The various articles in Impossible were highly impactful to me. For starters, I resonated a lot with Danusha Goska’s “Political Paralysis” piece because I find myself looking in the mirror and asking, “How could someone like me make a difference?” Indeed, I agree with Goska that our society has commodified the value and meaning of virtue by tying it to materialistic and elitist things that the majority of the population may always vie for. Yet, most might never attain the diverse systems that work against certain groups in our global society. Also, I like how Goska changed the question from “How could someone like me make a difference?” to “What can I do today to make the world a bit of a better place than it was yesterday?” The simple things in life can go a long way for people. For instance, remembering someone’s name and waving/speaking to them when you see them around campus helps diminish Richmond’s pervasive social disconnection problem.

On another note, Howard Zinn’s “The Optimism of Uncertainty” made a really great point about the fragility that people in positions of power have. I actually connected this idea to the TV drama Reign. In one episode, Queen Catherine scolds Queen Mary for not yielding to the nobles’ demands at court. She tells Mary that as royals, their true power comes from the nobles’ and other groups of people such as the servant class – obedience to their authority. Without it, they could very well be murdered, so it is in both of their best interests to keep the nobles and the people happy at all costs. Moreover, I think that if society could rally behind this idea more, we could prompt an “unexpected” good change in history that could make the world a much better place than it is today.

I found the reading and podcast to be very inspirational and a nice thought-provoking way to begin to wrap things up for the semester. One of the quotes from the reading that stuck out to me was “Sometimes we convince ourselves that the ‘unnoticed’ gestures of ‘insignificant’ people mean nothing” (p. 51). This is something that I think about a lot and try to combat. A simple example of this is if someone is walking down the street and sees a piece of trash, maybe small enough to stick in a pocket and throw away later or not too far from a trash can. That person can either ignore it and continue walking, or pick it up and throw it away. I see this on campus all the time. For whatever reason, people leave trash around or pile on top of full cans, ultimately littering and creating someone else’s job more difficult. It is such a simple task to reach down and pick something up to throw away, yet many people have convinced themselves that that task is insignificant. The dilemma intensifies when no one is around, or at least if you think no one is around. Then the decision seems to be even easier for people, removing the fear of judgment if they fail to pick something up. But why is this? Sure picking up only one piece of trash makes only a small difference, but if 7 billion people each pick up one thing, the world would be a much cleaner place. I see a lot on social media about blaming big corporations, and it’s certainly true that they are responsible for more than their fair share of pollution or corruption or whatever it may be, but I think it’s a dangerous mindset to always point fingers. Every action has an impact on something and I think that’s easy to forget. Like the reading said, you don’t have to be a famed hero or saint to make a difference.

The podcast and the reading for next day’s class was extremely inspiring and I was kind of shocked to be learning about it. Usually Bezio debunks and exposes us to new, bad things in society, however this has a different tone and message. I particularly liked the passage in the reading my Nelson Mandela when he said “Humans are too simpleminded.. things are covered in hope and love.” This is him writing about hope and happiness when he is in fact a political prisoner. I am usually a pretty optimistic person and I always hold an optimistic view even when looking at events or things that may knock others down. Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it is kind of a bad thing and it can make me be too naive. However, this reading reassures me that there are positive people in the world and that the world is not as bad as it sometimes seems.

I also found the story of the microcosm of the Titanic extremely interesting especially given the fact that we have just been talking about movies and entertainment. Everyone loves the Titanic as an amazing and moving love story, however very few people I feel like really dive deep down into the actual meaning and implications of the crash. Even though Jack was a lower class man and Rose was in the upper class, the whole story was basically only about Jack trying to get out of the lower deck while running past all the poor engineers and leaving them to die. I also think it is a really interesting if you look at the Titanic in a sexism or feminist perspective because the women and children did get the first choice to safety. This reminds me of the trolley problem in class when there were men on one side and women on the other, and the question was which side to make the lever turn. We could either run over the men and save the women by taking a stand against the patriarchy, or we can run over the women to ensure equality. It is kind of a double edged sword.

I really enjoyed Dr.Bezios podcast, but there was one point she made a few times that really stuck with me that I personally relate to on so many levels; When Dr.Bezio said that the leadership major is not safe, that people outside of UR don’t understand it, that that is different from the conventional degrees that our parents tell us are safe, useful, or will help me get a job. When I declared as a leadership major, my more traditional parents, although trying to be supportive, were really concerned, especially thinking about how I would get a job and somewhat mad that they were paying thousands of dollars for me to go to college and get a “useless degree”. Anytime i’ve told anyone outside of UR what my major is in, they also respond similarly. This is something that is super frustrating to me, as why do I need to get a conventional degree to get a job? Leadership studies are something so diverse, so universal, and taught/exposed me to topics that I would have not have been exposed to otherwise, such as anything in the social sciences and even logic. 

