The Way

I feel that the entire movie was extremely inspiring. When I read the beginning of the blog post, I thought about my journey in life, at the Mount and even my own journey in VHS. It is extremely funny how some things that just happened a couple months ago can seem like forever ago and some things that happen in life a long time ago can have such an impact on our lives that they seem like they were just yesterday. The concept of the pilgrimage is such a beautiful and amazing concept. We all go through journeys in life and we meet people that all impact us in ways that we usually cannot see from the outside and sometimes in ways that we will not realize until we can look back and see what actually happened. This blog has made me think about my journey in my own life. The quote that really inspired me in the movie was when Daniel said, "you don't choose a life, you live one." I feel like this is so true. If people get caught up in trying to plan exactly what happens in life, they will miss the beauty of living in the moment and having experiences and making decision in the heat of the moment. The movie has inspired me to look at some things in life and not to take all the people around me for granted. I know that some of my great friends from high school will be my friends for the rest of my life and some of my other friends will not be. The concept that some people are maybe not meant to be a long term part of my life makes me sad. The pilgrimage is about thinking about life and taking all the troubles and all the ups and downs and realizing that hey maybe things did not work out how we expect sometimes, but we have to pick things up and move on. The idea that people who are now so important to me may not always be in my life is scary, but we have to trust that God will work things out. I feel like this is what the camino is about. When the woman who recently walk the camino walked it, she asked God "Can I really do this?" I feel like we all ask God if we can really do things at one point or another in out own lives. Maybe we will not walk to camino, but we can all relate to have doubts or struggles in life. I feel like Tom's goal of the pilgrimage changed by the end of the movie. At the beginning, he took the pilgrimage because he felt like it was the right thing to do to remember his son and finish his mission. By the end of the pilgrimage, the journey became a more personal experience for Tom. The journey became a cleansing for Tom. The idea of the journey to almost find yourself can seem very peaceful. I feel like the concept of the Camino is very cleansing and beautiful. As I leave this class, I hope that I can take all that I have learned to walk my own journey of cleansing in my life. I am really going to miss this class and all that it has taught me about myself, my relationships with others and life in general.

IVF

I feel that there are definitely both pros and cons to IVF. I feel that the biggest downside to IVF could obviously be mistakes such as the terrible mistake that was made in the Dateline special on the Savages. However, mistakes like this one are extremely rare. Many couples, however, will use IVF as a way to genetically enhance their babies. Many times people will put out ads for people with specific SAT scores, physical description and athletic abilities so that the person can donate sperm or eggs. This can pass the line of designing a child instead of just accepting them for who they are. However, I feel that in most normal situation IVF can bring many good things such as the creation of a baby. Many couples really want to have children of their own but they jut can't. IVF allows these couples to be able to experience the joy of having their own children and brings the gift of life to these families. The Church teaches that IVF is wrong because they do not believe that a third party should be involved in helping a couple have a baby. I feel that IVF is okay in that aspect. However, I do believe that the church has a point that many embryos are often created in IVF and these embryos are not all used. These extra embryos are discarded and that is the same as discarding life. I feel that IVF is extremely expensive, and the wealthy can pretty much only have access to the benefits of IVF. If a couple has the means to financially be able to use IVF, then I feel that they should be able to do so.

The word of the year is...

I thought that the article had a very interesting perspective on the year and what it truly meant. Of course, anyone reading an article about a person talking about love in their year would think that the mention of love is just another cliche. I thought that the way that the author went about explaining the love in her own life. She was sick but she did not want to accept the help of other at times. Once she learned to let the love of others into her life, she had a better experience with herself and with others. It is extremely important for people to allow others into their life if they truly need help. When the author became sick, she realized that she needed the help of others and she learned to appreciate God and the things that others would do to help her through her illness.

I feel that the word of the year in 2013 for me is trust. I feel that in this year I have learned to open myself up more to others and to reality. I feel that I have learned to trust more in my own personal opinions on people and my future. In the past, I feel that I often times would think about the judgements that other people had about others and I would not trust my own instincts. I feel that I learned this year that I have to trust myself because if I do not trust my own opinions and listen to my own conscience how will I truly get anywhere in life. I feel that I have also learned to put myself out there more and to trust that things will work out as they are meant to be. In the past, I feel that even though I am a loud person I often times would not put myself out there in certain situations for fear of getting hurt and for fear of something going wrong in the future. I also feel that I have learned to trust more in God and his plan for my life. I am always the type of person who gets extremely stressed and worried about school and other things in my personal life. In 2013, I feel that I learned that all I can do is my best and I just have to trust that everything else will work out in the end. I learned to trust that my future will be okay through the college search process. I learned to trust that my friends will always be there for me no matter what happens. I learned to trust myself and others. I feel that I also learned that trust is crucial in relationships and trust should be the foundation of all relationships in life. I feel that I hopefully in 2013 will learn to trust myself and also to worry less and trust that everything will work out.