EXPAND ISSUE 1 by expand magazine

SPRING TWENTY EIGHTEEN

ONE UN O UN

VOL.

EXPAND

MAGAZINE

FILM PHOTO BY HALLE KALRA

EXPAND IS A PLACE WHERE BEAUTY + DEPTH COEXIST, WHERE EVERY ARTIST CAN COME TO CULTIVATE CURIOSITY, THRIVE WITH CONFIDENCE AND LEAVE READY TO EXPAND. FROM CREATIVES TO CREATIVES. THIS IS YOUR MAGAZINE. 2

MAGAZINE

W E L C O M E TO EXPAND.

O! Somehow this publication ended up on your screen, and it appears you’ve made it past the front cover so we think it’s time we get to know each other a little better. Allow us to introduce ourselves. The magazine you are about to delve into is the brainchild of a 6-foot-tall Minnesotan and a freckle-faced Alaskan – a match made in heaven, to say the least. The two of us, Emma and Hannah, met as film students in California. We bonded over a mutual desire to experiment with random creative projects that were in our heads but we lacked an outlet to do so. In searching for one, we began to notice that there are many magazines that present great beauty and many that present great depth, but rarely do the two co-exist. We decided we wanted to put another option on the table. A place where the creative pursuits of guys and girls alike would be expanded and cultivated. Thus our passion to create a meaningful space for all creatives was inspired. We began reaching out to our friends who are artists, musicians, writers, models, photographers, poets, film-makers, designers, and everything in between. Though we created these pages, these people have filled them and we couldn’t be more excited to continue to foster this community of curious souls. So kick back, dig in and let yourself expand.

–e&h

GOOD NEWS! YOU BELONG HERE. 3

BECKE

SUMMER PLAYLIST

PROFILE OF A CREATIVE

INTROVERTS & EXTROVERTS

THE VALUE OF DOUBT

ART & POEM

SONGS TO GET SUNBURNT TO

EMBRACING 18

DIVERSITY SHOOT

GREENER GRASS

PHOTOGRAPHER:

We gave two different photographers a color and let them do anything they wanted with it. The results are what we call our Color Project. Head to page 16 to see their interpretations for yourself!

PLOWS,

COLOR PROJECT

EMMA

VELASCO

GRACE

Hannah Streger describes the incredible story of how she was born as the world's first succssful embryo transplant.

MODEL:

WORLD'S FIRST SNOWFLAKE ADOPTION

COVER

Learn tips and tricks to not only surviving big city life, but thriving in it. As a college student in New York City, Ian Wilson shares the in's and out's of making the best out of your experience in whatever concrete jungle you find yourself in.

COLLAGE

BIG CITY SURVIVAL GUIDE

RIGHT

Table of Contents

ARTIST:

YUKARI

MAGAZINE

BIG CITY SURVIVAL GUIDE: AN INSIDERS PERSPECTIVE "Coast to coast, people live together in mentally-taxing, culturally-rewarding, concentrations of humanity. Denser than a block of tofu, we call these places cities. New York and Los Angles are two of the alpha cities in the U.S. From a college student in N.Y., to college students in L.A., here is a guide to maximizing your city (because really, California and New York are very similar. New York just doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have any beaches. Or good tacos. Or sunshine. Or happiness in general. But we do have subway rats)."

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY IAN WILSON (AKA THIS GUY)

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White and black are iconic and timeless colors to combine. You will never lack style wearing black jeans and white sneakers.

Denim is cool.

This is the only time in the history of the world where you can wear clothes from any time period and still be fashionable. Own that.

Texting while walking in the city is like texting while driving: itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best to pull over if you want to avoid accidents.

DO NOT make eye contact with other sidewalk walkers. This is the key to not running into people walking towards you. Once you make eye contact, you try to be considerate. And when you try to be considerate, you become unpredictable. And when you become unpredictable, you run into people. Avoid this (unless you are trying to bump into someone and spark a romantic connection).

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Always become friends with the baristas, bartenders, sandwich makers, etc. Whoever is serving you can use a friend (and you can learn more about the city in five minutes with them than you could doing an hour of research on the internet)

There is too much good coffee in cites to drink average coffee. Never go to an average coffee shop (sometimes average is pronounced: “Starbucks”) when there is a gem of a shop a little further down.

Stop lights and crosswalks are just suggestions in the city. The law of the jungle is, well, law.

If you feel great, you look great.

