Journal 6 - Holding on Reflective

As a class, I think we all learned a lot from Holding On. Isay's writing style was varied, and yet he managed to capture the people that he wrote about, no matter what perspective he was writing from. My main takeaway from Isay's writing is that a good writer needs to be able to write in different styles, and also needs to be able to switch between styles smoothly. I tried my best to use third and first person in my essay, and to use them when they were able to provide the biggest benefit.

 From the people in Holding On, several different ideas and themes were expressed.

The main idea that struck me was the sense of purpose that many of the people in the book felt. Even people living in a small town, who live simple lives are able to find meaning in what they do, and work hard to find happiness in whatever form they see it as. This idea is one that I did not think about before reading this book. In today's world, the internet and the media allow some people to have a major influence on thousands of people all around the world, and the idea that a person can make a change in their own small community, and be satisfied with that is one that did not often occur to me before reading Holding On.

Another theme that I picked up both from Holding On and my essay was the idea that if you pursue your passion, you can find success even if it seems unlikely. My essay was about a man who owns one of the most successful carousel companies in the United States. Carousels are a unique passion, and one that I would never even think of as being a viable career choice, and yet someone was able to make carousels their life work, and was successful in their pursuits. Many of the people in Holding On have had similar experiences, albeit with varying amounts of economic success. This has made me realize that if I work hard enough, that I could make a passion of my mine a large part of my life, and that I could find success by doing that.

One of the people that I most want to remember from Holding On is George Searles. His belief that playing a game such as checkers can keep you mentally fit relates to me. I love playing chess, risk, stratego, and several other strategy games, so this idea appealed to me.