In the second part of the “Who I am” course, we had to watch and learn about Jung, answering questions about individual and collective memory. We created an Identity Wheel about our Personal Identity and Social Identity. We had to interview an elder, ask them 6 questions and write a 150 to 200 word essay about the interview. We had to brainstorm some memories and to choose which one we wanted to write about and this became our 500 to 800 word Time Machine memory reflection.

Here is 2 video from my memory to travel back in time.

Please find below: my Identity Wheel, my Power Point Memory & my Time Machine essay:

1. Click to Open my Identity Wheel

2. Click to Open My Power Point Memory

3. Read below my Time Machine essay

Since I was a young kid, I’ve listened to Bruce Springsteen’s old and new music and have been particularly interested in how his music has changed over the years. I like how his songs are like poems and how they always seem to have messages. This is why I was excited to go to the Bruce Springsteen concert at old Wrigley Field on September 7, 2012. When I arrived with my parents at the stadium, there were crowds of young people up to about the age of 50 filling up the crowded stadium on their way to their seats. When I first sat down in my seat, I looked at my mother and father and felt really excited, pumped, and grateful to them for getting the tickets. The concert started out with a loud bang. I was excited to see when Springsteen would appear on stage, and I was wondering which song he would play first. When he started singing “Prove it All Night,” everyone went crazy, and we were all having fun. I looked out at Springsteen and his backup singers from the first level of the stadium. I saw luminous lights bright as a sun coming from the stadium roof, a giant video screen, and crazy people waving their arms in the air and dancing. I heard people shouting Bruce’s name and others screaming out the lyrics to his songs. Springsteen’s voice came in loud, but even more thunderous were the magical sounds of the saxophone and drums from his E Street Band.

Being at this concert was a defining memory for me because Bruce Springsteen is not just a great musical artist. He is also a political figure who sings about the American Dream and how we can work together to make our world a better place.  His song, “We Take Care of Our Own,” reflects on Springsteen’s frustration about our government and its lack of accountability.  His song “Death to my Hometown” is an angry protest song that talks about the corruption of Wall Street. Finally, his song “The Land of Hope and Dreams” expresses his take on the American Dream and how we can all, as a country, struggle together. Springsteen is an inspiration for me and others.

As I learned from my interview with my grandmother, she was inspired in a similar way by Eleanor Roosevelt.  Eleanor Roosevelt was a person in my grandmother’s generation that she looked up to because she stood for social change and for equal opportunity for women.

The concert was also a defining moment for me because it was shared with people around me. This means that my memory is a partly “individual memory” in Jung’s sense, but also partly a collective memory that I have with other members of the audience.  At the concert, this shared quality was important for me because it meant that I had other people to talk about it with other people to get me energized about the music and have fun with.

Looking back on the concert, my favorite songs were We Take Care of Our Own, Wrecking Ball, Death to My Hometown, Shackled and Drawn, Ghost of Tom Joad, and Thunder Road. Thunder Road has a rock-out rhythm and a feel-good- sound that perks you up when you’re not in a good mood.