Through our readings, this class has demonstrated to me how important nature is in our lives. It reminded me of how poorly we treat the environment that allows us to live. I never thought how important the world gives us so much, but we give little back. Through the readings it also showed me the importance of ones culture, and how significant it is to learn and immerse yourself into it. The ability to learn one’s culture, you must be open to listening which I learned when we were reading Flight Behavior. Society’s relation to the world, is that we are now realizing how much we have harmed our planet. If we keep bringing awareness to the issues that are happening throughout the world, our future generations will continue to learn and grow within our planet.

Flight Behavior was the most impactful secondary source; it was fascinating to see how butterflies could symbolize life and rebirth cycles.. It also opened my eyes how the main character chose to understand and develop a fighting effort to continue life for the insects who eventually become butterflies. The most important topics that we should be exploring as a human species is gun control and gender identity. Gun control needs to be talked more because we have the highest ratings of school shootings. You’re allowed to purchase a gun when you turn 18, but you can’t drink until you’re 21. That doesn’t make sense, I feel the government needs to more important issues than worrying about teens drinking. We also need to bring awareness to how the government doesn’t make any changes and not making stricter changes on these gun laws.

Gender identity should be talked about because not a lot of people in society are aware of this issue. Homosexual people believe there are more than two genders and have debates and the proper pronouns. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, and two spirit (LGBTQ +) Community finds it disrespectful when they get referred to as pronouns that people assume are their pronouns. I feel like we should be awareness to that because not many people know that are preferred pronouns when there is multiple.

“Why haven’t gun laws been modified to make it impossible to obtain weapons when guns are the leading murderer of kids and adolescents?” would be the most significant question, in my opinion. From recent events taking place, the gun laws need to be changed, so people aren’t afraid to attend events or places. Because an increasing number of individuals are being killed, the government needs to start changing the laws.

I truly believe that art and literature play a role in the impact of our future relating to climate change because it can provide a new perspective on climate change to young people and adults. Visual art, theater, and music, as well as critical, integrative, and reflexive methods, can create venues for creative imagination, experimentation, and perspective-taking which can provide a different perspective on how we view climate change and can potentially change our future.