was challenging to come up with an idea of how I was going to represent a symbol through a creative way. After a lot of thinking I remembered the Mexican "calaverita" poems and decided to try and represent this symbol through this type of writing. I found it satisfactory to be able to create a poem about the symbolism of an element within the novel and most importantly I believe I had fun in doing so. A thing that I will apply in the future that I've learnt through this evidence is that sometimes you are able to present things through unconventional ways and still achieve the intended purpose.
Minimalism Documentary Reflection.
Would I be able to be minimalist? I don’t have a confident answer to that question because I have not experimented being minimalist. I think there are things I would be able to have a minimalist approach to and others that I think would be much more difficult. For example: I believe that in the clothing aspect I would do fine with maybe 3 different casual shirts but there are so many shirts and shorts and shoes I use for different things. I think I wouldn't be capable of doing this part of minimalism. I have only two pairs of casual shoes and one pair of flip flops but I have many tennis shoes: A pair for speed runs, a pair for long runs, a pair which I use to compete, a pair for trail running and another pair for when this trail running is on wet terrain, and special pair for cycling. In summary I think I appreciate each pair a lot and equally because for me each one of them has a purpose. To me this adds value to my life. A thing I think I would be happy about minimalism is that I am not the most organized person with my stuff and I think having less stuff would actually make my surroundings have a little more order to them.
Now that I think I believe that there are only three rooms in my house which I use everyday: My room, the kitchen, and the living room. And out of this my room I use it mainly to sleep and for the bathroom, the kitchen when I cook and it is where we sit, and finally the living room is where I take classes and also where I exercise. In conclusion I believe that the aspect of having a smaller house would not be a true problem for me, also apart from my clothes and my bike I do not own that much stuff. Every year we take out everything that we no longer need and that which is in pretty good condition we give it to my little cousins and the rest we donate it, this includes clothes, our old toys and the things we no longer use. I consider myself to be someone who has not that much attachment to things. I think I have not bought anything on amazon for maybe 4 months and the last thing I ordered was a protector case for my phone. Also a fun fact, the last two t-shirts I bought I designed them and I had them made on the cheapest plain shirts I could find. The thing is that these two shirts I use every week because I like them. Now that I reflect on it I think that in the anti consumerism part of minimalism I am close enough to think that it is something achievable. An experience I now think of that is surprising now that I go back on it is that about maybe 4 years ago they stole my IPad and at the time it seemed that it was a terrible thing. Now 4 years after this I think that I really have not missed the IPad and I have no intentions of getting another one. I believe I am fine with what I have and a bigger screen to the phone does not add anything to my life.
Finally I think that being successful is being happy with your own achievements. Successfulness is not determined by anyone but yourself. You give your own definition of what is success and that is what you should aspire towards. It is completely based on the opinion of each individual and I believe it is a personal goal. Many times this success comes hand by hand with happiness and this is an essential part of it as it means that something inside of you thinks that you have done things the right way.