Aspects of my Life

1. What have you included in your video?
The video i have made contains some of the things i love in my life and that have become meaningful to me. I included my great love for animals, by showing different good pictures of my favorite species. Also my video shows pictures of what i love the most which is my family and my friends. I included photographs of previous years of momnets that were meaningful to me, such as christmas with my family, six flags with my school friends and friends that i made in other countries. Another aspect of my life i included was that i love traveling and learning other cultures. I posted photographs of the countries that i found more fascinating in my life, some of them were Japan, France and Russia. Their different cultures were so interesting in my opinion that i could not avoid being into learning more about them. My video constantly displays pictures of flowers. This is because i meant to represent that my life has been blooming and in different colors. I also included extra aspects that i love in the video, such as my favorite food, Miso ramen, images of three of the anime i like, and who i find attractive. Many of my images have messages or words that are important to me and represent who i am and how i am feeling. I considered it necessary to include these in my video because it demonstrates my perspective on the things i love and my perspective on myself.


2. Which parts of the video related to relatively meaningful aspects of your life? which parts related to relatively meaningless aspects of your life?
Most of the things on my video represent meaningful aspects of my life. My video is clearly divided into 3 major parts, animals, my family and friends and traveling/ other cultures. The "extra" meaningful aspects i added are certainly things i love such as, anime or my favorite food, but to be clear about what i found meaningless in my video in specific are the pictures i added of the different roller coasters. I do like them but they do not mean anything to me, it is just an exciting experience. Also the song by itself has been becoming less meaningful as i repetivelly listen to it, regardless if it's my favorite song. What is meaningful or meaningless in my life cannot be added into a 5 minute video, but it can represent a clear idea of my definition of how to live happily, even when some of my aspects are not that meaningful or not meaningful at all to me.

3. What would you have liked to have included but weren’t able to?
I would have liked to include pictures of my own dog but i do not have any and it is not possible for me to take one of her and post it due to the fact that she is no longer with me. I would have also liked to have more time to represent more of the aspects in my life that i love or that are significant to me. And finally what i really wanted to to include but i was not able to bec ause i do not possess one was a photograph of my family before my father left and my mother died.

4. What seem to be some of the main criteria you use (emotionally +/or mentally) to assess how meaningful an aspect of your life is?
To determine if something is meaningful in my life is both my thoughts and my emotions over it. Usually the aspects that become meaningful to me are those which make me have a positive emotion and thought over it. My definition of positive is if i feel complete in that specific aspect, not necessarily complete in my life. Also to determine HOW meaningful an aspect present in my life is, if i constantly feel what i felt once i came across this aspect for the first time, it is no longer a mentally criteria which keeps significant aspects in my life present.

5. Is there a pattern in what you find meaningful or meaningless? What are some of the elements in that pattern?
There is a pattern on what i meaningful and meanigless to me. Based on my video the main 3 aspects that are the most meaningful to me are those that have played an huge part in my life before, even if they no longer do so they remain as the most meaningful aspects of my life. This is because i determine what i meaningful to me based on my thoughts and my emotions, if these once were present on a certain aspect then i keep on choosing what other aspect will be meaningful to me. In other words my decisions have shapped my personality and perspective, so therefore what was originally meaningful to me keeps on being present in other aspects because i keep on choosing relatively similar things. The same as for what is meanigless is my life. Thos aspects that make me feel great but not to the point of being as meaningful as my friends or family become meaningless. It is shown that once i found something important in my life i compare other things that come across me to what i define the best that has happened to me that became meaningful, therefore i invented levels of emotion to determine wether something is meaningful to me or not. Realizing this it is easy for me to find a patteren of meaningful and meaningless aspects of my life.

6. Looking at the video as a whole – is it a fairly honest/accurate desciption of your life? Does it make you seem interesting/special/exciting?
Eeverything included in my video is authentic. All might not be meaningful but that is not what i stated. I described and made my video on things i love in my life. Therefore there is nothing that does not represent who i am or my perspective on personal aspects. Also it is accurate that i love these aspects, I do not find necessary to make something meaningful in other to love it. In my opinion these are two different words that are not related in any way.
However the video make me seem is based on people's opinions including my own. I cannot tell wether this vedeo make me seem in a certain way that would describe what others see of me through it. In my opinion, however, i can tell that I am pretty non-outstanding teenager that loves many different aspects of her life and has great plans for the future. I can easily identify in other people, because i am living under the well known influence and beliefs that society brings upon. I personally feel that everyday of my life is a gift, but I still do not compare myself to others describing myself as "a special teenager".

7. Does your life seem meaningful from an outside perspective? Is it from an inside perspective? Why?
Based on other people's comment about my life, It is very meaningful. But, it is identified as such because of the way i tell my life. In my opinion word makes reality, people believe what they are told if they do not have sufficient information to cotradict or oppose to it. My video is a merely story of how i see my life, of course for others it is going to seem as positive aspects (by definiton of society) that are in someone's life and make her happy. This could be interpreted as me strongly living according to what society says is "right" which makes it fine, then again it is only an interpretation from an opinion gained by the influence of society. From an inside perspective, I have decided to make aspects in my life meaningful. I previously described how these became meaningful or meaningless until today. My definition of meaningful might be different from most of the people, but it still describes how i find apsects in my life. Something meaningful to me is something i happen to care about, or find it important. It is not something that MEANS something, and it does not mean anything that it does not mean anything to me. I am currently happy and satisfied with my life because of my inside perspective.

8. What questions do you have about living a meaningful life at this point?

I consider that is better not to have questions about what is to live a life meaningfully at this point, therefore i have not thought of any question related to it. I believe that if i begin wondering on how am i supposed to live in order to live meaningfully then i will be easily influenced by other people's opinion and not consider what comes at me in life as a new opportunity that would teach me something, or even become meaningful in my life.

Analisys & Insight

What i have dont in this assigment is to give a small representation of who i am being and what is significant to me. Even though my point of view might be very different from other people, it gives me an opportunity of "getting outside the box" and see what am I doing with my life at this point. I cannot say that I had the greatest life when i was younger that got me to be happy with who i am today. I just happened to change my mind over how I saw the world around me, and it helped me adapt and accept it. Yes i do agree that our world (society, media, culture, etc) has driven people to a very automatic way of living. All people living under one culture is "trapped" by default, it is something that cannot be avoided. Everyone will end up following certain rules or regulations that will keep things "functioning" in this world. The why is it that if all people is already following a certain way of being, there are still "negative" (by definition that has being brought by culture) things going on? Even though we are being trained/shaped as an specific way, there are people who manage to analyze what culture is "inflicting" into society. These people consider that is very important to somehow rebell against the usual behavior, for whatever reason they might have. However these people might be interpreted as has no difference, there is nothing worng or nothing right currently happening, they are simply expressing their opinions, as I am now. People do feel trapped, because their self expression does not go along to how they are supposed to be, this is consider as an oppression and it is described as such by many people. What is culture at the end, oppression or insipration? In my own point of view... The world will not change and if it will it is going to take a long time, as it originally took when it was shaped. It is up to me to descide wether i will be living greatly oppressed (avoiding self expression so that can avoid looking bad and become someone in society) or if I will be living accepting the world as it is, and self expressing myslef without letting other's opinion (including culture's) negativelly (my own definition) affect me. Also my actions will be a win-win situation for everyone I come across to, that alone is a great difference in someone's everyday life. I consider it Possible.