Choices And Chances: A Creative Exploration Of The Human Struggle Toward Meaning And Identity

Abstract

During my years as a hard-studying academic, I have done much research and written torrents of analytical and evaluative compositions—some of them bad, some of them mediocre, some of them good. For my honors thesis, though, I wanted to write the sorts of things that I never have had adequate opportunity to investigate while I have been in school. Certainly the principles, both academic and personal, that I have assimilated in my brief twenty one years are embedded in this work, but for the most part these writings are my expression, my exploration, of the dilemmas and perceptions that have for one reason or another wandered around inside of me. I have always wanted to write, so here it is. This senior project is finished; it is finite and will be stored somewhere in an undergraduate library, but the writing itself is not finished. It will go on and on, and I will keep trying to hone the vague, elusive images of my own experience into concrete pieces of writing. It is hard to write, at least for me, yet there is no other way to write well except to start somewhere and keep plugging. I have enjoyed writing this capsulation of my college crucible, and I hope you enjoy reading it. All of the pieces involve struggle in some way, and while they all fit somehow into the "human struggle to create meaning and identity," they by no means define or encompass that struggle; they are just the tip of the iceberg, as seen through my eyes when I am young and wanting to write about it.