The Purpose Of Life In Maya Jeevan's 'Station Eleven'

Though the parents constantly ensure that they do the opposite of the social norm, they’ve made sure to inspire Jeannette with the values of schooling. Alongside Jeannette’s parents value instillments with an added extra persuasion from her sister, Jeannette takes the leap and enters into the world of academia with an Ivy League college acceptance. “I applied to its sister college, Barnard, and was accepted.” (Wall 250). Even with her upbringing Jeannette is still bright enough to make her way into a good college, a college that most would say “trash” like her didn’t deserve to attend.

College. One word that has people’s minds run like crazy. Panic is one emotion that starts to settle in for high school seniors when second semester rolls by when they realize they are suppose to figure out their future soon. Not only is it a stressful time for the seniors, but also for the parents. Alina Tugend, an experienced journalist, wrote an essay called, “Vocation or Exploration? Pondering the Purpose of College.” Tugend’s goal of this article is to inform the audience of college students and their parents that college is continuously changing its aspect which leads us to different options when approaching college. This is why making the right choices after graduating high school is challenging. She pinpoints great examples throughout the essay and uses a good amount of ethos, logos, but did not have a

In “My First Lifeline” written by Maya Angelou, the author vividly explains a lifeline thrown to her in a time of need. The essay became a reflection of Angelou’s childhood and presented the reasoning behind some of the traits she acquired. Angelou utilizes vernacular speech, figurative language, and sensory details to aid in expressing the first lifeline thrown at her.

Throughout life we go through many stepping stones, Maya Angelou's autobiographical essay "Graduation", was about more than just moving on to another grade. The unexpected events that occurred during the ceremony enabled her to graduate from the views of a child to the more experienced and sometimes disenchanting views of an adult. Upon reading the story there is an initial feeling of excitement and hope which was quickly tarnished with the awareness of human prejudices. The author vividly illustrates many mood changes she undergoes throughout the story.

College is an opportunity to truly discover who you are. Often enough, you hear people saying “You should really major in this field, I think you would really enjoy this career.” or, “Do you think you really want to study that? Have you thought about what you will be doing ten years from now?” filling your mind with self doubt, uncertainty, and the anxiousness of not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Mark Edmundson wrote an article titled, Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?, published in Oxford American addressing college students and their families how the most important thing college students should focus on is personal growth. When students take their courses seriously their engagement can help finding out who they really are and which future career will lead not necessarily to great financial success, but to a career and life that is very satisfying. Edmundson wants to inspire his audience and have them take what he is saying seriously. Edmundson uses satirical informal language and hypothetical situations to effectively persuade college students to focus on their personal growth in order to create a life and career that is deeply fulfilling.

Preparation for college means to have the skills of critical thinking in place and to be able to think for yourself, to not be easily influenced by your surroundings or circumstances. This is her senior year, with all her activities and popularity with her schoolmates she looked forward to being nominated as the Senior Homecoming Queen, what a legacy to leave to her school. But this did not happen, life happened. Treniya’s passion for the social justice interrupted her once idyllic teenage school life. But, still being a young person, she did not know that her beliefs, which seem so normal, would be so disruptive to her senior year happiness. It is not the easy path that shows your character, it is the rocky path.

Leading a meaningful life meant breaking away from the fear of criticism or rejection; conforming to society limits Illgunas’ definition of life. Illgunas’ suburban upbringing makes the danger of social conformity clear to him. Surrendering to society would consequently cause him to completely lose himself. After graduating from high school, Illgunas and his classmates follow the conventional path towards a higher education. Illgunas explains, “My high school class and I moved like a school of fish: we graduates were capable of going off on our own, in whatever direction we chose, but something demanded we all swim as one…” (6-7). Parallel to the claim Illgunas makes, graduates that do not attend college are stigmatized. Society has created a paradigm: after graduating high school, students should attend a traditional four year university, and then enter the “career world.” In Illgunas’ perspective, people in

She quotes, “ Cs get degrees.” She tries to empower the reader that students don’t have any real desire to learn and are going through the motions of college. Pharinet states that the biggest challenge of college students is to convince the students to want to learn and ignite a spark. She also uses the word “freedom.” She engages the readers by convincing how time and stress management will fall short and that freedom often prevails in college failure.

This evoked the idea that if I want to reach my potential, it is necessary for me to follow my heart and leave situations holding me back. Just like Janie left the people delaying her dream of true love in the past, I realized I need to do the same to achieve my goals. Emerging from my comfort zone and exploring where my goals take me will open up new opportunities similar to when Janie experienced new adventures after leaving her home town and Logan, which eventually lead to completing her goal. For me, attending IUSB in the fall is emerging from my comfort zone. Janie’s success after leaving comforted me in believing I made the right decision.

Washington University. Columbia. University of Pennsylvania. Harvard. Brown. Yale. It’s no surprise that these top-ranking, prestigious schools also rank among the nation’s most stressful universities. Stories surrounding these schools spread like wildfire, reporting of students committing suicide, or dropping out of school due to the overwhelming expectations set for them. This is the life of one particular Columbia University student, Nayla Kidd, who decided to escape a life of stress. This past April and May, completely cutting herself off from outside contact, Kidd staged a “disappearance” in order to isolate herself from school and pursue a nontraditional lifestyle. Overnight, she became an example for students everywhere, inspiring them to life the lives they want instead of conforming to what society wants them to be. Though difficult to see amongst

The author was inspired to write this essay because he experienced college the same way all freshmen will experience college. He went through the same exact struggles that they are bound to go through at some point in it, so he was motivated to help them survive school and stick with it no matter how tough it gets. He consistently emphasizes how magnificent the rewards are if one finishes all of college.

We are placed in circumstances that we can not control. College is our great wilderness or Colorado River, which people have gone across. But since every boat, person, and rapid can be different its hard to know what to expect. We have technology and science to help us figure out our path but it could easily be capsized to the new experiences that shape and change us. The Colorado River can be used as an extended metaphor to show the different experiences we have and the attempts we have to control them.

In David Foster Wallace’s Kenyon Commencement Address, he tells the graduate students that in order to fully receive an education, they first must learn to think. Through his use of dry humor, Wallace gives the college graduates a realistic view on life after college, and how it will be physically, mentally, and emotionally draining and lead to boredom and frustration. However, he provides them with tools to combat these negative emotions in hopes to lessen the stress they will encounter in their daily lives.

In the New York Times article, “College’s High Cost, Before You Even Apply,” Tara Parker-Pope argues that the high-stress atmosphere of college application season experienced by high achieving students is detrimental to many aspects of student’s lives. Tara weaves the impressive argument that for many students, college admissions; especially to selective universities, may seem to hold a golden ticket at a terrible expense. Health, happiness and mental stability to name a few. These detrimental issues brought on by higher education woes are problems that escape J.D. Salinger’s protagonist in his most famous novel, Catcher in the Rye. In a sharp contrast to Holden Caulfield, The New York Times article features high-achieving students rushing into adulthood through a high education medium and are convinced that college acceptance is a precursor to a fulfilled career and a successful

Now that I am reaching the end of my undergraduate career I feel like it’s fit to reflect on how far i’ve come and some high and low points during this time of my life. Some people may say that these four years of college are the most wonderful times of their life, and for the most part that is correct. But there is this whole other part of college life that is super stressful and even scary. During this paper I will address my personal development and how certain experiences played a role in those developments. Even though I feel like i’ve grown a lot and have developed and learned new things, I have run into some issues. Those issues being family/culture, social and emotional growth, intellectual growth, values and beliefs, citizen and community member.