What Did I learn during this Faith Course? by Alex Reich

I learned a lot about faith who I am and how I should serve my community and God. I learned to live an examined life. I used to go through life just doing things and not really thinking about them later. Every once in a while I would sit down and just think about things that I have done, good and bad. I realized in this course that I should do that several times daily, which I try to do, and it really helps me to be a more compassionate and caring person.


Aaron Feuerstein is a great example of what it means to lead an examined life and truly care for those around him. He was the CEO of Malden Mills, a fleece company, whose building burned down, costing millions of dollars in repairs. Feuerstein should have just retired and sold the company, resulting in hundreds of people losing their jobs, but keeping him financially stable. But on the contrary, Feuerstein kept the company going, continuing to pay the employees even when they weren't working. He says he did this because of his faith in the Torah and what it tells him. He doesn't lead an extravagent lifestyle. After work he returns home and does his "mind exercises" because he feels he can always be better and smarter than he already is. He is a true example of what it means to lead an examined life.


LaDanian Tomlinson, star running back for the San Diego Chargers for almost seven years now is another truly generous and kind person. Although he could sit around and do nothing in his off season, he does charity work and he started his own organization to help poor and sick children. He states that it is more important to him to help others than to be a good football player because people remember a good play in football for a week until the next game, but the people he helps through charity remember him forever. This shows that he examines his life and thinks about everything he does thoroughly, never going on extravagent shopping trips, etc.


Amanda, the character in What the $#@% Do We Know? is maybe the most complex, interesting, and motivatioinal person we have come across in this course. First of all, being so successful and being a deaf person usually never go hand-in-hand, so I have the utmost respect for her for working and trying in life instead of just giving up and letting her disability control her. She was betrayed by her husband (he cheated on her with her friend) and suffers from depression issues because of this. She has trouble trusting anybody and has bad self esteem because she feels it has something to do with her not being good enough for him. However, after many years of battling depression and other issues, Amanda learns to love herself, because you cannot love another if you cannot love yourself. This is incredibly inspirational to me because I have grown up with self esteem issues myself (as a lot of kids do) and to see someone like her who has gone through a lot more than I have really inspires me to care about myself and to accept other people's love for me.