A

For my life map, I chose to make a flower of memories. Each of the 24 petals represents some significant event that took place in my life. I started by drawing every petal and slowly began to collect the past. I enjoyed this process because it felt good to be reminded where I come from, noticing that even the darkest petals make me who I am. Before class, I built up a lot of anxiety about sharing these pieces of my life with a class full of strangers. Every memory has an endless amount of stories linked to them. When it was time to present my flower, I only chose a short story that brought me to where I am now in an academic aspect. After talking in front of the class, I realized that it was not bad at all and all my classmates feel closer to me. Sharing my flower map was good.

B

The Book Active Hope brings up a lot of mixed feelings for me. Every issue addressed about the ways we currently live in feel very frustrating to deal with. Reading about the destruction we carelessly support every day in our lives is very sad. For me this is a frustrating topic because even though there is a little hope left for a better, a more conscious and sustainable future the amount of things that can’t be undone are countless.

  The three stories in the book describe the different realities in the present societies.

The first one is about Business as Usual, “ it’s the modern way, the accepted way, the one we think of as normal”. This first story describes the system we live in, a system that I and most of the people around me are part of. This story is the simple yet horrible reality of “development”. Not a human development but the development of consumption in all its forms. It’s the insatiable need to make money and eat up all our natural resources.

  All our actions in the “modern way” have serious consequences that follow them. The second story exposes these consequences. There is a story behind all the things we consume; be it food, clothing, books etc.… it all comes from somewhere and it all goes back somewhere. The impact in our planet is greater than a group of people, some animals or a piece of land. The damage affects us all!. It’s hard to read about all the animals that are soon to be extinct, the extreme weather changes and the social division that we are living because we fear for the irreparable. But its good to be reminded that we are part of this world and that we can change certain things to fix what it still left.

  Finally, the third story is The Great Turning. “It is the necessary revolution” to preserve our planet and the life in it. It’s the shift from a destructive system to a sustainable one. Change can be uncomfortable because we are so used living in the first story, but it all starts from knowing that we are not separate from one another. This third story was important for me because it was awakening, I tend to get frustrated and shut my self from what can be done to repair the damage because it often feels impossible to do so. Reading about the possibilities to keep what we still have is very inspiring; knowing what the consequences in different realities are is a big step for change to begin. Now I know that I can be part of this massive shift just by opening myself to the world.