# data[].attributes.body
What an extravagant life we live unconsciously.
We are so often forced to conform to the high expectations of society. Forced to live in our homes silently, and to go with the flow. As I stand above these high pressures in the mountains, I reject the traditional establishment that attempts to pull me down. I will stand tall and strong, never giving into the fight.

# data[].attributes.body
I sit, astounded by the beautiful simplicity of the sky and the sea. The ripples in the tide whisper in my ear, calming my busy mind. I find myself enjoying what I typically take for granted, simplicity.

# data[].attributes.body
Watching the beautiful sun set while enjoying life with nature. Looking down deep into the mountains, seeking all the hidden truths of Mother Nature. As I solemnly stand atop the mountain, I smell the pureness of the soil, the coolness of the air. I finally catch the breath I have been chasing for so long.

# data[].attributes.body
Feeling on top of the world, I stand strong as an individual. No one can take this away from me. I am who I am, and I am who I will always be. This moment makes me feel so big, looking at the tiny houses below. I never want to return to sea level. I want to feel this way forever.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Challenges of Living Transcendentally

# data[].attributes.subject
The Challenges of Living Transcendentally

# data[].attributes.body
Living transcendentally in a way of living with simplicity and nature while seeking the truth and believing in the goodness of man. However, living out the transcendental tenets such as seeking the truth, individualism, the belief in the goodness of man, and a return to nature and simplicity could be very challenging today

Living out the transcendental tenets today could be a very challenging process for us humans to do. Living out the tenet of seeking the truth could be a very challenging process because in today’s world secrets are greatly hidden and are very hard to find. In addition living out the tenet of individualism could be a challenging process because in today's world everyone is depended on each other. Likewise living the tenet of the goodness of man is not a very challenging process if you are surrounded by the right people, however, what is happening today in the world could draft you away from finding any goodness in a man. The most difficult transcendental tenet to live out today is a return to nature and simplicity. Returning to nature and simplicity is a hard process because the world we live in today is very complex. Also, returning to nature is challenging because people today don’t appreciate nature and are being controlled by technology in that they don’t even notice the beautiful nature around them in their everyday life. Overall living transcendentally in today's world is a very challenging process for us.

To live out the transcendental tenets today such as seeking the truth, individualism, the belief in the goodness of man, and a return to nature and simplicity could lead the person into many challenges. Living transcendentally is one of the most beautiful way of living life,while enjoying nature and simplicity however, the changes that occurred to the world makes it almost impossible for someone to enjoy a transcendentalist life.

# data[].attributes.body
A modern day example of Transcendental thought is a song called “Get Up Stand Up” by Bob Marley. This song was written by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh when they were fighting for their rights in Jamaica. Later, this song became a nationally known rights anthem. As the song suggests, Bob Marley was a person who supported personal rights and freedom. As a result, this song is about standing up against the authority while demanding rights. Bob Marley continuously repeated the phrase “Get up, stand up, stand up for your right, Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight,” in order to carve it into the brain of the listener that a person should never give up against the authority while trying their hardest to stand up for their rights. This song related to transcendentalism because it involves many tenets of transcendentalism. “Get Up Stand Up” relates to the tenet of involvement of social reforms such as fighting for rights and abolitionism. In addition, this poem also related to the tenet of the rejection of traditional establishment, because Bob Marley and Peter Tosh continuously repeated the concept of how a society always needs to change, and the only ones capable of changing a society are men when they assert “You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time, So now we see the light, We gonna stand up for our right.” Bob Marley sends out a hidden message to his listeners by encouraging them to be the change if they wanted change. Lastly, the songs relates to the tenet of being against the idea religion because Bob Marley asserts “Preacher man don't tell me heaven is under the earth, I know you don't know what life's really worth, Is not all that glitters in gold and, Half the story has never been told, So now you see the light, say, Stand up for your right. Come on” as a way of questioning God’s authority and suggesting that people should look for happiness and not believe that there is a reward after living in pain without their rights (salvation).  Overall, the song “Get Up Stand Up” by Bob Marley contains many hidden messages and many Transcendental thoughts.

# data[].attributes.body
Show me the beauty of life

Where problems are seen and unseen

Where the tiniest thing could affect the future

Where challenges are faced

Where giving up sounds like an option

However, the beauty of life is when it’s fixed

When challenges are overcome by hard work and dedication

When success is the key to the beauty life

When you are following your own voice and inner thought

Oh please show me the beauty of life!

# data[].attributes.body
I believe that every individual has a role in life that contributes to the world. And I believe that my role is to help others by spreading peace to every single individual in the world. Even though the world we live in at the moment contains hatred and selfishness, I will try my hardest and will never ever give up trying to help others by bringing peace into their life. I will use my last minture in life trying to help all the individuals in the universe. I will try to spread the word of God to the world in order to spread peace. I will utilize the word of God as a weapon to help me achieve my role in life because the word of God contains love and peace as Jesus said “I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

# data[].attributes.body
In the poem “O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman shows how important life is by utilizing rhetorical questions such as “for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?,” or “What good amid these O me, O life?” Through rhetorical questions, Whitman  allows the reader to think, in order to echo his inner thoughts to his reader. Whitman investigates his own existence in life. However, Whitman answers his own questions by coming to the conclusion that his life is a life that is worth living, while all the individuals in the universe have a special role in life as he asserts “That you are here--that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” This poem relates to the film “Dead Poets’ Society” because they both stress and highlight the importance of life. Even though life could not go the way a person wants, the person should try their hardest to overcome those challenges and they should never give up because there is always a solution to a problem. Through the sadness that I felt in the movie, it occurred to me that a person should instantly stand up to the challenges they face during their lifetime. Both, the Poem “O Me! O Life!” and the film “Dead poets’ Society” represent the idea of individualism by supporting individuals to compose their own chapters in life, not just stimulating the life of others.

# data[].attributes.body
“Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.”

This quote is from an essay “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson seeked my attention because Emerson provides a description of how a “society is a joint-stock-company.” Emerson wanted to prove to his reader how a society only has negative effects on a person’s individualism because society is defined through the judgment of a group of people. Also, a society is based on traditional establishment, so as a result it will contradict self reliance because everyone will follow those traditions which will lead to no new ideas produced by the individual. This applies to today’s society because today’s society is still like a joint-stock-company, where everyone depends on each other. While everyone is depending on each other, there would be no space for self reliance because on today’s society, there is not original ideas because all of the “new ideas” are depended on other ideas. Overall, this quote represent the tenets of transcendentalism such as the “Individualism of Man,” because Emerson wanted “the man” to trust themselves and follow their inner thought.

# data[].attributes.body
“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."

This quote is from an excerpt from the book “Walden”, Chapter 2, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,”  written by Henry David Thoreau, really grasped my attention because Thoreau described the idea of living life to its limits. Thoreau wanted to suck the life out of life as he inserts “suck out all the marrow of life.”  Thoreau wanted to live a long life being alone with nature, as a way to return to simplicity and to get away from society in general. In addition, this applies to today’s society because everyone is chained to today’s traditions, as a way of following what others are doing, which represses the individual’s inner freedom to be able to live a life that is not led by the traditions of the common man. Thoreau's suggests to the common man that they should abandon the habitual schedule of life, and they should follow a life of simplicity by not competing with others but competing with their inner thought. Overall, this quote is a perfect motivation for today’s society in order for the people to go out and enjoy the life that God provided for us.

# data[].attributes.body
In San Diego, we as people love to live life transcendentally. We enjoy every single second of the beautiful weather San Diego provides for us. We live life to its fullest. Here in San Diego we have many opportunities to makes us enjoy and live life to its limits.