Blog #5
Personal Essay Topic
I think everyone's like me when I say I have not been thinking much about this class nonetheless any class. Spent the week traveling back home with my buddy and his dog since he couldn't bring him on a plane. 28 hours back home to Chicago. You would think I would have thought about topic ideas during this mind-numbing drive but I did not.
Needless to say though, I think the topic that I would find the most fun to write about and something that has become very prevalent in my life is fitness. There are many ways one can go with this topic, so I have been trying to think of some questions that bring up the different impacts fitness has.
How does fitness impact mental health?
Does working out lead to a happier life?
These types of questions obviously relate to how exercise can help with depression, anxiety, and general outlook on life. It is clear that there is a certain chemical reaction that causes working out to be good for depression, but what is the bigger aspect on how it affects someone's view on their life/lifestyle? Why does working out make people feel better about themselves in the long run? Someone's motivation for the gym could be for looks, while others might go to be healthier.
Why is fitness so important?
Why is exercising such a big aspect of western culture?
How does working out affect personal relationships?
I personally started working out because I wanted to get into better shape. I had been going on and off for a few years, but it wasn't until my sophomore year of college that I started to really take it seriously. I developed a routine and changed my diet, and my motivation for the gym slowly changed from extrinsic to intrinsic. It feels good to be healthy, and I am sure most people in my situation feel the same way.
Fitness is obviously important for many reasons, the main being that it helps us live longer and healthier lives. But was it always this important? Did humans always exercise? I imagine there is a specific time where we can see when going to the gym became more prevalent in our culture, and I would be interested to see if a reason for why could be deducted.
The last question I sort of just threw on there, there may be some science behind if fitness affects relationships. Because it aids with stress and depression, that could cause someone to have better interactions with their friends and family. There could also be some negative aspects which is something I could try and dive into. Some who take weightlifting too seriously can do unhealthy things to look bigger, or dedicate too much time to the gym and not have as much time for work/social life.
Hope everyone is enjoying their quarantine
Hello Adam,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog, it showed how much you are interested in fitness. In my opinion, I think this would be an interesting and broad topic you can talk about. You can go many ways with this topic. You mentioned you started to do work out to get into better shape, I'm just wondering if that's the only reason. I'm asking this because you mentioned a lot of reasons why people start to go to the gym. And I was thinking that if you got another reason, like because you were depressed or stressed, you could start your essay with a super interesting story. Since this type of essay's don't give their main idea right away, you can start with that story and as your essay goes you can reveal your main topic out of nowhere. I think that would cause interest and would provoke emotions to the reader.
-Ramiro Ramirez
My dearest Adam,
ReplyDeleteThe variety of fitness questions that you came up with are very interesting. It is eye-opening to imagine about how past generations exercised and how fitness has changed recently with continued research. Fitness is such an amazing outlet for stress and anxiety, allowing your mind to focus solely on your body and the functionality of your muscles or your breathing is definitely therapeutic. As depression related symptoms and anxiety grow tremendously across our generation, it is important to learn as much as we can about maintaining a healthy lifestyle and working to control the things that we can control. I look forward to reading your essay!
Your classmate,
Max
Hey Adam,
ReplyDeleteYour blog was fun to read, especially the obvious realness of that not one person is really paying attention to school but just trying to figure out what's going on in the rest of the world. However, with that being said, I think how you described your relationship with fitness is something deeper than just going to do the gym. I like that you describe you first started going to the gum to get fit but the underlying concept was you just wanted to be healthy. I think that's a super important message to send and the questions you further developed throughout your blog were interesting to think about as well. Stay safe during quarantine!