I started my last morning of winter break with a trek into Times Square to watch the movie The Big Short. The movie was on the 7th floor of the theater, and by the time I flopped into my chair, I was like-
If you haven't seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it. It tells the narrative of the financial and mortgage crises through numerous perspectives in a really accessible way. By the end, I was actually kind of teary-eyed.
hi, 84-year-old's at a 10 AM movie showing, don't mind me
The film's message about the participation in and facilitation of the corruption and greed that spurred the crisis forced me to evaluate my own priorities and goals. I re-realized that to abstain from performing "bad" is not nearly adequate; one must work towards the positive good in order to improve the world and make one's life meaningful. It reaffirmed my dedication to law and to certain government careers in an effort to make the world a better place--so basically, the perfect way to prime myself for a four-month-long program focused on justice, equality, and development.
By the time I returned to my hostel, numerous other students had started to move in, and I was able to meet my three awesome roommates
My program officially began today, and I think I'm about to keel over from exhaustion. We were then directed to take a walk to our initial meeting place which was a "short" mile-long walk.
when somebody calls a mile "short"
But the time actually did fly by, as I chatted with the other participants on the program.
We did short introductions once arriving at our space with fun facts. Instead of my go-to YouTube celebdom or my game show victory, I settled on the fact that I own four dogs. Pretty sure I'll be known as "crazy dog lady" for the rest of the trip. (Probably only reaffirmed this assumption when I complimented a lady on her dogs on the way to eat/asked to pet more dogs on the way home).
The orientation was quite a few hours long and was pretty overwhelming, but the beautiful view of the New York skyline definitely helped to assuage our exhaustion.
woah.
We were alerted that our community dinner for the night would include some incredible food--Thai to be exact.
when u hate Thai food
But, in an effort to begin my trip with openmindedness and adventurousness, I decided to embrace the Thai. And guess what--I kind of even liked it! WOW. So, good beginning.
We woke up pretty early this morning in order to make it to our classroom space in Manhattan on time. Although my roommate and I got slightly lost on the subway, we still managed to be the first people to the classroom at the Centre for Social Innovation. I actually learned about CSI in Boston, in which there is another CSI. CSI can be conceptualized as an office building space in a way--but one that incredibly flexible and centered on creativity and collaboration. With its open floor plan, gigantic glass windows, and flexible seating arrangements, the space really promotes innovation. It's a super cool environment!
To give you an idea of its style--here's a machine they have in their lobby!
Anyway, we started off the morning with more "getting-to-know-you" activities and intros. I chugged three cups of coffee to fight off my exhaustion until an awesome city exercise in which we explored a couple of street blocks in small groups in order to experiment with ethnography and observation. I actually had the awesome opportunity of similar activity this past semester in a class that greatly prepared me for this program. Hence, I felt quite comfortable doing this kind of city field observation!
I made sure to stop in at a liquor store on the block for a chance at 1.3 billion dollars--
--even though I'm the unluckiest person on the planet when it comes to weird chance things like lotteries and raffles.
After a quick lunch, there were a few more hours of rules and warnings and information overload. However, we did get the opportunity to come up with some goals for ourselves, and I'll share two of my own personal goals with you right now.
My first goal is to live every moment on this trip with intention. In action, in words, in thoughts, I plan on approaching my life with intention and with dedication to making this opportunity one that I am proud of, invested in, and immersed in.
My second goal is active joy, which I'll explain. I've always been a proponent of the fact that happiness and contentedness are extremely different from joy. I find happiness and contentedness to be quite transient and fleeting, while joy is much deeper, much more personal, and much more difficult. Joy is a deep-seated awe of, rejoicing in, and celebration of one's own life. It is a recognition of opportunity, of blessings, and of one's own strength and worth. I think it's possible to be sad in a moment or for a day while retaining joy, just as it is possible to be fleetingly happy with one's immediate surroundings or momentary experiences while remaining truly unjoyful.
I've actually been thoughtfully pursuing joy for the past eight or so months--pretty much since my arrival in Israel. I've found that being joyful tends to make me more playful, more child-like, more passionate, more confident, and more satisfied with who I am as an individual. Being joyful makes me appreciate my friends, family, and loved ones so much more deeply while rejecting the individuals that tend to sap at my joy--as well as allowing me to develop the ability to discern between the latter and former groups.
However, joyfulness requires a great deal of investment and intention, in my opinion. It takes thoughtful commitment to maintaining joy and to creating both physical and mental states in which one can remain joyful. Therefore, my goal on this trip is to actively and passionately and whole-heartedly pursue joy, even in settings and environments that seems hopeless or angering or depressing. I will recognize that my sadness and frustration are emotions that I can and will have while clutching to and protecting my inner joy.
As you may imagine, all of this mental activity required quite a bit of energy, so I felt almost completely justified in eating straight-up pizza dough at dinner with heaps of ricotta cheese--YUM. The delicious Italian restaurant completely filled me, and I'm feeling a bit like this right now.
I have one reading to do before I hit the sack and try to rest enough to deal with another eight-hour day tomorrow. Even though I already miss home, I'm doing my best to get excited for the AMAZING opportunities and activities I have ahead of me!!!!!
With love--and lots of joy--
Aubrey
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