This idea of an unconventional/risky major/minor applies to me in multiple ways, as almost all my major/minors are considered “unsafe” and risky. I am a Leadership major with a triple minor in Visual Media Arts Practice (VMAP/studio art), Women Gender Sexuality Studies (WGSS), and Education and society. For WGSS, since it’s not the most well known area of study, I am told it’s useless because it won’t help me find a job. In this minor I have learned about so many social justice issues that are going to help me look at the world in an intersectional and inclusive way. Something similar is said about a degree in art; the first thing I get told when I tell people i’m studying art is “what are you going to do with that? Be a starving artist?! Your only other choice is to be an art teacher”. While An art teacher is on the list of possible jobs for me, art is not just about drawing; it’s about expressing creativity, which is honestly needed/should be desired in most jobs today. Education and Society is the only minor I do not get questioned about, and sometimes when people outside of UR ask me what my area of study is, in order to not have to explain leadership, I sometimes just say i’m studying education. Although I am learning not to care what other people say about leadership studies and tell the truth, it’s interesting to see education as a major more respected because it’s more “traditional” than leadership. However, I still get comments about studying education, as compared to other jobs “it doesn’t make as much money.. You will be struggling to pay bills your whole life”. I think instead of criticizing each other’s areas of study, people should try to learn from each other about what others are studying and try to look from multiple perspectives and see why any degree provides you useful tools and strategies in order to become successful.

When reading Chapter 4, I felt sadness, because I thought of all the missed opportunities I have had to do something good for someone else, and haven’t because it didn’t seem important, or that the power that I have is “not enough.” I would never describe myself as virtuous, because I think that that word is reserved for those who live every aspect of their lives with virtue, like Ghandi. But in reading this I’ve realized that people like me make ourselves to be smaller than we are, and our impact less meaningful than it really is. We allow ourselves to be products of our environment rather than the masters of it. Instead, we should be making a conscious effort to live virtuously because we don’t realize how much our contributions matter to others. 

Although I was very much inspired by chapter 5, I was also hesitant about some of the ideas in this reading, because I began to question: if the systems in which we operate are broken, how much can individual people really do to make a difference. My first thought went to climate change, and the justice system. We can recycle and compost and free wrongfully convicted people, but it will not fix the existing issue that even more people’s trash will end up in landfills, and more people will end up wrongfully incarcerated. But then I realized that the words do apply. We have the opportunity to fix these broken systems, as deep-rooted as they may be, and how “invisible” the forces behind them are. As the author notes, even in situations that seemed hopeless, or power seemed impenetrable, justice has prevailed unexpectedly and we need to remember that going forward. 

Clearly the people in this classroom and in this major knew they wanted to make a difference in some capacity, even if it meant “sacrificing” practical skills that most employers are looking for. And yet I don’t see it as a sacrifice at all. Learning about things that genuinely matter and understanding to think critically, to understand social complexities, and learning how to convey that message to an audience is extremely important in creating change. I think there is a sense of understanding that we should not just graduate and be a productive member of society, ignorant to history and social issues, there is a sense that we should take our applied knowledge and use it to do the most good we can. 

I thought this was an awesome reading for this week. i really liked the way it seemed to empower individual, small actions and make them seem simple enough for everyday, common people to accomplish each day. I feel like our society is fascinated by quick fixes, instant change, and immediate gratification. Because of this, we expect real change to occur in an instant, and when we are doing the small things each day that lead to the big moment we often get bored because we don’t see immediate results. However, I thought this reading was awesome in providing motivation for thinking differently, more long term progress focused. Goska writes that and claims that “unnoticed” gets confused with “insignificant”. However, these little changes add up, and as written on page 71, “small acts when multiplied by millions of people can change the world”. It offers hope that yes, one person really can change the world, it just may not come in the way we expect it to. Furthermore, one person can change someone else’s world far easier than they can change the entire world. A favor for someone may go way further and mean far more for the recipient than the giver can even begin to imagine. My favorite point from this reading was on page 64 when Howard Zinn tells us “don’t look for a moment of triumph”. It may sound disheartening and a bit boring, but the best, fastest way to make progress is probably slow, boring, simple tasks each day that over time have the potential to make a significant difference in which ever area we choose.

From Howard Zinn’s chapter “The Optimism of Uncertainty” one quote stood out to me: “despite widespread head-shaking over the ‘apathy’ of successive student generations, an impressive number of students continued to act” (68). This quote reminded me of a conversation I recently had on campus with a long time administrator. In the face of the Board of Trustees failing to do the right thing and just change the names on Ryland Hall and Freeman Hall based on the substantial and conclusive evidence that those men were in fact bad dudes, this administrator was shocked by the student response. She told me that in her time at Richmond (almost 30 years) she had never seen this much involvement from the student body regarding real issues and not just attending spring concert or going to ring dance. On the day of the second protest organized by the Black Student Coalition, I had mentioned it to her in our conversation and she was shocked to hear about it. And immediately committed to going. She told me how moving it was to finally see the student body looking like they actually cared about what happens on campus. 

