Outlines. Please. Proposals. (You down with O.P.P?)

Brock Kawana

Professor Harrison

English 202

8 February 2010

Proposal

The experience or rejections of going on a journey of finding one’s own inner-self or to never experience it at all.

The goal of this study is to discover what it means to truly find ourselves.  I would like to point out the advantages of going on this journey and what life has to offer.  As humans we live on a planet in which six billion of us call our home.  Why would we not want to go see it all and experience everything?  Everybody has a story of their own and we could all learn from one another.  I could also tell my own story in which I went from the belly of the whale to my own apotheosis and made a complete 180 degree turn around transformation.

I believe my study is important because I can justify it myself.   I want to learn about the pursuit of happiness, the inner Om, and pulling ourselves up out of the belly of the whale.  I believe it can be important to anybody who wants to learn more about life and what it has to offer.  That you really can just break out on your own and never fall in too deep.  The beneficial value of this study would be to proclaim my own existence and maybe just maybe it will help other college students find themselves also.

The two books in which I am going to read this semester off the reading list both have to do with finding our true inner-selves.  The first is Jon Krakauer’s, “Into The Wild”.  The book deals with a young man named John McCandless who gives up all of his money and luxuries and just goes to Alaska to live off the beauty of the Earth.  The next book in which I will re-read is “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse.  I believe I will get a different outlook reading this book again because I am more knowledgeable about the heroes’ journey.  I also want to read more in-depth on the practices of Buddhism and what exactly they do and their common goals.  Whatever I can read on the instances of finding our true inner-selves will be able to help me further this research. 

Another way in which I can obtain more research for this study is to survey students on their daily lives.  What are the causes and effects of how they live?  If they party more often does that necessarily result in poor grades?  Is college about proper time management?  What are their plans once they get out of college?  Is it to follow the normal scale of go out and get a job, get married, have children, retire and then write a will then die?  What else could there be that we are missing in this life of ours?  What if we set the scale so that the norm is to go out and live the life we dream of…to follow our dreams always and to never settle for anything less?

My conclusion for this topic is that we all grow up and miss out on our lives.  I think it is ironic that I am writing this and I have no idea of what I want to do in the future, but I am nine-teen years old, am I supposed to have everything figured out?  I believe that life’s goal is to be free.  Not in the sense of living free of government rules but to free our own souls.  There are moments that take our breath away, but what if that were a constant day to day routine?  Would we be able to survive with no breath?  I think that is how it should be.  I will have more quotes and thoughts to end this at the end of my research.  My mind is fresh like a sponge ready to seep in the knowledge that we are supposed to gain throughout life.  It’s not about the grades, it’s about the learning.  God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason; we must learn to listen.

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Brock Kawana

Professor Harrison

English 202

8 February 2010

Finding One’s Own Self

I.  Introduction

            A. Where does it all begin?

1. Discussing how I felt before I hit the belly of the whale type moment.

2. Provide examples on Siddhartha and Into The Wild at the start of their journey.

            B. What are some of the influences of students failing out of college?

            1. Fraternity parties, freedom and immaturity.

            2. High school not fully preparing me about all the truths of college.

II. Relating Topic to Real Life

1. How is this useful?
2. To show the different aspects on what “not following the norm” can do for our selves, lives, and souls.
3. Relate instances and different stories among people and myself that have stories.
4. Show articles and journals of Christopher McCandless.

III. Methods

1. I will interview a number of students asking them different questions.
2. I could also compare and contrast the differences of answers.

IV. Results

1.  I would like to see the differences among college students in which the way they live their daily lives and what they do to stay in school.

V.  Discussion

  A. I would like to talk about the research in which I found among the different stories of finding one’s own inner-self.

B. To compare Siddhartha’s journey with that of Christopher McCandless in the aspect that one is dealing with religion and the other is earth as a person.

VI. Conclusion

1. Studies that talk about the journey of one’s finding of themselves.
2. To go through all the different instances from religion and so forth.
3. To bring it all back to a final thesis.
4. To enjoy this process.