Over the span of our time discussing Wicked Problems and trying to dive further into analyzing them and breaking them down, I’ve taken note of lots of things. Whether it be from the discussions we have, the breakout rooms, or the reading from this past week, I have definitely been left with a lot of “food for thought” you could say. I love the breakout rooms because you get to just sort of brainstorm all of your ideas and opinions and share them with one another. Also, being able to collaborate to help us sort of think more outside of the box is great! During this past weeks breakout room, my group and I all helped to extend our knowledge by just throwing all of our ideas out there. We were all very respectful of one another and mostly we could build off of one person’s topic to sort of get a deeper understanding. Something I wish I would have been able to explore more would have to be the similarities and differences of the problems that the people of Easter Island had, to the problems conveyed in The 11^th Hour movie. It was really compelling in my opinion, to see how we actually haven’t changed that much in some aspects although there is so much need for it. My major takeaways from the topic of last weeks discussion is that sometimes the decisions you are making, are ultimately leading to a huge problem, but at the point in time, you are just doing what you think is best without giving it a second thought. This is definitely something that makes you start thinking “Are my decisions the right ones” “Where are they going to take me in the long run.” It really defines that every action has a reaction, even it’s not immediate. Another major lesson I took from the reading was that you can’t take things for granted and don’t expect too much. This has always been ingrained in me since I was a child, my mother always telling me to be grateful for what I have and don’t expect more than what you work for. The Easter Islanders expected way too much from the Island and took what they had for granted, which was ultimately part of the reason their society collapsed. I like to think about it like this, you have no idea what life will throw at you. That’s honestly part of the beauty of it, it’s unpredictable. But, if you’re always ready to catch then there’s no stopping you. This is something I reflect upon a lot. Especially, with this being my first year in college and so many things going on in the world right on. You have to be ready for the unexpected. I don’t really think the Easter Islanders were ready for that. To build off of that, I think part of the reason we still have the same problems we did all those years, is fear of the unknown. After our question in class about new and old problems and their relations, well I was left with more food for thought and this is what I came up with. I think we as humans like comfort in life. We get comfortable and become complacent. A lot of times we don’t admit it but a lot of us are scared of change. And the problems we face today such as climate change, are going to require a lot of that. Which, for the most part, we know and understand. But, the thing is, we are too comfortable already, not willing to change. I believe our own level of selfishness is keeping us from solving immediate problems, just like the Easter Islanders.