Jack Hall & The Heroes

          For my group's and my hero poster assignment, I think we put a lot of effort into it, and worked really hard to make it look good and have good information along with it. We did the movie, The Day After Tomorrow, and I am glad that we did for many reasons. First of all, I hadn't seen that movie since I was 10, and it is awesome, so I enjoyed watching it again. But I'm glad we chose it because it was a hard movie to put into the hero's journey cycle and make a good product out of it. The movie is mainly half about Sam Hall and the other half of Jack Hall, so it was harder than others to get the hero's journey filled out. If it was just about Jack Hall and he was the definite main character, than this movie would've been easier to do for this project, but also not as interesting to do. On note of the poster and writing, I think we did a good job. The poster was creative and artistic on our part, and was cool with the fake snow on the corners, the snowy statue of liberty in the center, and blue color of the poster for the theme of the movie. The writing was well done, and we explained everything about Jack Hall and what happened to him that made each step relevant to him as the hero. Lastly, I enjoyed being in my group. We all divided the work evenly as best as we could and worked hard together. Overall, it was fun! I liked our project for these reasons, and there's nothing I would've changed on our poster. 

          Not just our group, but I think every group did great on their posters for different reasons. My favorite ones artistically were the Life of Pi poster with the orange background and black stripes everywhere representing Richard Parker, and the Tangled poster with the actual recreated giant braid of Rapunzel's hair on it. Honestly I got a similar amount of information from each poster, and no poster had more writing to give than another one, so I liked them all for that reason. I basically learned the hero's journey of all the heroes in each of these movies in detail. Atlantis with Milo Thatch, The Nightmare Before Christmas with Jack, Tangled with Rapunzel, Life of Pi with Pi, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl with Will Turner, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with Bilbo Baggins, and finally The Incredibles with Mr. Incredible. As I've said, all these projects were great, the heroes were picked accordingly, and the descriptions of the hero's journey for each and every poster were well done, as ours was too. They were all informative, and some more visually exciting than others, but I think as a whole, our class possibly did the best with our posters than any other class. This is what I think about our project on The Day After Tomorrow and what I think about the rest of the class's projects.

The Day After Tomorrow

Jack Hall

Biking Eldorado Mountain

           Eldorado mountain, one of the mountains of the Flatirons, is near southern Boulder and the northernmost part of Golden. Eldorado mountain is my favorite destination for mountain biking. I go mountain biking there from Louisville either with my friends or my dad. The trail is long, and challenging enough for a fun ride, but not all-downhill or anything too exhilarating. I love to mountain bike first of all, because I love biking and being in nature while doing so. This trip is my favorite because I can start right from my own house without driving first, and it's a good length. It's long enough for good exercise, and short enough where it doesn't take up your whole day. There are parts of the trail that are more rocky, more uphill, more tactical, or downhill, so it keeps it interesting. To me, I ride on this trail over and over for the exercise and to be outside. I'm not looking for a new experience every time I bike, I concentrate on getting better at the trail and biking, and being in nature.

           Unfortunately, the recent flood disaster happened in this area, and I wouldn't be surprised if run off from this mountain and the others around it destroyed the trails. I have yet to go there (if I can) and find out if it's either in ruins, or still intact but in poor/just okay condition. If there were lots of puddles and debris, that wouldn't bother me with biking, but if there are lots of thick mud spots and loose rocks, that would be pretty dangerous. Hopefully, it's not ruined and I can bike there again, but if it is not suitable for riding or it's closed, I might not bike again until late fall. Finding this out will be my adventure of the weekend, and I hope I'll be able to bike on the mountain again, now or soon enough.

In the forest of Eldorado Mountain (my pic)

On the trail to Eldorado Mountain (my pic)

            

The Dark Abysses

          An abyss is the lowest part of a hero's journey and is the place of darkness where he must 'slay the dragon' metaphorically to the situation, for the transformation to begin. The abyss in my life would be whenever a loved one of mine passed away. The biggest abysses in my life would be when my grandpa died or when my first dog died. For both of their deaths, I watched them literally take their last breathes and these were very memorable experiences to me. From each death came my sadness and period of having to get over them. Both of them were ready to die and had lived good lives, so to get me through my abysses, I had to think of how their deaths were giving them the peaceful way to no more suffering. Life is a gift, but when you know you have lived life the way you could with only suffering on the road ahead, you know it's time to go. I know this is how they felt, so to 'slay my dragon' was to realize that death was the better choice for them. The realization for both abysses made me feel better, and once it wasn't so saddening anymore, I was successfully out of each. Those abysses happened in 2005 and 2008, and I haven't been in any abysses as low as those since.

My first dog Cody

Passages of Myth

          The passage by Joseph Campbell in the first paragraph of Chapter V, The Hero's Adventure, talks about finding your inner world and the outer world finding you. Every line of this passage talks about how everything you think you'll find, instead is the shear opposite. All the lines are good examples of this, but the last two lines I think are the most important. "Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world." (Campbell). This is saying that where ever you think you're going in life, it's really to find yourself. Whenever you think you're alone in the world, you are a part of the world because the world has you. His line, "The labyrinth is thoroughly known." (Campbell), is a self explanatory line of the two last lines. He's saying the most complicated thing to figure out is really already figured out from finding yourself  and discovering your inner world.

           Another passage from The Hero's Adventure I thought was interesting (as were many others) was this: "The rituals of primitive initiation ceremonies are all mythologically grounded and have to do with killing the infantile ego and bringing forth an adult, whether it's the girl or the boy.". This passage I think is important and very truthful to growing up into adolescence and in life, because it's something we all have, but must fight against. Whether you're an egotistical person or not, everyone has their ego, as Campbell talks about ego in Plato's soul circle, "the aspect of our consciousness that we identify as our center." (Campbell). Ego, in all its definitions, is a part of life and the thing we must fight to not let control our souls. Once you've found your true soul and its meaning without ego, you have matured into an adult. Not the physical maturation into adolescence, but the mental maturation into an adult. I think becoming an adult by 'killing the infantile ego' is the step in life that changes you, making you a whole new person, and not a child anymore. There are many passages in The Hero's Adventure that are truly meanings of life that you never think about as life goes on, but they're all important aspects that I believe everyone should know and understand.