Douglass and Resilience — Balthazar

Part A –  

“As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition without the remedy.” (p. 8) 

In the passage’s opening sentence, Douglass presents the idea that learning to read had become a curse rather than a blessing. When he writes “As I writhed under it” I conclude that he is using the word writhe, which means to respond with great emotional or physical discomfort. To acknowledge that the idea of learning to read becoming a curse upon him causes him great discomfort and contradicts what he knows is true, that learning to read is in fact a blessing. In the following sentence. Douglass describes this as “a view of my wretched condition” wretched in this case, would be his unfortunate state as a slave. When he states that it had given him a view, without remedy. Douglass is conveying the idea that by becoming smarter and learning more from reading. Not only about the world, but about slavery itself. Bestows him the deeply troubling truth of his situation. But not only that, it has given him no remedy, no blueprint for escape. This is the curse of knowledge and goes along with the adage ignorance is bliss. If you have no concept of life outside of a certain domain, or no means of learning about the world, past the horizon you will never try to seek out that new world. Yet in Douglass’s case he has seen over the fence which his masters did not want him to see over. This gave him a new perspective, that caused him great discomfort. 

Part B – 

 During my own educational journey, one thing that has always been difficult for me is staying motivated when the end seems impossibly far. For me personally, it has been difficult in the past and present to stay on a sturdy goal-oriented mind set. Especially when the finish line seems extremely far away. Often, I become easily discouraged or distracted, while studying or reading, or even just thinking about my degree. I question whether I am cut out for it or even on the right path. This can become very detrimental to my ability to maintain focus and drive.  

Yet there are a couple tools or thinking mechanisms I use to keep myself on track. This is not something I created but I learned from the Huberman Lab Podcast by Dr. Andrew Huberman. The podcast is a neuroscience podcast where he explains science and neuroscience-based concepts around the body and brain. One of the episodes was about motivation, in this he talked about, not only how to stay motivated when presented with a long-drawn-out goal, he also talked about how to maximize productivity after said goal is accomplished. I will not go into more detail about the science behind it, but the key point I drew was that when trying to accomplish a long-term goal. Is instead of celebrating at the very end, try to remember that the process of chipping away at a goal or learning something is the real joy, not the celebration at the end. This simply mindset change has really helped in staying present throughout my educational journey, it keeps me from obsessing over the future and allows me to complete the tasks and assignments at hand and being happy to do so. What I learned about myself from using this strategy is that I can stay motivated much longer, by not looking too far ahead, and just focusing on what needs to be done today.