Inside Out Reflection

The film Inside Out has a lot to teach us about happiness. It connects back to our class theme of happiness in many ways. The film illustrates how happiness is the most important emotion out of the 5 characters. Throughout the movie, we begin to realize that every emotion plays an important role in Riley's life and how she acts. One of the emotions that the movie revolved around was sadness. Sadness, at first, was not important at all. In fact, Joy did not like the presence of Sadness because she would tend to mess things up and prevent Riley from feeling Joy. Even Joy herself thought as if she was the most important of Riley's emotions. As the movie continues, we learn that Sadness plays a very important role in Riley's happiness. Riley's "sad" experiences were what was needed to ultimately become happy. One example would be when Riley missed the winning playoffs shot. She was sad and disappointed. But because of that, her parents and teammates came over to comfort her. That turned her mood from sad to happy. With this example, we can see that by experiencing sadness, happiness will come. Sadness is ultimately essential for our happiness and well being. One difference I noticed about the movie and our class was that the movie sees happiness, or joy, as the main goal and main emotion. In our class, happiness is seen as a side effect. Overall, Inside Out taught us that happiness can be achieved through sadness. 

Freshman Research Conference

After listening to the presentations given by my classmates, I got a clear understanding of the certain topics they chose to present on. For the exception of one group, every group presented on the connection between wealth and happiness. The other group presented on self-esteem and self-efficacy. I think the groups who presented about the connection between wealth and happiness presented their information well. There was a particular group who included "The Wolf of Wall Street" as an example. I think that allowed me to more clearly understand the relationship between wealth and happiness. Although the groups for the connection between wealth and happiness presented well, I think the group who presented on self-esteem and self-efficacy presented best. Their presentation was very structured and organized. Furthermore, they got their point across quickly and clearly. My role as a supporting member of the audience was to pay attention to what the presenters had to say and hopefully gain some insight on their topics.