Can Despair Create Happiness?

During my Freshman year of College, I had the opportunity to take part in a Drama class. In this class, we watched a lot of movies, trying to analyze what type of camera angles were being used, if we could really believe the acting of the characters, and in this case we would have the ability to critique the movie. There was this one movie, which really grabbed my attention, it was not due to the phenomenal acting, the strong story line, or the cinematography, but it was because of this one statement from one of the characters.

This movie was "Little Miss Sunshine", in this film it gave a detailed analysis of the complex inner-workings of the average family, as this one family would experience their own set of complex problems. Toward the end of the movie, there was this scene where Frank (Steve Carrell) was speaking to Dwayne (Paul Dano), about a comment that he made about wanting to skip through high school.

The dialogue is presented as follows, thanks to imdb.com: (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449059/quotes)

"Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap-high school and everything-just skip it.
Frank: Do you know who Marcel Proust is?
Dwayne: He's the guy you teach.
Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he's also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh... he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, 'cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn't learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you're 18... Ah, think of the suffering you're gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that. "

The basic meaning of this dialogue is centered on the belief from Frank, that the years which Proust suffered through helped to make him stronger and wiser from the adversity he experienced. The time that Proust was happy and successful, as Frank explains were a waste, since he was not able to learn anything of any real substance. The question now remains: Do you buy this?

I do buy this statement to some extent. The reason why I take this statement seriously has to do with the idea that when we are faced with conflict or unfavorable circumstances, it causes us to get out of our comfort zone and take the actions necessary to survive the situation. Then the after- effects of this selected situation helps to prepare us potentially for similar future conflicts, which most likely will take hold. The lessons that we take from these past obstacles can spill over into other areas of our lives as well.

In my life I have had to overcome many obstacles to get where I am today. Even though I'm in no position to brag, I still feel that through the obstacles, which I have had to overcome have put me in a better position to succeed in the future.

In this case, I will give an example of how a situation of uncertainty and adversity has helped to put myself in a better position today. Going back again to my Freshman year of College, I was saddled with what felt like extreme pressure to do well at school, being that I was the first in my family to go to college.

The Fall semester started off terrible, I had no idea what my Professors expected or what I expected from them. I had this constant fear of flunking out, being that I previously heard horror stories of how Freshman usually flunk out. All of these new found pressures had a deep and negative impact on my psyche, as I entered in to the intense college environment.

However, there was one defining moment during this first semester for which would change me forever. In my Political Science class, we were assigned back in August, a 10- page research paper, which had to be based on the analysis of any political ideology. The only problem that occurred was that I put off writing this paper until 8pm the day before it was due. I already had my sources, but no real understanding of the subject that I was writing about. Despite these palisade type obstacles I plugged away at attempting to write a decent research paper, which at the time was my longest. I then had finally finished at 5am, and when this happened I suddenly felt a sense of accomplishment, despite having the feeling that this was not my best work.

However, I still had this feeling of Sanguineness, which I had never quite had before. The reason for this feeling as I later analyzed involved overcoming this once unthinkable obstacle of not being able to meet a college level deadline, and that if I could create a paper of decent standing with little effort and time put into it, that I could handle any situation that will be put in front of me in the future. This was a powerful feeling and a feeling that has remained with me to this day, when a new obstacle comes up. Despite having this moment of dark despair, I was able to fight through it, and because of this I'm better off for it to this day.

Even though I did not get an "A" on this paper, my "C" felt like an "A", being that I knew it was not up to my potential. Success and a little adversity can go a long way in still helping a person grow, but there is no way that it can measure up to the struggles that we all suffer through.

So, just remember that the times that you are suffering through, will end up paying dividends in the future. Facing adversity head on, despite the result, will in the long-term make the average person better off, but in the end it all comes down to if we are willing to put in the work necessary and are willing to take the bumps and bruises that come with the territory to advance our own well-being. I would hope that everybody, in every situation, in every background, and in each phase of their life will remember that there is some good, which comes from suffering through adversity, and just to remember to embrace the struggles which you are involved in, because you will be better off for it. This may sound naive or idiotic, but just think back to a time where you were faced with an uphill challenge, which you may have thought was impossible to accomplish, but even with these obstacles you were still able to push through and accomplish the goals you were seeking to meet.

Success is beyond fantastic, but there is still so much more that we can take from the adversity that we face. It may not be the best way to get where we want to go, but in the end we will be better off for the difficult situations that we get to experience.

It Never Ends.....

