Week 2 Assignment

1. Your reflections on uncertainty.

This poses an interesting question, to me. Let's start it off this way; when I think of the concept of certainty, the thing that comes first to mind is that old, somewhat depressing line: "The only thing certain in life is death and taxes."

I feel like in some ways this is absolutely true, because so much in life is random and, well, uncertain. There are degrees of certainty and uncertainty, I think, though. A good example might be how I came to be in the East Bay.

Two and a half years ago, in my second semester at Baker College, I was in a class that taught energy massage therapy techniques, like Reiki and polarity therapy. The one thing I really remember from the class is how to balance Chakras, but that's neither here nor there.

As I may have told many of you, the midterm for this class was to experience one of the modalities we learned about, and I chose acupuncture. Long story short, I ended up wanting to go to school for acupuncture, and decided on a school in Seattle called Bastyr University. I applied twice, the first time they told me that I didn't have enough, or even the right credits to apply, and that my application was withdrawn. The second time, roughly a year later, I happily resubmitted, two shining letters of recommendation, my resume, and my transcripts.

A few months later, I was called by the director of admissions and told that they'd like to interview me. This was further than I had gotten in my previous attempt, so I was happy. I assumed that because I was in Michigan that they'd simply do it over the phone, but not so. Within two days, I spent roughly $600 on a plane ticket and hotel for a month and a half later (mid-May). The interview went well enough, although my outfit was a little lax for what they seemed to want; lax enough that they felt the need to point it out, which I was slightly annoyed at. I decided afterwards that if a school is going to base who they accept on what they wear, then I don't even want to go there.

Either way, it was a massive shock when I got the letter in the mail telling me to try again next year. Immediately I was freaking out. The rug had basically been pulled out from under me (definitely a good week and a half of uncertainty here, which was NOT a good feeling). Eventually I found AIMC's website, and sent off an email in a hurry, with a quick reply from Roselle telling me that they were still accepting students, that my credits were sufficient, and that they can do the interview over the phone.

I'd use the "long story short" cliche again, but I think we're well past that point. Anyway, I was accepted to AIMC, and a short time later I was buying my train ticket to the Emeryville station. I was full of relief that the feeling of certainty had been returned to me.

Apologies for the long story, especially considering I have two more questions to answer.

2. Your comments on Causality

Let's see..Cause and effect..

I had written a paper once back in my second year of college regarding Causality. Most people picked topics like why people become murders or rapists or alcholics, and then did their research and wrote their paper. I didn't want to do anything that simple or common, so I started writing on topics that came to mind. I went through three before figuring out that this assignment was harder than the professor had made it out to be.

Finally, I realized that my topic was staring straight at me, and I chose: Why I Can't Think of a Topic.

Obviously there's no research to be done there, and I just had to write my paper off of opinions and personal experience, but I figured it was a solid enough topic that I should get the B I needed to pass the class. The paper was written, turned in, and handed back a week later with a perfect grade, with a note telling me that she would like use it as an example in her future classes.

Not entirely sure what that has to do with cause and effect, but it's a good little story.

I'm not sure if I subscribe to the totality of causality (the rhyme was completely unintentional, but makes me laugh regardless) such as the Chaos Theory, in that if a butterfly flaps its wings, there will be a storm on the other side of the planet. I do believe that some things can have that effect, but I don't feel like something on such a small scale could have such a grand impact.

3. Is the Universe weird?

I think I would have to say yes. I'm not sure you'll find many people to answer this question differently. But now that I'm trying to find the words to explain just why I think the universe is weird, they escape me. I think it might be one of those things that people can see in their periphery, but once they look directly at it, it disappears (This analogy brought to you by the TV show, Dead Like Me. If you've seen it, I think you'll know what I'm referring to, hahah)