The Hero's Journey - Nick Brieger
Sound Cloud
Project Reflection:
In this project, we studied a prominent pattern in stories. This is the process that a heroic character goes through in order to come out a more enlightened or mature being. This is called the Hero’s Journey. The idea of the Hero’s Journey was proposed by a man named Joseph Campbell who dropped out of college and read books for nine hours a day, everyday for five years. The class read two books called “The Alchemist” and “Siddhartha”. We read these books to study the characters and how they went through the steps of the Hero’s Journey. We tied all of this in to writing our own stories which would go on to be the final product for our exhibition.
I grew in this project by simply learning how to become a better storyteller. I personally love writing and I think that learning about the most famous journey that a character in a story takes has made me a better writer. I also grew by learning to connect with my peers through hearing their stories. I am a good reader but do not read that often and reading two great books in this project has inspired me to read more. I think that storytelling is a skill and I got a lot better at it through writing mine in this project.
One of the biggest things that I will take away from this project is learning how to develop a character through the events and trials they go through. I will also take away from this project the love of storytelling because it is something that people have done for so long and will continue to do for so many years to come. The next time that I’m reading a book or watching a movie, I think that I will instantly zone in on the heroic character and point out the phase they are on in the Hero’s Journey.
In this project, we studied a prominent pattern in stories. This is the process that a heroic character goes through in order to come out a more enlightened or mature being. This is called the Hero’s Journey. The idea of the Hero’s Journey was proposed by a man named Joseph Campbell who dropped out of college and read books for nine hours a day, everyday for five years. The class read two books called “The Alchemist” and “Siddhartha”. We read these books to study the characters and how they went through the steps of the Hero’s Journey. We tied all of this in to writing our own stories which would go on to be the final product for our exhibition.
I grew in this project by simply learning how to become a better storyteller. I personally love writing and I think that learning about the most famous journey that a character in a story takes has made me a better writer. I also grew by learning to connect with my peers through hearing their stories. I am a good reader but do not read that often and reading two great books in this project has inspired me to read more. I think that storytelling is a skill and I got a lot better at it through writing mine in this project.
One of the biggest things that I will take away from this project is learning how to develop a character through the events and trials they go through. I will also take away from this project the love of storytelling because it is something that people have done for so long and will continue to do for so many years to come. The next time that I’m reading a book or watching a movie, I think that I will instantly zone in on the heroic character and point out the phase they are on in the Hero’s Journey.
Story Transcript:
The enjoyment of my silly teenage dilemma had peaked when I was in Chicago in the year of 2013. Fresh off of the plane from Durango and in my right hand I held a cup of cold coffee. My mom and I took the EL into the city. When we got off, my adolescent blue eyes got a whole lot bluer. In my eyes there was the burning sensation of love for the Windy City, where people were catching cabs and going to restaurants that served food from another country.
The cold breeze hit me and that is when I realized that I was destined to be a young urban fox. The skyscrapers would be the trees to my forest. I kneel down to tie my distressed black low top Vans and then my mother and I do the moonwalk down Michigan Avenue. We were willing to be free spirits and go to Nordstroms in search of buying something that would bring us internal happiness. I find myself going up the escalator to the second floor inside a big building with blinding bright lights.
I see people with heavy shopping bags and beautiful young girls with temporary smiles on their faces. Their faces which had just undergone a makeover at the L'oreal counter. There were people who were wearing skin tight shirts and loved to meander. It wasn’t long after my own meandering that I realized that I was in the men’s shoe section. I was startled by a flamboyant young employee who was tall and wore a vest and had skinny jeans that went with little leather loafers on his feet.
He asked “Can I help you sir?” with a excited tone. He had approached me so merrily because my eyes were locked on a pair of black and white Converse high tops. As I stared at the shoes I decided that they would be pivotal for my walking purposes. One would venture so far as to say that they were an upgrade. A real step up, if you will. The fruitful young employee had a happy demeanor as he measured both my feet. He pranced out of the back room holding a box with a pair of nine-and-a-halfs in them.
“Why don’t you take them for a spin?” He says as I tie the fresh white laces. I get up and start taking steps and it seemed as if I were walking backwards through history. It felt like I was one entity inside of an interactive video at a science museum. I wasn’t wearing Skechers. I wasn’t wearing Uggs. I didn’t go shopping at Famous Footwear and I didn’t browse at Kids Footlocker. With these new shoes, I would walk through the next chapter of my youth.
It’s the shoes you wear that reflect your journey in life. It’s your shoes that show people where you came from or where you are going. Looking down at my new Converse, I knew that the white laces would eventually get twisted and grey. I knew that the black would get faded and a strange shade of brown would appear. All I could think of was my way of getting to that point. So when I’m an old man sitting in a leather chair wearing my soft slip-ons, I’ll reminisce about all of the pairs of shoes I’ve had, because I can’t forget that I’ve walked a thousand miles and my grandson’s name is probably Miles.
The enjoyment of my silly teenage dilemma had peaked when I was in Chicago in the year of 2013. Fresh off of the plane from Durango and in my right hand I held a cup of cold coffee. My mom and I took the EL into the city. When we got off, my adolescent blue eyes got a whole lot bluer. In my eyes there was the burning sensation of love for the Windy City, where people were catching cabs and going to restaurants that served food from another country.
The cold breeze hit me and that is when I realized that I was destined to be a young urban fox. The skyscrapers would be the trees to my forest. I kneel down to tie my distressed black low top Vans and then my mother and I do the moonwalk down Michigan Avenue. We were willing to be free spirits and go to Nordstroms in search of buying something that would bring us internal happiness. I find myself going up the escalator to the second floor inside a big building with blinding bright lights.
I see people with heavy shopping bags and beautiful young girls with temporary smiles on their faces. Their faces which had just undergone a makeover at the L'oreal counter. There were people who were wearing skin tight shirts and loved to meander. It wasn’t long after my own meandering that I realized that I was in the men’s shoe section. I was startled by a flamboyant young employee who was tall and wore a vest and had skinny jeans that went with little leather loafers on his feet.
He asked “Can I help you sir?” with a excited tone. He had approached me so merrily because my eyes were locked on a pair of black and white Converse high tops. As I stared at the shoes I decided that they would be pivotal for my walking purposes. One would venture so far as to say that they were an upgrade. A real step up, if you will. The fruitful young employee had a happy demeanor as he measured both my feet. He pranced out of the back room holding a box with a pair of nine-and-a-halfs in them.
“Why don’t you take them for a spin?” He says as I tie the fresh white laces. I get up and start taking steps and it seemed as if I were walking backwards through history. It felt like I was one entity inside of an interactive video at a science museum. I wasn’t wearing Skechers. I wasn’t wearing Uggs. I didn’t go shopping at Famous Footwear and I didn’t browse at Kids Footlocker. With these new shoes, I would walk through the next chapter of my youth.
It’s the shoes you wear that reflect your journey in life. It’s your shoes that show people where you came from or where you are going. Looking down at my new Converse, I knew that the white laces would eventually get twisted and grey. I knew that the black would get faded and a strange shade of brown would appear. All I could think of was my way of getting to that point. So when I’m an old man sitting in a leather chair wearing my soft slip-ons, I’ll reminisce about all of the pairs of shoes I’ve had, because I can’t forget that I’ve walked a thousand miles and my grandson’s name is probably Miles.