Sharing your favorite spots on social media is fun, but do you really want the world to come and ruin your favorite spot? Start bringing your favorite people to your favorite spots instead of just posting about them. You’ll be happy and no one annoying will be there. the street by now. Everything is communal in cities: assert your claim.

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Headphones are great, but sometimes you need to listen to the sounds of the city.

Carrying a camera around does not make you a good photographer. Start by watching the city and the story it is trying to tell, and then take pictures of that.

Similarly, confidence will get you whatever you want in a city. Not sure if you can go into that store? Act like you can. Is it your turn to cross? You should already be across the street by now. Everything is communal in cities: assert your claim.

11 Use your phone for directions the first time you need to get somewhere, and then try to make it back to the same spot without looking at directions. This will build your mental map of the city and make it easy to explore.the street by now. Everything is communal in cities: assert your claim.

Get out of the city! One of the best ways to appreciate everything in the city is to leave and come back with fresh perspective.

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PLAYLIST AND FILM PHOTOS BY KYLE DAVIS

POKE - CHILDISH GAMBINO MIRACLE - JURASSIC SHARK SUMMER FRIENDS (FEAT. JEREMIH & FRANCIS & THE LIGHTS) CHANCE THE RAPPER THIS IS THE LIFE - TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB 911 / MR. LONELY - TYLER, THE CREATOR SEDONA - HANDMOUTH VACATION - HIPPO CAMPUS ELECTRIC FEEL - MGMT SLEEPLESS (FEAT. JEZZABELL DORAN) - FLUME LOVING IS EASY - REX ORANGE COUNTY

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BY HANNAH STREGE

mbracing new ideas and concepts, or expanding one’s notions of them, is what my story is about. I am the first adopted frozen embryo in the world. When my parents, John and Marlene Strege, struggled with infertility, they were devastated. They only wanted a baby. My mother was diagnosed with premature ovarian failure, which meant she was no longer producing eggs. Distraught, she asked her doctor if he had any frozen embryos they could adopt. “Well, yeah, I’ve got a lot of embryos,” he said, while explaining that he had never been asked that before. In that moment, the ways that one might adopt a child had expanded to include frozen embryos. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, my biological family also had struggled with infertility. Desperate to give their only daughter siblings, they turned to in vitro fertilization, or IVF treatments, and created 28 embryos. After transferring four, they became pregnant with triplets. They had 24 remaining lives with whom to concern themselves, myself among them.

My parents were anxious to get opinions as to what God would think of adopting embryos. Would this be Biblically pleasing to God? They consulted with the late Dr. Charles Manske, the founding President of Concordia University Irvine, Pastor Bob Dargatz, who was a professor of Religion at Concordia at the time, and Dr. Sam Nafzger, Head of Commissions on Theology and Church Relations of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in St. Louis, and they all came to the same conclusion. God valued all life, that life began at conception, and providing frozen embryos a chance would be honorable to God. My parents also contacted Focus on the Family, seeking Dr. James Dobson’s opinion on adopting frozen embryos and whether God would approve. Dr. Dobson called my mom a week after her original contact with Focus on the Family. He said that he had now known what to tell her, that he himself had to get counsel. He said he could not speak for God; however, he felt that it was a moral obligation to adopt frozen embryos if the

HANDLETTERING: MEGAN BRAINARD, COLLAGE ART: YUKARI BECKER

MAGAZINE

original family was not going to go back for them. My mom and dad were about nine months into the journey, (this is nine months after the original contact with Dr. Dobson), and no closer to finding a genetic family who wanted to place their embryos for adoption. Due to HIPPA laws (confidentiality of medical records) doctors could not give them names of people who had remaining frozen embryos. Dr. Dobson invited my parents to Colorado, to Focus on the Family. He thought they might need a break from the emotional stress. He arranged for them to have lunch with the director of the crisis pregnancy division at Focus. Six weeks later, the head counselor came to her office and said, "I just got a phone call from a woman who has 20 frozen embryos she wants to place for adoption." The director replied, "I know who the adopting family is!" She referred the couple to Nightlight Christian Adoptions and its executive director, Ron Stoddart, a close family friend doubling as our adoption attorney. God's fingerprints were all over this. My parents adopted 20 frozen embryos, and we were shipped via FedEx from Nebraska to my parent’s doctor’s office in California. We had been frozen and awaiting a home for more than two years, and were blessed to finally start on our journey towards the fulfillment of life. Embryos are stored in straws, two to three per straw in my case, in tanks of liquid nitrogen. The doctor thawed a straw at a time. I was the only embryo out of 20 to survive the thaw and successfully transfer to my mother’s womb, and finally to birth. And on December 31, 1998, the Streges became the parents of a beautiful baby girl. Nightlight Christian Adoptions has since added a Snowflakes Embryo Adoption program, and more than 500 babies have been born through this program. It has expanded the horizons and the minds

