Trascedental Challenge :: Essays Papers

For my transcendental challenge, I chose to spend twenty minutes a day outside in a park. I did nothing but observe me surroundings. I observed the children playing, and the pedestrians going about their businesses and the nature. My original thoughts on this challenge were that it was great waste of time especially due to the freezing weather. I thought I had much better things to do and greater priorities. I even believed it would be boring so I doubted whether I should have done it or not. The thought of a great reward in the end or a possible lesson or discovery about life made me choose to start my challenge. I first wondered whether walking to the park was part of the challenge. On one hand the park was about five minutes away and the round trip in itself would cover half the time of my daily challenge. The trees and people I passed could have also been a part of observing nature and I believed I could have made some observations on my walk. On the other hand I was not still in one place because I was moving and the passing cars distracted me so I was not away from technology. I decided that it would not be fair to make a decision, being so biased, and I would decide after the results of my first ten minutes. I arrived at the park on this first day and sat on the first bench available. I sat with a frowned face. My first observation twenty seconds later was how the cold wind blasting on my face reminded me of how much I already hated this challenge yet liked the class responsible for it. My first thought was to count the number of trees. I counted sixteen trees and decided to examine the biggest of them all. I worked my way up from the giant trunk, to the long branches, to the highest leaf. I saw this tree as a home to animals such as squirrels and birds. Although they were not present at the time, I could imagine them climbing and flying in. I went home twenty minutes later smiling with an internal picture of squirrels and birds living in harmony. So I had decided that the round trip should not have been included in the challenge. On day two, after reviewing my notes, I realized I was imagining animals when I should have been observing them.