McCandless Project

McCandless Project

    Do you ever feel you do things differently than everyone else?  Or that you don't fit in with the socially accepted styles?  Well that is what Chris McCandless feels like throughout his life.  To feel a bit like he did I conducted an experiment that goes against me socially.  I decided to take a different route to all of my classes one day.  People reacted differently in different instances.  For the most part, people didn't notice.  Now and then there were different people i bumped into and got asked why I was going this way.  I repeatedly told them I just felt like it.  Another instance of people noticing is when i was a little late to math one day.  I had people ask me where I was and why I was so late.  I told them I just took a different route, which involved going around the library instead of through it.

    I felt rushed and weird during the experiment. I felt rushed because most of the ways I went I knew were going to take a longer time to get to my class. I also felt weird because I was seeing people I wasn't used to seeing at that time of the day. I also felt weird because I was going a different route and it wasn't necessarily familiar to me yet. I was not surprised at other peoples reaction at all. I expected to be late and questioned about being late. I expected to run into some different friends and talk to them. What I didn't expect was my feelings. I thought I would be fine with going a different route, but I guess I wasn't. I guess I was so used to going one way, that it was hard for me to change that. I did feel pressured to do what I normally do, or what route I usually did. I was very tempted to just go the same way as I usually do and just ditch the experiment. I never did, but several times I was very close to giving in. I think this is all pretty expected and not surprising. I think if I had a hypothesis I would expect to feel a little weird and to be questioned by people. I also think this experiment showed me not to be too attached to one prospect of life, to much, and to change things up now and then. This was a very interesting social experiment.

Chris McCandless Paragraph

"First you have to learn the rules of the game.  And then you have to play better than anyone else"

-Albert Einstein

        I chose this quote for a couple reasons.  First of all, this quote is true to me, in that I`m very competitive and play competitive sports.   Second of all I thought that this quote would be inspirational not just to me, but to other people.  This quote is saying as long as you know what you have to do, you should give the task at hand all your effort, and work as hard as you can.  This quotation is a great representation of my life and how I live everyday.   I play different sports nearly every day and there is always competition surrounding them.  In order to be on the best team, squad, or line, you have to work hard to get there.  I believe that if you work hard enough you can achieve most things in life.  My life would be very busy if a lived by this quote.  In my spare time I would always be practicing sports and not leave anytime for anything else.  I would certainly get better at sports and certain skills, but I would not have a lot of time on my hands.  This quote by Albert Einstein is a great representative of my life, and how I live.