of many awaiting parents on how they will grow their families. Adoption is often overlooked and forgotten. Human life is a miracle, sacred and precious to the King. Miracles are born out of divine intervention. We are the Lord’s handiwork, servants of His kingdom. It is our job to take the gifts God has given to us, and to grow in our knowledge of who He is by how He works in our lives. God placed my parents on a journey of a lifetime that resulted in answered prayers. My life has been a blur of pro-life activism. I have expanded on my mother’s initial vision for a child. To dedicate my career and my life to finding homes for the millions of frozen embryos, awaiting a chance at life in frozen orphanages around the world. My parents took a chance on me. Take a chance on God, and expand in your knowledge of Him and His potential to work in your life..

"I WAS THE 20 TO SURV AND ON DE STREGES B OF A BEAU

E ONLY EMBRYO OUT OF VIVE THE TRANSFER, ECEMBER 31, 1998, THE BECAME THE PARENTS UTIFUL BABY GIRL."

COLOR P ROJECT MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE

FOR THIS SERIES, WE GAVE TWO

PHOTOGRAPHERS

COLOR TO THE

AND

TOLD

INTERP RET HECK

THEY

THEM

HOWEVER WANTED

THROUGH THEIR IMAGES. THE FOLLOWING PAGES DISPLAY WHAT THEY CAME UP WITH.

MAGAZINE

Q: WHAT

OCCUPIES MOST OF YOUR BRAINSPACE?

ALEX: MY BRAINSPACE IS USUALLY OCCUPIED BY PARTIAL SONG/ LYRIC IDEAS OR THOUGHTS/ DREAM ABOUT THE FUTURE

BY ALEX BRAUWER WITH MODELS GRACE PLOWS & ISSAC LEWIS

y name is Alex, and I’m a photographer, writer, and musician. Being from San Diego, I grew up an hour’s drive away from the ocean, the mountains, or the desert in any direction I chose, and that contributed towards my love for exploration, which slowly fed a passion for photography. My creative process is more discovery than anything else - I rarely have a plan when I start something; I usually just begin and see what I stumble upon. My inspiration is drawn from the strangest sources, including Kanye, Da Vinci’s old sketches, Surf’s Up (yes, you read that correctly), and early mornings. In my

mind, this shoot was Baby Driver meets Bonnie and Clyde with a dash of The Notebook. Not very focused, I know, but I did have an end goal: to portray one man’s realization of freedom. Utilizing orange and yellow (a wonderful and difficult thing about colors is that they connote meaning), I painted a scene of a man escaping from a long wait in prison. What I discovered along the way was that I cared less about the physical prison and more about the mental one. This photo series is about a man coming to the point of decision - will he remain behind bars or will he own up to his “crimes” in front of the one he cares about most? 18

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Q: IF YOU

WERE AN 80'S JAM, WHAT SONG WOULD YOU BE? KATY: WITH OT WITHOUT YOU BY U2

Portrait of the photographer, Katy St. John, taken by Megan Smith

KATY ST. JOHN WITH MODELS CHERISH WITHERSPOON & MEGAN SMITH

ed is the color that represents fire, it represents strength and boldness and intensity. My heart behind this photo shoot was portray those things through these two girls. Women are strong and fierce, beautiful figures. We have the unique ability to inhabit heroic feminism

which is simply the idea that women can be heroes in any way they choose. There is no box for women, we can be strong in the soft sense just as much as we can be powerful with intensity. Cherish and Megan inhabit both of the qualities both internally and externally and it was an honor to work with them both. 26

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“

Wait, he’s introverted? That’s so weird because I had such a great conversation with him!” My friend says this with confused enthusiasm as she refers to the first time she met my husband, who works in sales and also loves the beach to himself. "She’s really extroverted, I don’t get why she didn’t wanna come tonight,” someone says about another friend of mine, who tests as extroverted but often craves time alone to reflect. "Introvert” and “Extrovert” are terms often thrown around as characteristics to qualify or disqualify someone for certain positions or to measure chances of enjoyment or success. Often, we use the terms to explain and describe ourselves or others. Introversion and Extroversion are categories that are referenced everywhere from job interviews to first dates, counseling sessions to cozy chats with good friends.

