What I learned this year

I learned some stuff in english this year. It was pretty cool.

First I found out how to make a website and embed links, a bunch of computer stuff. I learned that truth is different for different people. My values and upbringing are different than yours so my truth is different than yours. Happiness and success are connected. The ultimate success you can achieve is happiness. I learned how important it is to enjoy and cherish your life. "Live deep and suck all the marrow of life" I didn't even have to hide in the woods to figure it out. 

I learned that we definitely need more slacker teachers, (I also learned how to use satire). I learned how to use logical fallacies (If anyone has ever called you a stupidhead bologna face you are a victim of Personal Attack!). I learned how to use sources to back up my arguments. I found out that we are all going to fail in life without weighted grades (yay). I found that a good man is hard to find. I learned that leaders are absolute pigs (Mostly Napoleon but, you know).

I learned that power can be very dangerous and can change a person. No matter how good the leader, there will always be people uncontent. "Ye gods, it doth amaze me" how much one can learn in one year! I realized that dystopias are scary and sad, mostly because of the truth in them. I also saw how much power books, or the knowledge within them hold. "(Books) stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us." I learned that our own thoughts are gifts and our self awareness is crucial.

I learned that there are no perfect utopias, and that there could never be one. I learned that first impressions are really inconsistent and that humans are very judgemental creatures. I learned how to do good firsthand research and work hard.

I learned so much. But the most important thing to me was that I learned how awesome english can be. I have always loved english class but this year was really the best I could imagine. I really love being able to look deeply at things and find hidden meanings. I learned how amazing class discussions can be when everyone is thinking freely and talking about it together. I learned that really cool things happen when we are allowed to just think, and voice our opinions.

I learned how much I love my Quest class and all the people in it. It's a place where I actually fit in. I am going to have a really hard time leaving it all next year. I learned how much of a difference a teacher can make. Because McCallum is kind of amazing. He makes class so much fun, it's somewhere I want to be. I don't even know how to put it into words. Thank you Mr. McCallum.

So, I guess I learned some things. I also learned that I am really cheesy. Sorry.

First Impressions

 The idea that you can tell a lot about a person just by looking at them is very interesting to me. How can you gather so much from just appearance? Does our appearance say more about ourselves than we know? That is why I decided to research: How accurate are our first impressions?

My opinion on the topic before I started my research was mixed, I couldn't decide if I thought that these impressions could be accurate. It seems like our impressions can be right sometimes, but other times they are completely off. 

To start my research I looked up what the main factors are in making first impressions. I found that we make decisions about people within 7 seconds of meeting them. Our impressions are based mostly off of non-verbal cues. Appearance can quickly outweigh anything that you say. I also saw that bad impressions make a much more lasting impression than good. So if you meet someone new who is really mean, it would take a lot of niceness from them to win back a good reputation.

The reason we make first impressions goes back a long time. When ancient humans met new people, they had to decide very quickly if that new person was safe. Our judging instincts now are from survival instincts back then. 

Online sources conflicted on how accurate our impressions are, so I decided to do some of my own testing. I showed a group of test subjects an image of a person and told them to write down their first impressions of that person. I did this twice with two different images of two different people. 

My results were mixed. On the first image less than 1/3 of the assumptions made were accurate. The test subjects described this person as wild, uneducated and a creeper. In reality this person has two design patents and has designed for Master Lock and General Motors. It seemed like everyone was describing the opposite of what this person was really like.

Image 1

Image 2

 On the second image more than 3/4 of the assumptions were correct. She was described as friendly, outgoing and athletic. That was correct. In this round almost everything that was said about her was true.

After the confusingly inconclusive survey, I went to ask some experts on their opinions. Jeff Erickson and Barb Peterson both do job interviews as part of their jobs (in separate businesses). I interviewed them because first impressions play a big role in their jobs. You might only meet a person briefly before deciding if you are going to hire them or not. This makes the first impression you make really important. Both of them told me that they tried not to rely on their first impressions too much. 

"I believe the more time you spend with a person, the more you will get a complete picture of their thoughts, character, ability, etc. "

~Jeff Erickson

"The method I try to follow is - keep an open mind and learn more about the person. There is a lot of truth to 'looks are only skin deep.' "

~Barb Peterson

So, from what I looked at our first impressions can be very inconsistent. We will probably always make first impressions, it's an instinct, and it happens automatically. Even if we can't stop making these impressions, we can stop relying on them so much. If you give people a chance and get to know them, they could be very different from what you originally thought they would be.