Bees are the Key
You wake up one
day and the world is running just the way it should, but better. Everyone is
working towards something and everyone is satisfied with the world. Are we in a
utopia? No we are actually in a bee hive. Change is the key to the future and
surprisingly this key is held by our little black and yellow friends.
How many times has
there been a time in your life where you felt like something was not done the
right or proper way? Now how many times did you do something about it? The
answer to that is somewhere near zero unless you are the next Martin Luther
King Jr. or the next Gandhi. Creating change is not that easy, but raising
awareness and taking the first steps towards this new future is not very
difficult. All you have to do is believe in your idea and get others to support
you. If an idea is good enough you will always gain followers and supporters.
Carl Zimmer, the
author of “The Secret Life of Bees,” would definitely agree with this
statement. Zimmer focuses on a study conducted on bees to show the way in which
they work. Usually when we think of bees we think of a chaotic scene. However,
this is not the case. Bees are actually more systematic than we may have thought.
All bees work towards a singular goal. They all want the hive to survive and
the Queen to keep living. This unity really helps the hive prosper and continue
to grow and spread. Bees also share ideas with one another, such as moving the
hive to a better location. If this location is truly better, more bees will
join in and get the entire hive to move.
This mentality is
almost identical to the one I mentioned above. Where believing in your idea and
if the idea is good, the followers will grow and the idea will eventually come
to life. It is the little steps that make a difference and in the bee’s case,
the bees are those little steps. They split themselves up to do different
tasks. Some are in charge of going to flowers, others are constantly looking
for better hive locations, and the list goes on.
In my life I have encountered
many situations where I felt change was needed. However, in a majority of those
situations I never did anything about it. I just let my day go by and hoped
that maybe someone would bring it up or that someone would stand up against whatever
it was that needed to be stopped and fixed. But for one of a select few times I
stood up for something. This was during my junior year of high school. Me,
along with a few friends of mine and some seniors were able to start a robotics
club in the school. We were able to get the school to create separate funding
for our club and in a way forced the club into the school’s environment. While
this was not a massive step, it was still a step for me. Not only was I able to
let my voice be heard but we also forced a club into existence after quite a
few people before us failed to do the same thing.
While my experience
was nothing major, these rules or ideas for creating change can be seen in the
biggest movements. One specific movement would be the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement.
Matt Taibbi, in his essay “How I stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the OWS
Protests,” writes about there being a sense of beauty in fighting for what is
right. Taibbi mentions how at first even he did not like or care about the
movement. To be completely honest, neither did I. I kept hearing about it but
just pushed it off to the side. I did not realize that something that to me
felt had little to no impact, was so large that we still feel its impact today.
The events of Wall Street are what led to the horrific financial situation of
the United States in the last few years. Taibbi also questioned what the
movement was even for. The reason Taibbi said the movement was important and
had a certain beauty to it was that there was a need for change. The protestors
were all there to make change. Although hey cannot keep protesting forever, the
protestors can go into better way to advocate for change and actually change
the system by starting a non-profit.
The protestors are
like the scouts from the bee hive. They go out looking for a problem and fight
to finish it. Although the protestors do not really have a set goal they will
eventually come up with one. The scouts are looking for answers as to where
they can find a good place to migrate to. The protestors are looking for
answers to their political and economical problems.
*I
stopped here because I was not sure if this was headed in the right direction.
I did not want to keep going if I was headed in the wrong direction.
I can totally see where you're going with this essay. You sort of gave it away though. I didn't really have to work too hard to know where you're going which works for you. It can be hard to tell someone they aren't doing something the "right" way, so to make it obvious to humans that maybe bees "do it better than us" can prove well.
ReplyDeleteSaad,
ReplyDeleteThis is a solid first draft. Nice work. You do a good job of representing Zimmer and Taibbi and making connections between them. I'd like to see you expand your "third element," however. Consider beginning with a scene from your robotics club. Show us something that foreshadows the idea(s) to come. Then return to this scene throughout your essay, showing us how Taibbi and Zimmer help you to think differently about this experience.