The terms extroversion and introversion originally developed as ways to understand where someone gets energy from. The very basic definition is that extroverts get energy from other people and introverts get energy from being alone. But before we start using the terms, we need to understand two things:

1) Most, if not all, of the original minds behind the terms believed that there are no true introverts and extroverts, rather everyone is an Ambivert – a unique point on the spectrum; meaning a beautiful, messy overlap of both extremes. Occasionally, the extrovert needs to be alone (some more than others) and the introvert needs the company of others (some more than others). Different degrees, different occasions, different contexts, even genetics determine the unique place each individual might fall on the spectrum. Jung Humans love categories, and we need categories said, “There is no such thing as a pure introvert or sometimes. Categories help us learn about, extrovert. Such a person would be in the lunatic communicate to, and reference the world around asylum." So be crazy but not that kind of crazy. . us. Carl Jung popularized the terms Extrovert 2) Since their introduction into our vocabularies, and Introvert in the early 20th century with the terms have taken up lives of their own. The the intention to help us learn, communicate, mainstream understanding of the terms today is and reference differences in personalities. The not only different than the original definitions, problem is that today we often use the terms but also polarizing. We have lost sight of the without understanding their true definitions original intent of the terms and see instead the and implications, and so we miss truly mythical stereotypes that surround them. In understanding the people we’re talking about. short, the terms that were never supposed to fully

INTROVERTS &

BY ELSA

FILM PHOTO B

define any one person have developed personalities of their own, and we often use this mutant definition to label someone’s personality. The stereotypes that surround the terms lead to misconceptions and gaps in understanding each other.

Before assigning the people we meet to their “introvert” and “extrovert” teams (and all the stereotypes, myths, and generalizations that come with them), let’s keep in mind that contradiction as an essential human characteristic. Be on the lookout for that introvert who loves dance clubs, So how can we start to peel away the that extrovert who hates having Friday night plans. labels to see each other face to face? We need to keep in mind that there are no rules One thing to remember is that everyone defies when it comes to these personality types, and their personality type in some way. As a fiction to instead be wary of the rules people think writer, I am always trying to understand what are associated with each type. For example, makes characters realistic. One of my favorite “loud” does not equal extrovert and “quiet” does insights is from Robert McKee’s Story. He says not equal introvert. Sometimes, even positive characters must have dimension and “dimension stereotypes like “extroverts have the most is contradiction.” This has helped me understand friends,” and “introverts are more creative,” the apparent contradictions of my own character. can end a conversation instead of deepen it. Often the “contradictions” are only contradictions to what people have said about me: those helpful categories that result when people mean well, but don’t work hard enough to get to know you (or when you don’t work hard enough to be known). For example, people say I’m an easy-going person. But why does a bad restaurant experience turn me into a vengeful Yelp-reviewer seeking justice over something that doesn’t matter? Because I’m a living-breathing contradiction, thank God. That’s what makes us interesting, that’s the fuel for stories, the stuff plot twists are made of, the thing that makes relationships a constant path of discovery.

Labeling yourself can also endanger discovery. Don’t let your personality test results be excuses you make for yourself, like: “Oh sorry, I’m just feeling introverted,” or “Oh sorry, I did that because I’m extroverted.” This doesn’t help the conversation. And doesn’t help people understand you, because it stops at a label. The bright side is that acknowledging a world of 7.6 billion ambiverts means endless discovery. Your “type,” a.k.a YOU is waiting to be uncovered, a unique contradiction and combination of all the things we know, or thought we knew.

& EXTROVERTS

A CRUZ

BY KYLE DAVIS

MAGAZINE

Q: Which movie quote best describes your life?

Nael: "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." 34

Oh look! It's a piece of artwork by Nael Kaligis!

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I haven’t been completely honest And I know that’s no surprise But there’s time to think behind these bars There’s room to think behind these eyes Tally marks on the walls of this heart Count the days that I’ve been chained Count the nights that I’m kept up By sentiments I can’t explain So give me just this final hearing Clear my name, right my wrongs In the presence of these witnesses These prison guards, these prison walls My guilt has become perfectly clear Throughout these days without the sky There’s a broken man behind this mask There’s a certain truth behind these lies I haven’t been completely honest But if anything I’ve said is true I don’t want you to set me free I just want you -Alex Brauwer

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FILM PHOTO BY HALLE KALRA 36

EMBRACING EIGHTEEN BY JASMYNE BELL

late.