As the podcast discussed, the student body here is finally making a difference because the Black Student Coalition and all of their followers are convincing people to join in on the fight. I think the analogy of everyone with their little tea cups is fitting. On campus, one person, one measly student, could not have stood up to the Board of Trustees. Based on their recent actions, it is pretty obvious they don’t have a hard time ignoring hundreds of voices, so one (unless it was the perfect one) probably would not have done as much good. Also, placing these protests on the back of one student is grossly unfair and would probably become unhealthy for that individual. But no one student has to do it alone. With whatever tea still fills every individual’s tea cup, combined some of the students and faculty of this campus have been able to push for change successfully. Their work canceled the University’s Giving Day. They pushed the faculty to make major stands against their own Board of Trustees.  They forced even the most racist and bigoted board members to surrender the decision to a new group of people. It seems to me that right now our tea cups are in abundance and I hope that they only multiply. 

Listening to the last podcast, I thought it was interesting how Professor Bezio kept talking about our “risky” decision in choosing a leadership major or minor. It really makes me think about how stuck we can get in society’s expectations/thoughts of what is safe and risky or what is useful and what is useless when it comes to higher education. I always knew that I wanted to go to University and I always thought that I was going to major in business as it just seemed like what is practical and I could use anywhere (an idea that was further pushed by my parents). I am still a business major, but after choosing to attend Richmond I also decided to add a leadership studies major at first thinking that its greatest advantage would be making me stick out compared to other business majors when applying for jobs.

It is so easy to get stuck on the idea of what is ‘normal’ – the normal at my high school was for everyone to college. A normal major is one that is practical – English majors are deemed useless by so many for some reason. I think that’s what makes Jepson so appealing for so many people is that although it is not ‘normal’, there is no doubt that leadership is connected to everything we do and you truly do begin to realize its importance as soon as you start taking classes in Jepson.

When discussing the Titanic, I knew that women and children were asked to board the life boats first, and everyone in 1st class went before anyone else. But what I didn’t realize (which is probably really dumb) was that while everyone is panicking and trying to figure out who gets onto the boats and who doesn’t, there are already several people who are dead, the workers at the bottom levels of the ship. This was really disturbing and sad to realize. Whenever I think about the Titanic, I think about the movie because that is the only “visual” or “memories” that my brain has of those events. I think the Titanic is one of the saddest movies, but now I’m realizing that while all those hundreds of people are trying to survive for two hours of the movie, there are people who had already died. I also didn’t know that there were two black men on the Titanic, one with a white wife, who has denied access to the lifeboats. The history of the ship just gets sadder and sadder.

As for my life, I’m hoping I’ll find jobs and be successful with a Jepson degree, but I don’t know if this podcast made me feel any better about that. But, I do love that you can use leadership in any career field or job, and that Jepson majors have worked all over the place, so I know that it doesn’t limit me to one area of work. That’s one of the main reasons why I chose to major in Leadership.

When I have a terrible day and someone tells me they like my shirt or they check in on me, I hold on to that for a while. And the next time I have a terrible day, I try to remember those moments and do the same for my friends when they have a bad day. Over time we pull each other along and eventually are in a place where we can do that for others, or have enough energy and motivation to address larger issues. 

I really like Goska’s phrase that “The problem is not that we have so little power. The problem is that we don’t use the power we have.” I think this gets at a lot of issues, but I am a bit concerned that she is discounting the structural factors. The idea that even if every single person on earth chose to reduce their personal carbon footprint, we would still be facing an irreversible climate crisis on account of the impact of corporations. However, that is not to say that personal choices, such as recycling or using green energy don’t matter. They do. They make a difference no matter how small that would not exist otherwise, and every time one person does something, it makes it more likely that another person will follow in their steps. But there is a structural component more than just late-stage capitalism. This has roots in a history of colonialism and exploitation of subaltern countries. About a quarter of the world’s population has no access to electricity. They are not the ones who need to worry about their energy consumption. It’s the people in the global 1% who can make a more significant difference, but its the ones in the 0.1% (leaders of corporations like Exxon, Amazon, and Google) who can make even more impact. I think that people in these positions are obligated to address vulnerable populations and global issues, but not everyone agrees. That’s why even one person making a change in their life can put more and more social pressure on others to do the same. If everyone went ‘green’ we would still have an irreversible climate crisis, but it would also influence the actions of those larger than us, like nations and corporations, to follow suit.