Taj Taher

Honors 100 AG
29 September 2012
Early Reflection
Upon reading David Brookss Social Animal, I was left with the depressing notion that
I was no better than any of the countless young men and women of this generation whose sole
purpose is to climb higher and higher. A phrase that particularly stood out to me from Brookss
final paragraph was, Hed spent yearstryingto impress admissions officers with S.A.T.
prowess and water-purification work in Zambia, sweating to wow his bosses with not overlong
Power Points. This struck a chord with me because it was exactly what I had done to get to UW,
and will continue to do in order to one day attend graduate school and then find a career. And
when I tell people that Im part of the Universitys Honors Program, it becomes immediately
clear from the looks on their faces that they have written me off as just another student trying to
make a grab at a resume booster.
However, that kind of sentiment has never hurt me, for it is absolutely false. The fact that
I am in the Honors Program demonstrates in my mind that not only am I not doing this to fatten
my resume, but that I am also not a part of the mass that is simply trying to climb the ladder. I
joined the Honors Program for the purpose of not only learning as much as possible, but having a
reason to learn it and seeing how this steady accumulation of knowledge applies to the world
around me. Anyone can memorize facts from a textbook, but it takes an open mind to be able to
extrapolate from that and make something of it. I joined the Honors Program in order to have my
eyes opened to the possibilities, so that one day I will not have a similar epiphany like Harolds
from Social Animal and wonder why it was that I had to trade my sentimentality in the pursuit
of academics, or sacrificing the joys of life in return for a scramble for the top seat in the house. I
joined the Honors Program to learn what Brooks calls the traits that matter mosthaving a

sense of the contours of reality, being aware of how things flow, having the ability to read
situations the way a master seaman reads the rhythm of the ocean.
Ultimately what I expect from myself is that, when these four years have come to a
conclusion, I will not be merely a better student, but a better human. I expect that when I emerge
from the wake of the coming four years, I will be well-rounded in the sense that not only did I
pack my brain with knowledge from a variety of sources, but that I was able to connect the dots
and see the larger canvas of the world. Brooks describes this generation as more focused than
any before, driven by self-motivation in a socio-economic climate that is based on Darwins
theory of survival of the fittest; in essence, despite what advances humans have made in the
world, we remain animalistic at our core, making us social animals. However, I believe that by
taking a step back and not allowing my vision to grow myopic, by being aware of not only what I
am learning but how and why I am learning it, I will be able to transcend the mad struggle to
reach the pinnacle of the food chain and enjoy life for the journey that it is, rather than as a race
for what lies at the end of the tunnel.