This course was the biggest attribute in keeping my sanity these last 8 weeks. After coming off of a long dreadful quarantine I was anxious to discuss the real problems of the world. During quarantine a lot of us were able to see what is really going on in the world, we had 20-20 clear sight of our surroundings. This goes for our society and our environment. For me, I had an awakening of nature around me and the capacity of us as beings. Spiritually, I felt at peace yet I couldn’t enjoy it because of the war around me, and in our society. So, when I started my classes I was thrilled to have a class that discussed the urgent problems we are facing that desperately need our attention. I think everyone should be in a course like this that keeps us informed and educated on imminent problems we are currently and will be facing. I learned so much over this course about sustainability, globalization, our effect as consumers, and the effect of the industry. When we first started this course we discussed the lost civilization of the Easter Islanders. Ultimately they killed off the land to the point of it being inhabitable until they turned to barbarism and collapse. That’s where I see us today. Many people say “we’re killing the Earth” and we are, but we are really killing ourselves. The earth will adapt with or without us. And that’s the point of devastation I see us headed towards. We live in a world where our president doesn’t even believe in climate change; how did we get to this point? As told in the eleventh hour, 10 years ago, it is the eleventh hour and 59 minutes. Which leaves my generation to fix all that has been done. From my perspective it’s irritating knowing that long generations before us have known of the consequences that are coming but now at the last minute it’s up to us 20 something year olds to save the world. No better generation is better than ours I guess! You asked us in our last session together, how that made us feel or what we had to say to that. And honestly it keeps me awake at night. I feel this overwhelming weight of the world on me at night, and sometimes it leaves me waking up angry, at everything. So by trying to fill that i tried kicking all of my non-environmentally friendly habits to the curb, my friends habits also. For a little bit I felt better about myself and my very small contribution to the world. Then, I go to class and read about the industry’s real impact on the earth, and then I feel defeated again. Like there’s so many problems to handle, and that’s what makes it wicked. There’s not just one solution. It can’t take just one person, and I know that, but it doesn’t make that weight any lighter. I learned alot about myself through my learning community. At the beginning of this year I told myself I need to work on my patience throughout every aspect of my life. Patience with myself, my thoughts, and others. Learning to consider an opinion even if it’s not my own. Learning to really listen and understand as I would want someone to do for me. In doing so, I often changed my opinion from the start of class to the end. By discussing in class, I learned how to discuss topics we go over with others outside of class naturally. It usually starts with “Well I read in my wicked problems class…” and then I back track with them over what a wicked problem even is and then loop back to the important stuff. Nevertheless, I was able to actually have these conversations and have the knowledge to back up what I’m saying. Being a 19 year old female I don’t have the best credibility in some eyes, but I hope one day they’ll listen. We are the future and I feel obliged to take that on and apply it to my career. I want to redesign the future. I want everyone to rethink nature, and their role in it. As future designers we have a chance to recreate production, fashions, and materials. Whether it’s normalizing garden lawns or making a chair out of paper, I feel like the opportunities are endless. I wanna learn about it all. I wanna figure out anything and everything we can do to fix this shit. I want everyone to know that we can. I thought alot about my environment and how I’ve been feeling as though it’s toxic. Like I need a breath of air from a different city, because I feel drained of my creativity here. More specifically, I’m completely uninspired by my surroundings. Waking up angry at the world. But I realized I have an opportunity to inspire those around me. I believe you should always leave something better than when you found it. Before, I lost hope in the world, I chose to have hope in myself and my ability and my aspirations. I can’t fix it all but i wanna try. I want to create inspiration from my hope, from myself. 

I want to thank you for these last 8-weeks, you have tremendously impacted my journey more than you know. This class was my safe-haven and I’ve thought of how uninteresting the rest of my semester will be, but I’m going to use this to completely indulge myself into my education and take everything I can away from this experience here at Oklahoma state. I will continue to practice my mindfulness and meditation. And I will also continue to try to save the world one step at a time.