Personal Systems: Chaos Theory
Chaos theory is widely known and accepted in the mathematical world, however when placed in a sociological mindset chaos theory works as well.
There are three different entities that make-up chaos theory. They are: butterfly effect, bifurcation points, and self-organization. If one thinks of their life as a river, there are many twists, turns lakes and waterfalls. (Korsmo, 2013) All of life's major events are placed on the river in specific ways, a butterfly effect is when one of those events ripples to affect multiple events down the river, where it was intentional or not. A butterfly has wings that flap and when they flap the air surrounding them swishes and moves in a rippling way. Another analogy for this would be skipping rocks. If a person is down by a rocky beach and the water is calm, no tide or boats making a wake, and they skip a rock into the water, what happens to the water? Wherever that skipped rock lands it makes a small circle on the waters with larger circles surrounding it. As it hops and skips to the next spot of water, more and more ripples start to arise. This is the butterfly effect, one event cause something to happen in another event. Life is all connected.
A butterfly effect that happened in my life was a child mentoring program at my school. I went to a small private school from kindergarten until I graduated. Because of this the elementary, middle and high schoolers all worked together on different projects. One program that Life Christian had was for high school students to mentor elementary students, specifically with bulling, social skills development, and trauma adjustment in school. I worked with five children all who had recently gone through divorce, parental cancer or illness, or in some cases abuse. The goal of this was not to be a counselor to these children, but to help them integrate back into the classroom and be able to talk comfortably about events in their life. This group taught me valuable lessons in leading children in a curriculum as well as making my own. Additionally, I was able to learn how to listen to a child to what they are saying and the meaning behind what they are saying. After I graduated I thought because of this group that I wanted to be a teacher, which led me to Western Washington University. My first quarter at WWU I took a class called Compass to Campus. This was another mentoring group that I received credit for. I enjoyed this, but also had some reservations for how the teaching was done in the school I was placed at. That being said, I thought I could still be a teacher, but instead change to a different teaching style. I then took Educ. 109 with a well-known and respected professor. I really enjoyed this class, and think that all majors should take it; but it made it starkly obvious that the education field was not for me. At the same time, I had a couple friends who were in the Human Services major and really enjoying it. They encouraged me to look into the major. Once that happened, I found my niche. I realized that I have been called to do a specific work, and where it is with children it is not in the educating intuitions, instead it is with those children who need love, hope, encouragement and an advocate. Without these events happening, I may not have come to WWU. Who knows which major I would have landed in, and how long it would have taken me to realize what I truly have been called to do.
There are three different entities that make-up chaos theory. They are: butterfly effect, bifurcation points, and self-organization. If one thinks of their life as a river, there are many twists, turns lakes and waterfalls. (Korsmo, 2013) All of life's major events are placed on the river in specific ways, a butterfly effect is when one of those events ripples to affect multiple events down the river, where it was intentional or not. A butterfly has wings that flap and when they flap the air surrounding them swishes and moves in a rippling way. Another analogy for this would be skipping rocks. If a person is down by a rocky beach and the water is calm, no tide or boats making a wake, and they skip a rock into the water, what happens to the water? Wherever that skipped rock lands it makes a small circle on the waters with larger circles surrounding it. As it hops and skips to the next spot of water, more and more ripples start to arise. This is the butterfly effect, one event cause something to happen in another event. Life is all connected.
A butterfly effect that happened in my life was a child mentoring program at my school. I went to a small private school from kindergarten until I graduated. Because of this the elementary, middle and high schoolers all worked together on different projects. One program that Life Christian had was for high school students to mentor elementary students, specifically with bulling, social skills development, and trauma adjustment in school. I worked with five children all who had recently gone through divorce, parental cancer or illness, or in some cases abuse. The goal of this was not to be a counselor to these children, but to help them integrate back into the classroom and be able to talk comfortably about events in their life. This group taught me valuable lessons in leading children in a curriculum as well as making my own. Additionally, I was able to learn how to listen to a child to what they are saying and the meaning behind what they are saying. After I graduated I thought because of this group that I wanted to be a teacher, which led me to Western Washington University. My first quarter at WWU I took a class called Compass to Campus. This was another mentoring group that I received credit for. I enjoyed this, but also had some reservations for how the teaching was done in the school I was placed at. That being said, I thought I could still be a teacher, but instead change to a different teaching style. I then took Educ. 109 with a well-known and respected professor. I really enjoyed this class, and think that all majors should take it; but it made it starkly obvious that the education field was not for me. At the same time, I had a couple friends who were in the Human Services major and really enjoying it. They encouraged me to look into the major. Once that happened, I found my niche. I realized that I have been called to do a specific work, and where it is with children it is not in the educating intuitions, instead it is with those children who need love, hope, encouragement and an advocate. Without these events happening, I may not have come to WWU. Who knows which major I would have landed in, and how long it would have taken me to realize what I truly have been called to do.
Bifurcation PointsBifurcation points are the second piece to the chaos theory puzzle. The easiest and simplest description of a bifurcation is a fork in the road. If one was to walk in the forest and come to a fork, how would that person know in which direction to go? Would that person trust their instinct? Would that person choose by guess or by how one path looked in comparison to the other? A bifurcation in my family was when my sister left home, left family and left all life in Washington for a glimmer of excitement and potential love in California.
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Bethany met Jon in Gig Harbor, WA and they had a whirlwind/ unknown to family relationship. After only knowing and dating for a short while, she dropped out of PLU, and moved to California with him. This was a very turmoil time for our family, for we as a group did not agree on the decisions being made. However, Bethany chose Jon, and this is where the fork was made. Why this was a bifurcating moment in our family, is because as a family we had to decide if we were going to accept this decision or shun it. We also needed to come to terms with accepting Jon. Over time, my family did come to terms with Jon and were happy when he proposed. Now looking back on that time, we can see how two distinct paths eventually led back to the right one.
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Self-Organization
Self-Organization is how a person places him or herself into groups. I have purposely decided to surround myself with seven other girls. These girls and I are all roommates, and have become genuine friends. We laugh, cry, get angry at one another, but most of all we are all sister. We all hold many of the same values, however are all so different. But these differences make us all better people and more well-rounded.