Transcendentalism is a hard concept to define, but I have learned that it is more than one’s personal connection with nature. It is about being your own person, using your intuition, and finding your own purpose in life. These ideas are all important to me, so I found myself enjoying reading about them. I particularly enjoyed reading Emerson’s work more than Thoreau’s. I appreciate Emerson’s style in a different way, and my favorite essay we read was Self-Reliance. My favorite line was, “to be great is to be misunderstood.” His powerful message that in order to succeed in life, you must be yourself, rather than conforming to society, really speaks to me.
I think transcendentalism is something everyone can relate to. Even if you find the essays boring, you can still understand the big picture. Sometimes it is not about grasping every single minor detail; it is about having a general understanding of what is really important. As Thoreau said in Walden, “our lives are frittered away by detail.” Even though I may not have understood every detail, I captured the main ideas. It turns out that was all I really needed. This quote, "sometimes, you need to step outside, get some air, and remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be," truly sums up my feelings about transcendentalism. Maybe to find our sense of individualism we need to just take a step back, look out at the world given to us, and just think.
I think transcendentalism is something everyone can relate to. Even if you find the essays boring, you can still understand the big picture. Sometimes it is not about grasping every single minor detail; it is about having a general understanding of what is really important. As Thoreau said in Walden, “our lives are frittered away by detail.” Even though I may not have understood every detail, I captured the main ideas. It turns out that was all I really needed. This quote, "sometimes, you need to step outside, get some air, and remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be," truly sums up my feelings about transcendentalism. Maybe to find our sense of individualism we need to just take a step back, look out at the world given to us, and just think.