Community Service

For my community service, my fellow classmate and I volunteered at the Kalamazoo Turkey Trot. It was on November 20th at 7:30 to 11:30am. My job was to sit by the bridge near the dining center and direct people at the turn. It was very cold, yet exciting to cheer the runners, and walkers on.  It was fun seeing everyone from the kalamazoo community and being a part of it. From little kids to grandparents, everyone was happy to be there. I'm not originally from Kalamazoo so I'm glad I got to experience a different communities turkey trot. It was similar to the one back in Canton, Mi with who participated and what they were wearing. Many people were wearing turkey hats or football themed clothing. For information on who I contacted to be apart of this experience our instructors name was Callie Smith, and her number is (269)387- 3683.

Off Campus Event

A fellow classmate and I went to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum for an off-campus event. It was a very cool museum that showed the history of Kalamazoo. It is a very hands on and kid friendly museum. It has everything from guitars to a race track to play on.

Fine Arts #2

I went to The Maze, which was a magic show at Miller. I was unable to take any more photos than this because there was no photography through out the performance. It was mind blowing and touching at the same time. The performer did everything from pulling dental floss out of his stomach, to predicting the future with numbers. At the second half of the show the magician talked about his own struggles and what led him to magic. He was diagnosed with cancer, and had a sole survivor that gave him bone marrow to live. He talked about how he connected with God in the process and how it has completely changed his life today.

RSO

As a Freshman at Western, I was very intrigued by greek life. As my sister is in greek life at State I thought I would enjoy it as well. As I went to pledge for sororities I found out it wasn't for me. My first choice was Chi Omega and my second choice was Sigma Kappa. As greek week went on I felt farther from it than ever and decided Greek life wasn't for me. Before I set my bid I dropped and decided to find something better. I found the environmental club that my friend insisted on me to join. It was so much fun I instantly felt comfortable with the people there and the atmosphere of the club. Last weekend we even went hiking on trails outside of Kalamazoo. RSO is something that surprised me but made me find my true interests.

Athletic Event

Go Broncos! I have gone to almost every home football game, and have loved watching the Broncos stay undefeated. My favorite game so far was against Northern Illinois. My family and family friends came into town to tailgate and watch my family friend on the dance team. With a huge win 45-30 everyone was cheering as loud as they could. Although it was a bit cold that night the cheering seemed to warm us up.

Fine Arts Event #1

On Wednesday November 9th I went to the Electroacoustic Surround Sound concert. It was unlike anything I have been to previously. The concert did not have any performers, just speakers. With a mixture of whistles, bells, drums, and much more created a close to meditated environment. The different pieces differentiated a lot, some were soft and soothing as others were almost violent. In the audience there were people meditating, and truly taking in each sound. TIP: If you want the best seat in their to hear all speakers perfectly, sit in the absolute middle of the auditorium.

Diversity Event

On Thursday November 10th I went to a Diversity Event. The event was on Native American Heritage. The four people talking brought up both the modern day heritages and traditional. It was very intriguing to hear all of their own personal stories that have been passed down through generations. It was inspiring to hear their struggles and how they overcame them, and grew from it. Along with the stories the presenters showed us unique instruments and crafts made by Native Americans.

Thinking about life and death can really make you think deeper than ever. As my class and I took an exam over the true definition of death, it made me think about it in a personal sense. As a human being we all wonder what is after life? What will we be after life, and how will we reach death? These questions run through everyone's mind, but never really think about the true facts of death. The definition that we as a class came up with for death was still. A body is still, cold, and spiritless. As death overtakes a body, the body is dead, but you yourself are not. Now if all believe in this definition this world would be a lot different. But before one goes and thinks about what is after death, think about the truth that comes with death.

Scared for all the exams that are closing in, I'm especially nervous for my Religions of The World exam. It is a super vigorous course. With a lot of details as to how each religion started, it is becoming overwhelming. Studying is not a close friend of mine, but it needs to be done. What I am planning on studying is Buddhism, Confucian, and Shinto. On top of that I will be looking at the basics of all religions, including how religions might originate, and their fundamentals. My test is not until this Thursday.

This week in Religions of The World we started talking about Shinto. Shinto is a religion created in Japan. It is very similar to Buddhism, and in fact almost 90% of Japanese consider themselves both Buddhist and Shinto. To describe Shinto is like finding the difference from Shinto to Buddhism. Shinto is used for major life events, including birth and marriage. Where as Buddhism is for death, and everything after death. Shinto shrines are very clean areas where people go to worship a deity. Although in Shinto their is an infinite number of Deities, not a single person. So when people worship they worship to all deities, hoping for one to respond. This is also the same thing for Buddhism but they call their deity Buddha. These religions are usually hand and hand, and only 13% of people identify as one religion. Next week we will be learning a more in depth lesson on Shinto.

This week in Religions of the World we ended our section on Buddhism. We learned the difference between zen buddhism and Amitabha buddhism. Zen Buddhism is all about meditating and being devoted to enlighten ones self. Zen is self meditating, and focusing on your own goals. Where Amitabha is all about reaching nirvana with a group. Not only making yourself reach enlightenment, but encouraging others to do so also. One thing I found interesting about Amitabha is that one does not reach enlightenment until everyone in that group is prepared. Now the biggest question after learning these different kinds is if they are still the same religion. Now they are still aiming for the same goal; nirvana. But with zen its all about devoting yourself to yourself, where Amitabha is making your community enlightened. It is very interesting to hear peoples opinions on that.

This week in Religions of the World we began to learn about Buddhism. Most people know of Buddhism being some old fat man, meditating and happy. But little people know that that happiness is not reached, until nirvana is reached. You have to go through the suffering in life, before you can even think about happiness. What I like about this religion so far is that they focus on karma. Karma as you might know, is the belief that whatever your actions are, you will get a similar action in return. An example would be if you were generous, something good is going to happen to you in either this life, or your next. Now not every believer in karma is a believer of an afterlife. Buddhists believe that you go through a cycle of rebirth to death to rebirth again. But a rebirth does not automatically make you a human in your next life. Your actions will decide what you become out of the six different realms of rebirth. If you do good things in this life, you could be a human, or even a titan in your next life. But if you have bad karma, and are greedy, and selfless, you make be a hungry ghost, or even worse a hell being. Buddhism so far has been a very interesting thing to learn, I definitely recommend everyone to take a look at it.

Today in my Religions of the World class we talked about the difference between atheists and agnostics. It may seem to the naked eye that both are against the belief in a God(s). But that is not particularly true. Agnostics don't believe in a god nor don't believe in a god. It is more of the act that they just aren't sure if their is a supernatural existence or if their is not. Where as Atheists believe that their is no god. Tell me who talks more about religion than atheists. Next time you see an atheist walking down the street, ask them why religion is not real. Its almost the same as asking a priest why God is real. They may say some information that may make you side either way,  but none of it is facts. There is no real facts on if religion is true or not true. You may be wondering why I'm so intrigued by this class, and these concepts. It is not so much that I'm intrigues but it definitely helps me study. Re-writing what I learned in class that day helps me look back and truly think about the in-depth details of that class.

As I begin my classes at WMU I have become very intrigued with this one class called Religions of The World. Its all about exploring religion not only in a religious view, but also a scientific view. This class gives an overall perspective as to why religion exists, and has existed for so long. Im not a huge religious person myself, so I didn't come into the class with a very bias view on religion. As the class went on we started looking at quotes of religious experts. As I skimmed through most of them, I got stuck on this one quote that will change my view on religion for the rest of my life. It was "Man makes religion, religion does not make man." This quote really makes you step back and rethink why religion has existed for so long.