Growing up is something that we all want to do, until we get there. What we don’t realize is that the journey to adulthood is merely a blink. The beauty of youth stems from innocence. While the years pass, it doesn’t cross our mind that these days are fleeting and that we must cherish them. To cherish the laughs and the tears is to embrace being young. And being young holds treasures that can’t be matched by adulthood. The journey to eighteen is really is all that, but we don’t realize it until it’s too late. too late.

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GREENER GRASS BY KENDRA BUNKE

want to tell you about a time when I was forced to grow and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a choice. When I was 16, I was told we were moving to Texas. I had grown up in Minnesota and lived in the same house my entire life. Texas was a state I had visited a handful of times, always to visit my cousins. I remember one time while we were there, I was in the car and looked out the window to see a girl my age, with red hair and her mom in the driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seat. Their car had a local license plate, so I knew they lived there. I was jealous of the redheaded girl. I wanted to be her. I wanted to live in such a place where summer never seemed to end and country music was always on the radio

and swimming in the pool was on the daily to-do list. When my brother went to college at Baylor University, I told all my friends I was going to do the same when I grew up. I bought cowboy boots and wrote papers about Lyndon B. Johnson, the only American president to have been born in the lone star state. I loved the idea of moving to Texas, until it was no longer a mere dream. When my parents told me that my dad had accepted a job in Dallas, moving to Texas became a threat. I slowly began to tell my friends the news and they would start to cry in front of me. I was intimidated by the change that was about to affect my life and was heartbroken to be leaving everything I had ever known. We arrived in late August, and I started my junior year of high school four days later.

nj,v

COLLAGE ART BY YUKARI BECKER

I sat with strangers in the lunchroom and introduced myself to every teacher as the new kid. I felt like an alien amidst all the perfectly manicured Southern people that couldn’t seem to remember if I was from Michigan or Minnesota. I missed my friends. Since I had gone to school with the same people since elementary school, making new friends was never a necessity. I didn’t really know how meet people. I ended up not really making any friends for a couple of months because I was waiting for other people to make the first move. I soon realized that it wasn’t their fault that I didn’t have any friends, it was mine. I had been attending a weekly Christian student group and decided that I was going to formally introduce myself to the leader after our Thursday morning meeting. I was pretty nervous and felt very outside of my comfort zone, but I decided to follow through with the plan regardless of my discomfort. Introducing myself to Carli would become the most important thing I ever did in Texas. That moment taught me so much. I learned that shielding yourself from vulnerable and potentially hurtful situations is not always in your best interest. If I decided to never introduce myself out of fear of rejection, I would never have met all the other amazing friends I made through Carli. I would have missed out on so many fond memories, like going to Sonic late at night on the weekends or driving in downtown Dallas on our way to a concert or visiting cool coffee shops. The months leading up to the move, I was praying constantly for God to give me good friends in Texas, but when I arrived I found myself wondering where all my friends were. If I’m being honest, I may have been a little mad at God for not answering my prayer. In retrospect, I am so thankful for the lesson He taught me

on learning to be patient, expanding my mindset, and trusting Him with my future. “For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.” (Psalm 107:9) I know now what it is like to be on the outside of a group and when I notice someone who seems new or uncomfortable at a social event, I make it a point introduce myself and include them as best I can. Going through a move that like has challenged me to actively trust in God no matter where I am- geographically, mentally or emotionally. It’s funny to look back at the me who wanted so direly to be that little redheaded girl. Just as they say though, the grass is always greener on the other side. Once I got what I thought I wanted, I wished for nothing more to be able to turn back time and go back to that house on Ensign Avenue that knew me so well. Now that I am back in Minnesota attending college, I see why leaving in the first place was a good thing all along. I love the Timothy Keller quote, “God will either give us what we ask for in prayer, or give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything God knows.” I am sure that I cannot even comprehend all of the ways that God used Texas to cause me to grow, but as I gain more and more distance from that fateful first day of junior year, I believe that I will begin to see the ripple effects. It’s almost been four years since we decided we were leaving Minnesota, and I have seen God faithfully deliver me to better places than I could have ever imagined. Even still, I sometimes forget all the good He has done for me and fear that He may not have by back after all, but even in the throes of our doubts and fears, we are called to pursue and trust God with each and every tomorrow that we face. “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.” (Psalm 34:4).

