Final Post

The narrator in ZAMM argues against "ego goals" for many reasons. For one, he argues that because of an ego goal, one might miss "a beautiful passage of sunlight through the trees". I take this to mean that ego goals make one close-minded. If one ultimately sets their goal as "getting into college", they will not look at any other possible option in their life. He argues that ego goals make you focused on the future, what's ahead on the trail, and not what you are walking on at that moment. At first glance at this idea, I disagreed with it. Goals are what keep me going. I do my work to get that "A" to get into college, to get a degree, etc. However, it was the idea of "missing a beautiful passage of sunlight" that turned me around. At what point does the goal chasing stop? I now agree with Pirsig, that it is important to not simply live in the future. To enjoy life, to truly get something out of it, we must learn to appreciate what is in front of us now, not what is going to be in front of us later. This is related to Phaedrus because Phaedrus consistently did what pleased him, and this got him into trouble in an ego-goal-centric world.

For me, I have attempted to base my high school course schedule around what interests me. In a number of cases, this has led me to AP/IB/Honors courses. In terms of choosing classes, I try to avoid simply picking something "because it looks good." However, I do fall into a pattern of doing work for a grade and nothing else when I am bored by something, like Math. To the narrator, I would say that I do not deliberately ignore the trail, but it does happen. But when I go to college, and I have even more freedom over my classes, I know I will take a long, hard, look at a class (as well as who teaches it) before I sign up. I don't want to miss that beautiful passage of sunlight.