Horizons

When I hear the word “horizon” I can’t help thinking in an orange sunset, by the sea. That far away line telling us our world is finite. But as you know, the horizon can never be reached, one step closer you take, one step further you are. Here is a paradox, a limit that can’t be reached.


Now, when we talk about Horizons, we are not referring to that “physical limit” but to the limit of our ideas, knowledge, and experience – the paradox again. The word Horizons includes all the aspects related to the development of a person as a rational being. Has somebody set a limit for your intellectual growth? Is there someone telling you “this is as far as you can go”? Well, the answer is YES. Yourself. You are the one that decides what, when and how. Everyday, there’s a whole range of new experiences to be lived, of ideas to be discovered, of knowledge to be gained. What you get from this world, what you are ready to take in and make yours is entirely up to you.


So, I’m sure you have heard the expression “expand you horizons” many times before. And one question comes to my mind, How? How do we expand our horizons? Easier said than done? Not really. Expanding our horizons is a simple thing to do.


Acquiring new knowledge allows us to form opinions, to give sound arguments, and to reconsider what we’ve taken for granted. What better way to gain knowledge than reading? Reading is way of broadening our horizons. The first thing that comes to my mind is books, but we are growing reluctant to books. Thanks God we live in the XXI c. Technology has made access to knowledge a whole lot easier for us. Anything, from recipes to quantum theory, can be found online these days. It’s just one click away. Search engines save time and effort when looking for that new thing that caught our eye or ear. What’s great of this, is the amount of information they offer, we have the chance to read about that topic from various sources, in only one afternoon. Sure we need time, but we can make ourselves some time to read every now and then.


Life is made up of experiences. And these experiences, whether good or bad, are great opportunities to grow. It’s not just a matter of accumulating anecdotes; if we are to grow from what happens to us, we should always look back and reflect on our successes and failures. Sometimes, we feel like nothing ever happens to us, that our life is monotonous and boring. If this is the case, then we should break the routine. Opening to life is also a great way of expanding our horizons. Life is what we make of it, the decisions we take. Thinking out the box and breaking behaviour patterns might prove effective when trying to change our daily life. Exposing ourselves to the unknown, getting out of our comfort zone is the only way of proving how capable and strong we are. Maybe a good starting point is simply doing all those things we are always too busy to do or too scared to do. Make the most of every situation and take chances!


Relating to people is another way in which we can increase our knowledge and develop new ideas, especially if these people are different from us. Reality is subjective and each person perceives it in a different way. Everything is relative they say – and it is. What I accept as a clear truth, may not be so clear for someone else. When our values and beliefs are questioned, and confronted to the values and beliefs of somebody else, we are in the need to look for the perfect argument that would prove us right. Sometimes, we find it easily, sometimes, we struggle. In both cases, we are given the chance to find out what we really think of any given topic, which help us to figure out who we are.


It may also be the case that we start seeing things in a new light because of the people we relate with. What seemed absolutely crazy and nonsensical turns to something completely obvious and rational. Other people influence on what we believe, whether by questioning our opinion or by helping us change our point of view. It takes a lot of humility to acknowledge somebody else’s opinion as valid, and a lot of courage to stand for what we believe in. I think that we should strike a balance here, keeping an open mind to other people’s ideas while at the same time holding on to our own opinion.


We usually relate to people who are similar to us, same tastes in music, clothes, or career choice. Not that doing this is wrong, but if we are looking for new perspectives, a good idea is to relate with people different from who we are. Some times we are not as bold as that, and making friends with someone new is not that easy, especially in a face to face situation. As you know, as we grow older, making new relations is a difficult thing to do. Again technology is working wonders in bringing people together, no matter how shy you are. Thanks to social networks and online communities we are able to meet people from all over the world, getting to know new cultures and lifestyles. Going on line and chatting with someone on the other side of the world is priceless when it comes down to broadening horizons, especially for those of us who can’t afford travelling.


If we are really to make the most of our lives in order to expand our minds, we should always be critical, we should never accept anything as an absolute truth; we should question everything before jumping to conclusions. Don’t take anything at face value. Get out there, life is there to be lived, and remember that it is you who gets to decide how far to go. As I said in the beginning, expanding your horizons is entirely up to you. Sky is the limit, they say.

I'm not sure why we were asked to look at pieces of art. I feel very much insecure when analising or interpreting a work of art. I know knothing about painting, to be honest. So what you're about to read it's just my humble opinion and reactions to this painting.

The assignment was to look for paintings that would reflect scientific development. The name of the picture is Rio Revuelto and it is the work of José Chávez Morado. He was born in Mexico in 1909.He was a concerned with social issues and that was reflected in his art.

When I saw this painting I related what I saw in it as a result of this kind of development. People are given little room in this picture, a detail that reflects the instrumental role of man in our society.

The architectural clash in the background show the advancement of cities and how traditions are left behind. I think this picture is a reflection of our society. Ads are huge, selling all kinds of products which are result of different kinds of scientific development.

Petcha What?

We were asked to put a petcha kutcha presentation together. 6,40 minutes, 20 slides, sounds like a piece of cake, doesn't it?

I presented mine some time ago, and the experience was absolutely stressful. Once I had chosen my topic, I had to come up with ideas to talk about for almost 7 minutes. 7 minutes it's not such a long time, but when you hace to fill them with good sounding arguments, each minute it's like an hour. I managed to write something I really liked. I was voicing my thoughts, it sounded convincing - a bit chlichè at times, but it was all me.

When the writing was over, it came the troublesome task of finding the perfect picture for each idea. The problem was that I had alerady seen the presentation on my head, and had a clear idea of what kind of pictures I wanted, it was just a matter of finding them online. I must have looked at hundreds of pictures, trying to find the ones that most resembled those in mind. It certainly took a lot of time, Thanks God, I could find most of the images I wanted, so I felt quite confident about my slide presentation too.
The dat of the presentation came along. I felt so nervous when speaking. I had too many things going on in my mind while spaking: my lines, the slides, the time. The time! Timing was everything in this kind of presentation. I think I managed quite well in the end.

There's still something I can't quite figure out: how is it that I felt so nervous while giving my presentation, when I spend my days speaking in front of a class?

No Man is an Island

"...No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind;..."

John Donne.

I chose this quiotation for this topic beacuse in a way it is connected. Just change death for life, and diminish for heighten, and I hope you see it the way I see it.

Well, our first writing assignment is over...
I always get a bit anxious when I know we are going to write in teams, but I always find this experience of co-writing very enriching. Writing is a process that starts in our heads, what and how to write are questions that we answer before even grabbing a pen (or putting a finger on the keyboard). The thing is that when we write in teams, we have to consider other people's whats and hows -not an easy task.
When writitng in teams, compromising is key. Accepting that other point of view, that other way of putting an idea is what makes this process worthy. It opens your head, it widens your perception and it sharpens your sense or appropriacy -if she, that is part of the process, doesn't get it, an outsider won't get it either. Let's change this!-
What's also good about this way of working is that you are not alone. Sometimes we get so stucked in our thoughts, that we fail to see our mistakes or we can't find the correct form of saying something. Working in teams means having someone to rely on, someone at hand to help you see what you have missed.
Every time I work in teams, I take something with me -either a new word, a new strucutre, a new way of seeing things or a funny memory- which, I feel, is the whole idea of struggling to find common grounds.

About this specific task, I feel we worked very well together and I'm more than happy with our final version.