Wikipedia Trail from Hell to Higher Education

Hell- Found via Wikipedia

Hell- I started here because there is a possibility I will be doing my semester-long project.  I found it incredible just how wide-spread the concept of hell is in all sorts of cultures!

Demon- Found via Wikipedia

Demon- I was led here from hell because I wanted to learn more about the inhabitants of the environment my story might be in.  Once again, it was incredible just how many types of creatures from so many cultures there have been within mythology and folklore!

Plato- Found via Wikipedia

Plato- I was brought here from demons because he was a prominent figure in the creation of demon myths.  I wanted to learn more about the origins of these demons!

Athens Academy- Found via Wikipedia

Platonic Academy- Funny how I start in hell and end up right back in higher education!  Plato was a founder of Platonic Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the western world.

Feedback Thoughts

The Psychology of Comparison and How to Stop

This stood out to me because it is probably one of the weaker parts of my character.  I know I am doing well in life, and I could easily spend an entire day thinking and admiring all of my accomplishments, but I can sometimes get addicted to success.  After working hard on a project, accomplishing it, getting to the point where I kept telling myself I would be happy once I got there, I look upward.  No matter how well I might be doing, I have always had the tendency to look at some of the greatest minds out there such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Alex Shulgin, the list goes on and on.  And this can be quite toxic for me or anyone that does it, because it sets the standard so high that no matter what you accomplish there will always be something you feel like you suck at.  The worst part is that it is never very useful to compare yourself to someone else, especially if they are famous for being one of the greatest that has ever lived.  It is much more productive to compare yourself to yourself and keep your focus on progressing at the rate which you can while staying happy.  This article was refreshing and gave some really amazing tips!

5 Tips For Taking Feedback Like a Champ

I enjoyed this article because the message was to simply just relax and not take the criticism personally. It really is okay and normal to feel bad or embarrassed by criticism, especially if it is harsh, but taking it as a "state, not trait" and simply relaxing yourself and understand where you can do better is not only a more pleasant experience, but a more productive one. Keeping a calm and collected mind when taking criticism can really help people work out the kinks in their personal and professional lives!

Consume Criticism found via Flickr

My Topic Brainstorms

Dante's Inferno:
The concept of this story will be that the inferno isn't somewhere where you go, but rather a place that an individual creates themselves.  It would be silly to think that consciousness would continue along with memories and personality outside of the body, but while inside, there is certainly a distinction of who is happy and who is suffering.  This story will outline the four layers of hell that a person can bring upon themselves.  It will be told in a fashion of someone such as an angel of god itself presenting 4 different specimens of humans in the different stages of hell.

The Devil:
The Devil introduces his various cunning techniques on how to trick people into doing what he wants.  I have always been interested in the devil and his devious ways.  His stories of coercion are fascinating to me.  He is the ultimate trickster, and I want to research the various and most useful techniques he does to get what he wants.  The story might also be told from various people who were coerced by the devil, explaining their tragic incident.

The Bachelorette: Drama on Mount Olympus
I want to do a "The Bachelorette" style story based off Greek God and Goddess relationships.  I want to research all the affairs and qualities of many Greek gods and goddesses, choose one goddess to be the bachelorette and she has to go through and through a few rounds of dates/activities that are also related to the Greek mythological world and decide who is the right one for her.  Much drama will ensue between the Greek gods as they compete for the goddess.

Magic Mushrooms: The Real Forbidden Fruit
I have always loved creation stories, and would like to elaborate on a combination between the forbidden fruit myths and the "Stoned Ape Theory".  This isn't exactly a completely new idea, but I have never seen any sort of creation-type stories written about it.  I will research various stories that include a forbidden fruit, choose my favorite and spice it up quite a bit by making the forbidden fruit psychedelic mushrooms which act as the mechanism that drives humanity toward a more intelligent society.

Magic Mushrooms sourced from Wikipedia

Week 2 Story: Major Trouble

At the beautiful University of Oklahoma, a man named Blake walked into his adviser, Sarah's, office.

"Good morning, Sarah!"

"Good morning, Blake.  How are things going with your Accounting major?  Your note you left was quite uh.. dramatic."

"Well,", Said Blake, "I thought I wanted to be an accountant for my dad's business, but I kinda realized that it just isn't a very exciting major.  All these numbers are starting to get to my head and I really don't think this is the path for me."

"Well you caught it early enough to where it shouldn't be a big deal!", Said Sarah, "Do you have any other majors in..."

"Chemical Engineering with an emphasis in Biotechnology", Blake blurted out before she could finish the sentence.

"WOW!  That is quite the jump you are making there.  Are you sure you are ready to make that jump?"

"Yeah I'm super excited!  I figure that if I go into a major with a huge variety of applications that studies the beautifully complex universe that the passion I will gain from it will outweigh all the difficult work that comes with it."

"Okay," Said Sarah, "I'll make the change.  You'd better get to studying!"

"Thank you so much!  I'll be so much happier with this major I can just feel it!"

A couple years passed, and Blake was back in Sarah's office again.  Crying, he explained to her that he just couldn't juggle the demanding amount of time the major required with his work, relationship with his girlfriend, and fraternity partying.  After calming down, and with similar enthusiasm, he changed his major to nursing, believing that it would be less difficult and surely working with living things would be much more rewarding.

Blake lasted in the program for two years.  Having done most of his general education requirements, he was only one short year away from completing his major, but busted through Sarah's door once more.

"I just can't do it!  I'm a nobody, a failure.  This is hopeless!  I thought being in nursing would be better, and it was easier, but this internship I have been doing working with patients has made me absolutely miserable!  I have to deal with people complaining all the time, none of them have any patience, I had to give shots to screaming kids, and most of my patients smell absolutely awful!"

