Brandon Eversgerd
First Quarter Essay
“Amanda and the Five Foundational Lessons”
Lesson # 1
I am necessarily and unavoidably making decisions all the time. These can and do affect me, others and my world. By these decisions, I am determining who I am and the person I am becoming.

Lesson #2
I see the world through "colored lenses." I am necessarily and unavoidably (to a greater or lesser degree) biased.

Lesson #3
The value judgment I make determine my actions. My mental health and happiness (and often those of many others) rests on the validity of these value judgments.

Lesson #4
Any change in the particular beliefs that control my approach to life cannot help but modify and change my life. It will affect the quality and the texture of all I experience.

Lesson #5
The most significant decisions I make in life will be faith decisions. Faith is an opinion based upon evidence to which I am committed.

The story of Amanda is a unique on as “She is literally plunged into a swirl of chaotic occurrences…revealing the deeper, hidden knowledge she doesn’t even realize she has asked for.” Amanda begins to question the reality she believed in, but only to find out the reality she believes in, isn’t reality at all. Throughout the movie, Amanda finds who she really is, she conquers her fears, and learns to relax in particular instances.

From the very beginning of the movie, Amanda is making choices. She decides what pictures to take while observing people in a building and also decides on joining the boy on the basketball court. These decisions effect control her life at that moment. Because she opts to play basketball, she is late for the meeting with Bob. Then, while at the train station, she drops her pills, and instead of not worrying about them, she chooses to pick them up, thus missing the train she was supposed to take. These decisions, while they seem logical to her, I mean, who wouldn’t want to visit what appears to be a favorite pastime for Amanda (playing basketball in high school), lead her to the wrong things (e.g. being late for work). But while she makes bad decisions, she also seems to make good decisions that affect her in good ways. For instance, she builds up the courage to actually take the weddings’ pictures and at the reception, seems to lose her fear/lack of trust for men. So Amanda is capable of making good and bad decisions.

The main thing Amanda is biased about is pretty obvious, men. Apparently having a bad experience on her wedding day or throughout that marriage, she seems to not take a liking for men and thus, doesn’t even trust them. “Seeing the world (in this case, men) through colored lenses” she just wants to move on and never have to worry about men again. But when she finally has faith in men, she is happy and has a fabulous time at the wedding reception, choosing to drink and flirt, and even invite the guy onto the dance floor.

Amanda’s friend seems to really love Amanda and truly feel grateful for having permission to sleep at her house. She seems to constantly show signs of love and care to Amanda and he goes to the trouble of making her a photograph book. So, because Amanda let her friend stay in her house, she is loved and looked after. But, like her friend said, she makes a lot of messes and so over time, this could’ve gotten annoying for Amanda. Letting her friend stay at her house had its pros and cons, yet Amanda made the valued judgment and did the nice thing, thus putting others before herself.
When Amanda looks in the mirror and see’s herself getting fatter and fatter, she I seeing what she thinks she is. She is creating her reality and it isn’t what she wants. Later she goes into the bathroom, punches the toothpaste, then starts yelling at herself, “I hate you!” or “You suck!” and constantly brining herself down to something she’s not. But then she remembers the quote from the man at the train stop saying, “If our minds can do that to water, I wonder what our minds can do to us?” and is immediately better. She starts looking more positively on life and ultimately moves onto just being Amanda.

Throughout the movie Amanda starts to rely on herself and other people more than she did before. At the end, she now can put her faith into men. Something she couldn’t even consider doing at the beginning. She also has found herself by having faith and believing she can succeed. Amanda begins to make faith filled decisions, decisions that can only lead to a better understanding of life itself or something that leads her to personal happiness and pleasure.

This movie challenges you, makes you think outside the box, and through the scientists explanations and the story of Amanda, we realize we don’t know everything. We also realize that we aren’t always correct in our assumptions or just how much out emotions and reactions are a part of our lives. Amanda taught us all valuable lessons, including we need to just have faith and long to be ourselves, desiring that much need happiness and joy to get us through our lives.