Braden Robbins

5/28/16
Pd. 6th

Final Reflection
What does it mean to be human? This is a question that people dont generally
think about too often. Although it isnt given a lot of thought, I believe that it is important
to address. The last semester of my senior year I took a humanities class, and this
helped me find the answer to this troubling question. So, what does it mean to be
human? The answer to this question isnt a solid one. There are many different ways of
thinking about it, which calls for many different opinions. Our class was broken down
into a few aspects that define our humanity. We talked about social inequalities,
responses to nature, global justice, privilege, happiness, and what it means to live a
good life.
All of these units have required that I establish my own personal beliefs, and I am
grateful for that. The two units that have had big impacts on me, are the sections about
Nature and Happiness. In summary, the nature unit was all about making a personal
definition of what nature is to us. There were three big categories that describe our
relationship with nature. The first is dichotomy, which is an idea that suggests that
nature and civilization are completely separate. The next idea is overlap, which
describes nature and civilization as being different, but existing within each other. Lastly,
we discussed Identity, which is an idea that nature and civilization are the same thing.
Our nature unit was something I really liked because I had never really put much
thought into my relationship with nature. It was helpful to define this for myself because I

was interacting with nature every day, yet I took this for granted by not understanding
how I connected with it. After many readings, and deep thinking, I decided that I believe
that nature and civilization overlap. I think that nature is at the base of everything we
have and do, but it has become something different through industrialization and
advancement. Also, I think that we experience nature every time we walk outside, or
even get a drink of water.
The other unit of great significance to me was our happiness unit. We looked
deep into a lot of old religions to discover what happiness really is. We identified the
practices of Buddhists, and of Muslims, and Christians, etc., the purpose being to find
what makes their lives meaningful. We were challenged to identify these things in our
lives. What makes our lives meaningful? What brings us true happiness? Again, I
havent ever really taken the time to sit down and identify the things that really make me
happy deep down. To me, identifying what makes your life meaningful sounds like the
most important thing you can ever do.
This course has really helped me THINK about things. In my personal opinion,
that is the answer to the big question, What does it mean to be human? Ask questions,
figure things out, think about things. By doing this, I believe you can create a very
meaningful, and happy life for yourself.