Be Original: Alejo’s Morning Meeting – D32

Today’s morning meeting was about a couple of videos. The first was a clip from the movie Garden State, which was about creating a completely original moment in history. After this clip, we decided to create our original moment in history. It was very funny! I encourage you do the same, you’ll feel great. Then, we watched Steve Jobs’ Vision of the World and discussed it later. We talked about believing and being certain that you can change the world and the things around you. When you realize this and combine it with hard work, then the world is just waiting for you to change it!

Make your Bike Road trip – Dialogue with Daniel Herbruger – D8

Today, Daniel visited us and talked a little about him. He is working at the Acton Academy Guatemala so he is familiar with the MPC. He talked about “dropping” college on his last semester of journalism for several reasons, some very similar to those of mine for getting into the MPC. He also talked about his passion, bike riding, and how we can achieve our dreams. People have this notion that you can only do certain things when you either have the time or money to do them, but Daniel thinks differently. He fulfilled his dream of make a bike trip crossing several states from the U.S.A. and told us how he managed to do it without the average amount of money needed to do those trips. I think he didn’t pay for that trip! The lesson is that money should not be an issue for not fulfilling your dreams. He encouraged us to meet who you admire, go to a concert of your favorite band, and do what you always wanted to do. The only condition is for you to not waste your time and start doing what makes you happy.

*Here are his blogs if you want to know more about him!

• Dave Ramsey Says
• Dan's Idea Depot

My Dreams

A few weeks ago, I took a seminar in which we discussed the ideas of John Kekes in his book, "The Examined Life". One of the main questions our moderator asked us was what do we want our contribution to the world to be. When I was supposed to answer to that question, I couldn’t answer it. I did say something about improving the public functioning of my country, but the truth was that I didn’t know yet what could be a contribution worth pursuing my whole life. I understand a bit more now about what must be our contribution to the world or the mission of our life.

Wolfgang von Goethe once said: “Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.” The reason I couldn’t answer to that question was because what I want to do in my life is to accomplish as many of my dreams and goals as I can, and in the process of fulfilling my own dreams, I’m sure there would be a lot of positive externalities to the people around me and to the world in general. As I interpret Goethe’s quote, our capacity to accomplish what we want comes within us and not from any external cause. So, I could say I want to become a successful entrepreneur, the president of Guatemala, read and discuss as many books as I can, and also write some too, have a beautiful family, and retire at an early age; which is true in all of these cases, but everything one does is in order to live happier every day. I don’t know yet if these things would make me happier than I was before accomplishing them. I think and hope it will, but that I will only be able to see by pursuing my goals honestly. I dream that when I’ll be old, I could see back in my life and have no regrets of what I’ve done. I dream of being happy and satisfied of what I have achieved and be able to say that if I have to live once again, I wouldn’t change anything.

First day at MPC – D1

The day finally arrived. After happiness, skepticism, joy, anxiety, and excitement, it was our first day at the Michael Polanyi College. The day started perfectly. I woke up around 5:15 a.m. and was at the College just 10 minutes before 7 a.m. We all had breakfast together and just chat, getting to know each other a little better. There were a few students who I already knew and of course many others that I was seeing for the first time. Also there was Bert and Ingrid, our mentors throughout this journey. After breakfast, we made a dynamic about the 7 dispositions, questioning, and habits of mind we will be working through the next three years. It was interesting to see how different opinions were given although we only knew each other minutes before. Then, Bert gave us our “survival kit” for the MPC, which contained play dough, a couple of laces, a small Rubik’s cube, tissues (for cleaning the future tears I assume), a notebook, a pencil, an eraser, and post-its. We then, discussed the use of each element in our survival kit and gave a true meaning to each of them, which at first seem to be random objects. 

Later, we read our first assignment, a two-minute speech about our dreams. We also had to read before this day "Let your life speak", by Parker Palmer. This book is about finding your true vocation, your mission in this world, the meaning of your life. It was great that we started the MPC doing this, because this way you can get to know each member a little more, you can share your dreams and passions, and start building a culture of respect and support toward the mission everyone has. By the way, here is my speech!

On the afternoon, we saw the documentary, "Anatomy of a dancer", about the life of Gene Kelly, one of the best dancers in the XX century. To be honest, before watching this film I didn’t like nor appreciate too much dancing, but something changed my mind after this film. It was Gene’s passion for everything related to dancing. Dancing was his world, his life. It made me wonder if people could really find their true vocation and passion, as Parker Palmer’s book is about. I wonder how many people live without ever finding what’s their true vocation and only do what they think society think they should do, such as getting into college, finding a nice work that probably they don’t like but that pays enough to live well, creating a family, and settling for the rest of their life. What about what they like? Have they forgotten what is really their passion? Have they lost their creativity and settle with how the world “needs” them to be? Are they happy? Will they ever be happy? I don’t know any of those questions, but I certainly know that I don’t want to become one of them. I want to live every day of my life doing what I am passionate for. I want to explore my creativity, grow my intellect, and be really good at what I do, fulfilling my goals and dreams throughout my life.

So, this is how my day ended, a little tired but good tired. Like those days you know you are productive and feel no regrets at all of having wasted not a single moment of your day.