Christopher Fulco, 10/9/2020, Period 5, Day B

Christopher Fulco

10/9/2020

Period 5

Modern Mythology 2021

At this current point in time, what specific goal(s) do you have for yourself? Why?

    After this year, widely regarded as one of the worst years for human civilization and certainly one of the most tumultuous years of my life, my specific goals going into 2021 and the rest of 2020 are simply to maintain mental and physical health. A lot of very negative and awful things have happened to me and people in my family this year. It has been incredibly tough and mentally taxing to remain calm and collected at all times, and for that reason, I need to prioritize my mental and physical health to a new level, that previously, I never really had to worry about. For most of my life, I was always the calm kid, I never let anything bother me and just lived my life in glee. Recently, though, its become difficult to maintain that level of happiness I had as a kid, so many things, both good and bad, are happening in the world right now, and it's simply mentally and physically tiring. So my specific goal is to maintain positivity, somehow, someway, stay positive, and make sure I can keep myself afloat mentally until at least the new year, and at most keep myself happy for the foreseeable future.

How do you demonstrate resilience towards achieving this goal? (or these goals?)

    Resilience in this goal is achieved by my own metrics, for this type of goal isn't necessarily visible to the public eye, For me, I want to make sure I have motivation to wake up and go about my days without struggle, and resilience for me is being able to do that day in and day out. My own resilience is the ability for me to see things that may bother or upset me without entirely breaking down, and in seeing the positive aspects of life for what they are. Resilience is showing up to class everyday, ready to answer questions and do the work assigned to me to the best of my ability, no matter how tiring it may be. Resilience is writing my college applications, creating video content for the social media channels I have, and entertaining others through my streaming platform. If I can go about my days as normal without negative thoughts plaguing me and preventing me from fulfilling my daily tasks, I would consider that to be resilience. I understand that this may seem elementary compared to many other people's goals, but for me, it's what matters most. 

How does the world around you affect your perception of this goal? (or these goals?)

    A few years ago, I likely would've had a negative opinion about this goal, due to the world's views on mental health. However, times have changed a lot since then, for the better. I no longer feel alone in my struggles and I feel ready to take on the world with the help of my friends and people who are there for me. Mental health is something that has only really been looked in detail recently, only a few years ago would the world simply laugh and ignore the pain of tens of millions, but now, the world grieves with you, and understands. I personally see that as a brilliant thing. A lot of this doesn't particularly connect to modern mythology, at least directly, but I can see some indirect correlation. The Greeks and Romans created their mythology to explain the unexplained, make real the things they imagined, and for us, we are trying to explain the injustices of the world, and feel it's impossible. The thing that matters most here, though, at least to me, is the attempt. If we don't try, if we don't wake up every morning and give the world our very best shot, then we're doomed to fail.