Bella Anam’s

    In this unit we explored philosophy (mainly existentialism and transcendentalism), intertextuality, historical and religious presence to philosophy, and overall developed a personal statement about the meaning of life. Fueled by the preexisting existential crises that 11th graders usually have already, this project was born to help guide troubled souls back into the light, to help youth find meaning and purpose. Within an academic environment where they can be authentic to themselves personally, something that is rarely asked from the teens of today in public education. We tried to answer questions like: How does intertextuality provide better insight to our lives on earth? And more. I made a film overlaid with my own intertextual poetry, inspired by my awakening to transcendentalism. It’s expressing the simplistic, yet fulfilling and remarkable moments in life, and that it all has divine place and spiritual expertise. But it will mean something different to everyone who sees it. Which is all but the point, is it not?

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  My most spiritual moment was with Transcendentalism. We first spent this project exploring existentialism. I hated it. I thought, “I have enough of these reclusive and disastrous episodes on my own in life, please don’t give me the horror of discussing and annotating it throughout history to the dawn of sisyphus and beyond.” 

Walt Whitman’s ghost has the tendency to travel through space and time.

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  In my childhood years, I lived and breathed transcendental philosophy. I never knew what philosophy was, I just existed. Plain, simple, and unquestioned. I grew up living, not questioning myself. In recent years, I’ve lived a faulty life that’s not reflective or respectful to my soul. I lost myself. My zest, my passion, my direction, my okayness with existing in the moment or the future, but the past was an enemy. I described all of this as “mourning the loss of a life that belongs to me.” I had been trying for years to get back to that place where I was when I was younger and unquestioned. But as with many poets and other aliens in this antihuman society, Walt Whitman’s spirit came to watch over me. After having a moment with Jessica (my teacher), she told me I need to read Leaves of Grass and Song of Myself. She shared a mirrored experience to mine, and Walt Whitman came to her and helped her bloom out of it. As he does, as one of the founding paternals of seeing Holiness in this grand thing called life. Or at least, that’s my feeling. To be honest, I haven’t read an exhaustive amount of his poetry. But his spirit saved me. Transcendentalism has brought me back to the way I live naturally, but somehow forgot along the way. But somehow, now that I can feel it in my soul, in practice, and even the grand resource of technical terms, I am aligned again, and I don’t see myself forgetting it at any point. This was too remarkable for that.