Reflective Essay Sample on Transcendentalism

For my project, I chose an essential question and it was “how much of one's values should one sacrifice to live in society?” To me, I knew the transcendentalist unit was all about becoming independent and following only yourself. Choosing this question was best for me because I am a cheerleader and to be honest I never really am independent because it is so time-consuming. Therefore I knew I would have to sacrifice certain parts of my humanity to find independence in myself. 

For example in one of my artifacts by Margaret fuller, she speaks strongly on finding yourself through destiny and I feel as if I believe I can change then I will be able to find independence. She also talks about how humans crave the thought of change and to become better but how will they if they don’t unite in themselves. Honestly good question because as I read her poem I thought to myself effort is going to be needed to be successful in finding myself. The cheerleader I am right now is too focused on commitment to the team and not for myself. Also, I felt as if the poem by Margaret fuller helped describe transcendentalism because she calls it “The One In All” and that makes me remember how different being a cheerleader and being a transcendentalist is. If you think about it, to be the one in all you have to be completely involved in yourself rather than me being focused on my team. 

Transcendentalist also focussed on finding the beauty in nature and how important it is to find hope in the natural world around you. Being able to find beauty in nature helps one to become individual and that's what I am focussing on. Cheerleading is all about a team effort and working together, and that's why I chose to compare it to transcendentalist because I knew I was going to have to sacrifice working with others. I also realized that I would be needing to learn how to follow my thoughts and not what others think, or where my teammates are at because transcendentalists don’t let others stop them when it comes to their thoughts. I want to be able to not care what anyone thinks about me and I want to be able to speak for myself, and that’s what transcendentalists thrive for. Becoming independent in my sport and everyday life will be a challenge but in the end, it will make me stronger. Just like Emerson talks about tomorrow “they” will wear another face, and when I read this it made me think why do I worry so much about what others think when tomorrow “they” will have already forgotten. Emerson is describing tomorrow as a new day and therefore it’s a new day to be you. Tomorrow should bring no stress because it’s another chance to prove yourself. In correlation to cheerleading and what Emerson is saying I need to remember that there is always more time to improve at cheerleading, and I don’t need to be where my team is at right at that moment. It is important to realize that being individual and learning on your own might be harder than others, it's okay to be behind. 

All in all, I have learned that becoming independent is going to make me sacrifice parts of cheerleading and daily life activities. Transcendentalism has shown me how the outside world can mean so much to one. When I say that I mean how people feel so judged by the outside world but in the end, no one should be scared because only your thoughts should matter. Learning to be confident in yourself is a huge part of becoming independent and realizing that there's potential for you.