Wild Boy

            Into the wild intersects in many ways. The main one is passion, because I believe Chris could've been anywhere in the world, he had options. He didn't go to Alaska because that was all he was allowed to do. He went because he wanted to. He loved the area and that was essentially his passion. He wouldn't let anyone determine what his life would be like. Completely going against the grain is what Chris did and he did things his way. The way this intersects with the class is that it gives an example of following ones passion and how people will think they know whats best for somebody. In Into the Wild Chris was told by his parents

"Go to college, get a law degree, and then you'll be able to have a real impact"(114).

They got him to go to college, he didn't get a law degree, and we know now that he had a real impact on a lot of people, without the law degree. Chris didn't need college for his passion, after he graduated high school he was already on the road and his parents should've just supported his passion. Although his parents didn't want to hurt him they thought they were doing their best. So I don't blame them I blame the dynamic they were committed to by society. I believe we can learn a lot from Chris. He's an example of what to do and what not to do. He says push the limit and live in the now but he's unprepared for a long stay in the wilderness. So we can see the limit line he crossed by not taking advice and believing he can do it all by himself.

          Privilege is another way that the book intersects with the class. The whole notion of Chris being confident that he can even live in the wild has serious ties to privilege. First he's privilege by even having the chance to go to Alaska when he was a little boy. That's where his passion grew from so if he never got a taste of Alaska, he probably would've never conceived the notion of even to dream the place in his thoughts. He was able to become himself because of the rides his family took on the road and to Colorado. Thats where he got his passion for the road.

"On the weekends and when school was out, the family took to the road. They drove to Virginia Beach and the Carolina Shore, to Colorado, to the Great Lakes, to the Blue Ridge Mountains......There was always a little wanderlust in the family, and it was clear early on that Chris had inherited it" (P.108). 

The privilege the family had to even drive a car let alone drive on road trips during the weekend was amazing. Most poor people don't even leave the city they live in, for many reasons. I believe Chris viewed this as a way of getting away from the world because on the road its just him and he could be himself. While having privilege he was able to get on the road because if his father was Black or Latino he wouldn't been able to get that job at NASA let alone allowed to go to a certain University which employers preferred. Because University's were segregated as well.


            Location is another way this intersects with the class. One becomes part of the enviroment in which they grew up in. When a child is born they are instantly cultured by the parents from their views of what is acceptable in the community. So for most people they become the communtiy and inherit certain morals and values of the whole community.  Luckily for Chris he was always on the road as a child, so later in life he became one with the road and the road was his home. He went the opposite way and rebels against his society, community, and family. That's why he was attracted to Bullhead City, because it didn't have anyone there telling him what to do. While there it was the longest place he stayed since Alanta. There, it was no power structure for Chris to be mad at. In Into The Wild

"Bullhead City is a community in the oxymoronic, late-twentieth-century idiom" (P.39)



Nobody cared what Chris did or did not do. It was a place where I think people didn't judge him. He could think freely in this town and didn't have to worry about anything. He was living Hukuna Matata. The town had no discernible center and no real Government and people essentially were able to do what they wanted. It was like the Wild Wild West with no violence. Chris hated the people around him because they had certain views on what a life should be like. Those views created by the society in which Chris rebelled because it wasn't his cup of tea. If Chris was born and raised in Bullhead City his views would be different and thats goes for if he was born in Jasper and Laramie.

Passion, Privilege, and The Power of Perception

    Perception is very strong. People make lifelong decisions around what others think of them. people don't know themselves until they fully break out of how they think that people think they should be. Essentially we imagine how we must appear to others then we imagine the judgement of that appearance, so we develop our own self through the perceived judgement of others. We see everyone doing this but its worse on women. We all know that Perception is far from reality. So why do we still continue to fall deeper in to disillusion? In Passion Project, Karina said

"they'd rather me be a nurse because they get money and they're in high demand". 

The parents perceive that nursing is a good job and most of all good, for their child. so the kid starts to enroll in nursing school never really finding her passion. luckily some kids see this early enough and hopefully run in the other direction. also I think in two parent households that the child rebels more because they are able to see their siblings do other things and they will tend to do the opposite. the siblings act as an example almost and one can judge what to do from there. Perception is rooted in power and the people in power who are usually privileged do the perceiving, and essentially they "know whats right". In turn stopping a generation of passion. 



            Privilege takes on different meanings to different people. Privilege is that invisible leg up, it not having to struggle for a job. Your able to own the fruit tree while people are struggling over the branches.  Its true that the privilege and non-privilege person might get to the same place in the end but one took a road less traveled in pursuit of ones passion. Passion, when you know your passion, you can get it from anywhere and anyone. It feels so good because, your Passion is never boring, your excited every time you can act on it so its never fulfilled and in the essence of never being fulfilled, Passions true beauty comes out in the form of its longevity. In Passion Project Elaine said

"I got my insurance license when i was 21 because i wanted to make sure that people though that i was gonna do something.(Privilege). I thought that putting on a suit and having this license would make me some kind of adult.(Perception). When all I wanted to do was run around in the fields and explore and learn.(Passion)."