Blake's Inability to Choose His Major sourced from Pixabay

Sarah started, "Blake, you really need to.."

"I GOT IT!!  I GOT IT!  I know exactly what I want to do!  I'm gonna be a pilot!"

Sarah tolled her eyes.  "Blake, are you sure about this?  You are going into some serious debt at this point and we can only keep you around for so long!"

"I'm 1,000% positive!  This is the one you just wait you won't ever have to see me again to change my major!"

Blake ran out and began his training.  He excelled in his courses, flew all the hours he needed, got his pilot's license, and was on his way to become a pilot for an airliner.  Things were going great until he went to the doctor's office with the complaint of back pain.  The doctor informed him that all the sitting he had been doing in the airplane had brought serious damage to his spine, it was the worst he had ever seen!  If he didn't stop soon, his injuries could get so bad that he could be partially paralyzed.  Blake made his way to Sarah's office.

When he walked in, Sarah perked up.  It was the end of the semester and she knew Blake would be graduating soon.

"Well hello there, Blake!  Are you ready to finally be done with college?", she laughed, "You have only been here 10 years!  We were about to have to cut you off we just can't afford for you to keep taking up space in all these classes!"

"Yeah... About that.  I don't think I'm going to be a pilot. I'm going to be an accountant.  I don't know why it took me so long to figure that out, but I should have just stuck with it this whole time!  Plus, my dad told me I could take his company over when he passes if I can get the degree!"

Sarah gasped, "YOU WHAT!?"

"I know it is bad but if you can just.."

"Absolutely not!  You are on your last straw with this university as is and you will either get your degree as a pilot or you will leave this university.  Do you understand?"

"But..", Started Blake

"No 'but's, leave this university or get your degree.  We are done here."

Blake continued his work as a pilot.  Very soon after getting his job at an airliner, his paralyzation took effect and he ended up crashing the plane because of it.

The end.

Author's Note

In the original story which this is based, "The Man in the Moon", A blacksmith does not like his line of work and believes that being a variety of other things such as a rock on the side of a mountain, a rock cutter, the sun, and the moon would be much better.  A wise man grants him these wishes but every time he transforms, he realizes that each of them have their own problems.  By the end of this story, he is begging to be a blacksmith again.  However, the wise man does not grant him this, and he was stuck as the moon.  I made this into a modern day story about someone who is similar in the way he sees his difficulties in his major, and proceeds to change it many times.  For the most part, I stuck to the plot of the original story but completely changed the context and time period.

Bibliography
"The Man in the Moon" from Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson. Web source.

Reading Notes: Moon Origins and Tricksters

When reading the assigned stories, The Man in the Moon and The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal are the two that stood out as the most potential for my story telling.

The Man in the Moon:

To start, I absolutely love origin stories.  I love stories that are creative explanations of the world around us, and I love the way a lot of them reflect the culture they came from.

The story is about a problem that many people in the modern day have: gratefulness.  A blacksmith does not like his line of work and believes that being a variety of other things such as a rock on the side of a mountain, a rock cutter, the sun, and the moon would be much better.  A wise man grants him these wishes but every time he transforms, he realizes that each of them have their own problems.  Ultimately, this story is about being grateful with what you have.  By the end of this story, he is begging to be a blacksmith again.

I would make this story more complex and longer, as well as make it more relatable for modern day readers.  I think that would be a great goal for my writing in this class.  Many stories with wonderful messages are just so foreign and it would be good to have more modern translations.  Some possibilities are a student that wants to switch majors a bunch, a city person wanting to live away from society, then the mountains, etc.

Be Grateful Picture found on Flickr

The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal:

This story stood out to be because I loved the plot twist that happens.  I also enjoy the style that many Indian myths have.  Sometimes they surprise me with how clever they are such as this one!
The lesson to be learned from this story is to not let your guard down.  Both the tiger and the Brahman were fooled.

We have three characters in this story, a cunning tiger that gets out of his trap, a helpless and foolish Brahman that lets the tiger out and is about to get eater, and a Jackal that is much more cunning than he first appears.

Not only does the tiger escape and gets tricked back into the cage, but in the middle of the story the Brahman looks around for someone to feel sorry for him and all of the things such as the road and the trees just tell him he is ungrateful.

A story like this has quite the complexity to create a plot twist that has such power, but I believe I could do this fairly easily.  Maybe I will do a scenario where someone trying to do the tricking ends up being the fool.  Such as a bully trying to get a kid to eat/drink something laced with concentrated capsaicin and the bully ends up being the one that eats/drinks it!  Along the way maybe the kid being bullied tells a teacher and the teacher tricks the student into eating the capsaicin!  Once again, I want to make these stories more appropriate for modern readers.

Possible Reading Options

I felt that the following myth options might be most appealing to me:

Myth-Folklore Unit: Native American Hero Tales

I feel that I would enjoy this because my family has a Muscogee Creek bloodline.  I am always excited to learn about my lineage and family history, so it should be very interesting to see what kind of explanations/myths that they had!

Myth-Folklore Unit: The Life of Buddha

I have read the book Siddhartha, and I loved it.  I loved reading about the path to enlightenment, but I have yet to read about the actual stories of Buddha.  I am excited that I get to learn more about it and get a glimpse into a culture that is fairly unfamiliar to me!  I think I would enjoy writing about either someone who challenges the Buddha or someone that also tries to achieve enlightenment like him.

Myth-Folklore Unit: Dante's Inferno

As strange as it sounds, I love humanity's concepts of hell.  It is always really interesting to me what cultures around the world consider the worst crimes one can commit.  The religious/mythological justice system really tells a lot about a society and the people that live there!  I would really enjoy making my own levels of hell for a project!

Dante's Inferno found on Wikipedia