Name: Chantal Estrada-Snowden

Date 05/30/18

Question 1: What was the catalyst that put you here, and how did it affect your perspective on life?

My catalyst was starting archery. This was my catalyst because when I started to practice archery my personality and the way I did things  changed very drastically. Before archery I did not care about school, I wasn't responsible at all. I would never turn in things and then after I started shooting I had straight A’s and I turned everything in on time. I think this was my catalyst because archery taught me to be passionate about. It was the first thing I completely loved to do and I never wanted to stop. I want to live this way because archery makes me feel peaceful and archery. When I am at practice I feel like I can either leave all my stress and worries behind when I need to, but It can also make me thing about life.  My perspective on life was affected by archery because I realized that it's important to do things that make you happy and it makes me value friendships, travels, and quiet time.

Question 2: Why, and how, do you want to live your life in this way? Provide Examples.

I think it is completely impossible to live life following entirely the beliefs of philosophy because you can’t be one hundred percent reliant. An example of this is Chris/ Alex although he left all of his belongings behind and lost all contact with his family because he was following his philosophy of naturalism. On his adventure he got help from many people, even though he rejected the materials and things they offered him, Chris/ Alex did take a lot rides. Many of the people he met in his adventure help him in a way and once he lost contact with everyone and completely isolated himself in Alaska, it ended with his death. Even Though I don't think you can be completely self reliable I do think it is important to follow some aspects of a philosophy. My philosophy is being free will. What this philosophy means to me is that you form your own ideas by not caring about what other people might think, you are doing what you want to do because it is right for you and it is what will make you happy.  I want to live my life with this philosophy because I think it is important for me to do what I want, and be able to create my own opinion about topics by disregarding other people's opinions. There's no way i can measure the effectiveness of my philosophy, but I think that if im happy with my life and i'm doing what makes me happy and what I want I think is is clear that I am following my own philosophy.

Pivotal Moment 1: 

This moment is very important for me because ever since I was little I have always wanted to travel. I think it is something that I looked forward to when I was little because my mom wanted to have a job where she wanted to travel, but she gave that up in order to have a family. When I was 10 years old I made a journal that i still have that includes all of the countries I want to go to and what I want to do there. The impact this has on my life is that I would not have a lot of money, this will require me to spend a lot of money and I will not be able to make any money out of my travels so it will have a very dramatic economic effect on my life. Another impact that it would have is that i will be very peaceful and happy, I would leave all of my stress and worries behind and be able to be free. This is a solitary moment, I want to travel by myself because It means I will do whatever I want and not have to sacrifice my needs for another person, I also wouldn't want to worry about another person. I think this would push away a lot of people because I won't be able to be texting my friends every moment of every day and I wouldn't want to do that. This is related to my personal philosophy because my philosophy is being free will. This is a perfect example of being free will because being free will means you don't care about other people's opinions of feelings and you do what you want to do. This is something that I want to do and by leaving I will ignore my family's opinion of it being too dangerous.

Pivotal Moment 2: 

This is a very important moment for me because this is one of the moments I will learn the most about myself. This will show how dependant I am and how strong I am. Living by myself is going to be a very drastic change for me and I will have to learn how to do many things, once you learn how to take care of yourself I think that is when you know you can do anything. This has a very large impact on your life because it shows you how to take care of yourself and how to be responsible. I think this will have a very big impact on the relationships around me because when I move out I don't plan on staying in San Diego, I want to move as far away as I can. When my oldest cousin who is 24 left her house and moved to Mexico City by herself to work my family isolated her a lot. As time went on little by little less family members talk to her and I know she feels very lonely. I want to do a similar thing as her so Im scared my family might push me away and stop talking to me.  This is impacted by my personal philosophy because when I live by myself I will be able to make my own decisions, I will be able to make the mistakes I want to make, and I will be able to get a nose piercing that I want but my parents dont let me get.

Pivotal Moment 3: 

This is an important moment for me because after I learned how to take care of myself I will be able to take care and love someone else. Being married is probably one of the biggest commitments, if not the biggest I will make in my life. In life I think it is important to know who you are and be happy but I think a large part of that comes from love. Not only the love you give but also the love you get back. It has a very large impact on my life because the person I marry will become another person I consider when making decisions, it will no longer be all about me and what I want.  There is only one other person involved and that is my husband. Although it is just one person I think that in this case one person is worth one million people. I think this because in my parents marriage although only two people are involved they sometimes share very different opinions that making a decision is very complicated. This is a very big crash with my philosophy because in my philosophy I just care about myself and only focus on what makes me happy, nothing controls my decision making or me, by being married you care about another person and what they need might not always be what you want.