Its sad that people everyday are living unfulfilled lives. living their lives through other peoples perception all while missing the person they love the most, themselves. its good that some people see this and decide to stray away from expectation. but a lot of kids are left behind and some how some way passion and the need to know oneself needs to be added to every level of schools curriculum. because in the end whats more important. Passion is so important that it was in the first major paper signed in America, before the Constitution. It said in the Declaration of Independence that we have unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Passion.

Let's Make a Deal

There are many deal breakers for many different people when entering college. One could be language, culture, confidence, timing and many many other things. A deal breaker is essentially a barrier one has to overcome to stay in college. its easy for a firefighter to walk into a smoking building but to continue to walk up the fiery stairwell through immense heat is hard and that becomes a deal breaker, will i walk up these stairs or will i allow my fear, confidence, my love for my kid stop me. A lot of people go to college because high school ended and they don't know what to do next so they follow blindly the typical way to do it. For a lot of people high school ended in 10th grade when they dropped out because they felt disconnected from the school. The school isn't them and essentially it wasn't built for them. It was built to work for people who had their stuff at home together. So when and even if they join college they still fell disconnected from education in general because it doesn't effect their everyday life. some of these students haven't even taken the first step in enrolling because of fear and needs built in high school and middle and elementary school.

Another Barrier is when in college knowing what to do. colleges don't do enough to get students on track they assume students know what they want and don't try to encourage students on what to do. they in essence leave the students view out of the picture so its like come here do this and leave. So one doesn't feel like the school is working with them they fell like its more against them.just how there is a school for people with disablities and learning problems. There needs to be a school for students with these special needs that deal with real life. because having everything in order for these kids is fantasy so they need a curriculum to tell them how to cope with death and how to feed their little brothers in real life.

Solution.  I believe that the college has to shift resources towards human development. There should be an 2 hour mandatory orientation for all students enrolling at Community colleges to make sure what they're doing is right and let students know its a commitment and we have resources to take care of your kid (Daycare In School), we have transportation help (Free Bus Passes), we have mental help if needed (Mass Therapy classes). We can try to bring the community back into college and give the school a welcoming feel. Because it takes a village to raise a child. The policies have to be changed, then one can change the consciousness of the kids, finally one could change their actions and keep them from dropping out. A change to a quarterly schedule is desperately needed. So the kids will be forced to hurry up and get on track. There should be meetings in the middle of every quarter to make sure the students are up to date and do they need anything. Meeting held in groups of about 100 students because You'll find most students have the same kind of questions and although their specific question wouldn't be answered they'll know about what to do next. The Resources are there, They just need to be redistributed to personal development and that;ll make students breeze through classes easier. We need to ask What is College doing for me?

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

            I strongly agree with andrade talking about the effects of the trauma students face and how they come to school not focusing on schoolwork when their friend just died. Trauma is inducing and ever present in the inner city. Its truly amazing how much trauma people get use to. One might see somebody die and that's traumatic. One might hear that someone they know died, that's traumatic. One might hear that a 3 yr old died, that's traumatic. One could of heard the gunshots 4 blocks away of someone dying, that's traumatic.

In the urban areas this happens awfully a lot and people get use to it. Just last night my neighbor was shooting in the air with my two nieces outside and about 4 differnt kids from different neighbors houses. I looked out the window and no one was running. I could see my neighbor walking towards his house with the gun in hand. I didn't jump up and get my nieces, nobody panicked and I even went back to my conversation with my sister. Three hours later the Mexicans across the street started shooting for the fourth day straight. 

The more things happen people start to get desensitized to violence. Therefore holding human life at a minimum, since its so common to lose. this goes back to the slave days when the slave master who made it common practice to rape female slaves, told the slave mother "Well now, that Mary of yours is really coming along". in an effort to try an persuade her master from seeing qualities in her daughter she said "oh my Mary, she stupid, she cant work, she aint worth nothing" also the father of these children had to endure his wife and daughters pain all while not being able to help. so a lot of fathers just run not knowing how to deal with it mentally. so what began as an appropriate adaption to an oppressive environment of demeaning children and having no father it has been transmitted down through generations. Just like the family business savvy of Heinz Ketchup Owners through generations of the family so has the many slave adaptations that are ever present today.

1. Trauma, how do we deal with it in a school, where children spend 8 hours a day? Its part of their life, just as much as the parents.

2. Is this a mountain too big to climb? 

3. Trauma is ever present. Is it the schools responsibility?