During this past weekend, I had the opportunity to see first hand the desolation that plagues our environment. This activity consisted of helping to clean up Upper Carr Lake in Salinas. This activity was in association with the statewide Coastal Clean Up that took hold this past Saturday.

Members of the SJSU Environmental Resource Center (ERC) as well as students from around the greater area volunteered their time to help clean up this heavily neglected Lake. It was quite disturbing to find the wide amount of litter that engulfed the Lake. The things the people would put into this lake ranged of the most random things. This included finding street signs, tires, rims, bikes, mattresses, crap bags, desks, paint cans, strollers, and everything else that you can imagine. All in all, as a group we found over a 1,000 pounds of trash just by cleaning that one Lake. This is just an eye-popping number that caused me to have a weird churning feeling in my stomach. This feeling developed in the way that I felt a sense of guilt that our fellow community is doing this. As this once marvelous Lake has been diminished of its purity, and the innocent animals that are being threatened is quite a perturbing scene.

This experience helped me understand unlike anytime before that as a community we need to continue to work together to stop these things for happening, and continue to put the work in to our environment to have it remain pure and pristine.

There is still much to do to right the wrongs of the past, but there still is hope for the rest of us, when groups like the ERC and the many volunteers take time out of their busy schedules to help make our planet a cleaner place.

A New Season Opens

The feeling of optimism is quite a sensational feeling. Today was one of those days for the millions of football fans around the country, as the NFL opened up their season. Thirty-two teams started the day with the idea and the hope that this could be their year. This is the ultimate feeling for the fans, players, and owners. The feeling that anything can happen brings upon smiles and excitement for all of these groups.

I too felt this feeling of optimism as my San Francisco 49ers started their season. The way that this team finished last season on a high note was remarkable, but the one thing that helped to bring about these positive feelings had to do with the official selection by the front office to name Mike Singletary the permanent head coach. The fact is in order to solidify a team of any sport or in any other situation which requires teamwork involves the necessity to have a strong leader, who everyone respects and is willing to risk everything for the betterment of the situation. Mike Singletary makes his players, fans, and the front office believe that he can get the franchise where it needs to go.

The team under Singletary has shown verisimilitude that it is truly developing a winning attitude. Hopefully the 49ers continue to produce results, just how they did today by defeating the Arizona Cardinals. When I was watching the early part of today's game against the Arizona Cardinals, there was a brief moment where the announcers showed the various billboards that the 49ers have displayed as a part of their new marketing campaign, which displayed key quotes that Mike Singletary made last year when he first took over as interim head coach. One of the billboards and most talked about statements that Singletary made was "I want winners". This statement has proven to be a staple under the identity of the end of last year's team, as this has carried over to this season for this moment.

It is unerring to think that this could be the year that this team could make the playoffs. The NFC Western division is already so weak and this team has the talent, but more importantly the mindset to officially change up the power structure of the NFC. It should be an interesting season.

Where are the phone calls?

Over this past year, I have had the opportunity to intern for one of California's Representatives. The Representative that I have been interning for is State Senator Elaine K. Alquist (D).

During my time interning at this office, I have been able to see in bits and pieces how the real world works, what problems constituents are going through, and just in addition how constituents are dealing with the continuing cuts in the State budget.

In this time of pliable budget cuts, our constituents have mainly voiced their concerns on the topics of health care and unemployment. These two very important issues have really taken this office by storm, as our constituents have heavily explained their views and what they want done in regards to each of these issues. However, the issue of funding higher education has not been greatly addressed by our constituents.

The point I'm getting at is that in addition to the towering pressure that is already being applied by Organizations such as Students For Quality Education (SQE) and the California Faculty Association(CFA), there is another way that we can help these organizations apply an additional amount of pressure to all State Representatives.

The simple way to do this is to call both of your State Representatives every week and voice your opinion about the budget cuts or your support on SB 218 and AB656. The other thing to help make this method work to the fullest extent is to inform people around you to do the same. If a State Representative's office is constantly experiencing phone calls on this subject for instance, it will be a great message sent to that State Representative, causing them to even take a harder look at the actions they are about to take.

This may not be the most demiurgic idea, but being that I'm already in this environment, it would be amazing to constantly hear from our constituents on the critical issue of rightly funding higher education. A simple phone call can make a difference, but an overwhelming amount of phone activity can bring a District Office to pay even greater attention to these problems at hand. So, if you have a few free minutes, feel free to call your representative and let them know what's on your mind.