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Carter Gilbert 40

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p ro f i l e o f a c r e at i v e

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CARTER GILBERT PHOTOGRAPHER PLYMOUTH, MINNESOTA (MODEL: ABI TERRY)

QUESTION: If you were a city, which one would you be and why?

ANSWER: "I’d say Virginia Beach. It’s where I spent some of my childhood and going back gives me an odd “at-home” feeling. Nostalgia is hitting me hard at the moment, and I’ve been thinking about the ocean a lot. I would like to think that I have a warm personality that is kind of like the feeling of putting your toes in the sand. Maybe virginia beach isn’t so much a city that I’d be but a city that I would like to be." 43

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the value of

Doubt BY MARTINA MURONOVA ART BY MEGAN BRAINARD

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oubt permeates every constructive debate nowadays, and for a good reason. Humanity is old, which comes with an immense amount of information, concepts, theories, and breakthroughs that people have been able to gather and achieve over the millennia. The world is filled with an astonishing amount of contradicting opinions based on seemingly basic observable facts. To battle the issue of contradictory accounts, humanity created the scientific method: a set of guidelines to explore any observable topic. Although the scientific method is great, it is not able to grasp everything humans perceive as truth. A person needs therefore a better way to come to conclusions. Doubt plays a very important role in this process. This article aims to explore the phenomenon of doubt from both scientific and philosophical angle. The Central Nervous System is the most complex structure in the known universe, the brain. When processing any new information, the brain has to combine attributes from all of its sectors within the cerebral cortex. Each thought is a result of the magnificent symphony of electrical impulses that keeps going on without stopping every living brain. The thoughts people have are combined from the stored memories and the immediate sensory perception that our body receives via sensory neurons. The brain is so skilled at making the reality, that it can fabricate completely false memories based only on imagination. Many people remember parts of their early childhood, that have never happened, but they have heard stories from their parents about it. Their brain created a memory of the event, and the people feel they actually

experienced it. The human brain is also so genius, that it is able to doubt itself. This is where a constructive doubt plays its vital part. The brain can abandon some of the unreliable mind maps and create new ones instead. The flexibility allowed humans to be on the top of the food chain.

"THE BRAIN DOES NOT LIKE TO CHANGE." But why is it easier to doubt some things more than others? The brain does not like to change, especially when the change seems either too distant to be reached, or when the results would be less comfortable than our current condition. Awareness of this phenomenon can help significantly with decision making. As we think about anything outside of our comfort zone, we can anticipate feelings of reluctance and the ‘don’t to go there and just stay at home’ desire. The brain’s main responsibility is first and foremost to help us stay alive, and more changes create greater possibility for danger. At the same time, the brain is still growing and changing, in a process called neuroplasticity. When we wake up in the morning, we are literary a different person than yesterday. That means constant micro-shifts in our reality. Yet doubt is not only caused by our brain’s function. It has a very complex anthropological history. One might say that animals experience doubt as well as humans. While that is correct, people have over the millions of years of evolution combined doubt with self-awareness. Our self-awareness transformed a ‘simple’ self-preservation reflex into the abstract thinking

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transformed a ‘simple’ self-preservation reflex into the abstract thinking processes we experience today. Ever since the human self-awareness appeared, it went hand-inhand with doubt. The center of many vital human traits like morality and self-control is also the center for high-functioning decision making. It is no error to say that faith, reason, and doubt blend often together for this reason. The idea of doubt is imminent even in one of the oldest stories. First few chapters in the book of Genesis tell a story of the beginning of doubt and self-awareness simultaneously. Eve has to make a conscious decision to reorganize her reality, as a result of doubt. Humans must do that every day, yet there is one great difference between us, and the archetypal Eve. Our society has, as I mentioned in the beginning, became old, at least in the First world countries. The western world can offer something previously unthinkable: perfect social bubbles within communities. Today’s society is made of many ‘bubbled’ groups of people who have virtually no need to change their perspective. That does not come as a surprise since the cost of rewiring one’s brain is a lot of mental work. Our brains are not keen on giving up so much of our energy on ‘a better perspective of life’.

The other side of the extreme are the conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories do the exact opposite of the bubbled societies. They doubt’s one’s knowledge up to the point where the person cannot feel confident in his own logic. The theories are therefore literary stealing our knowledge by making everything uncertain. That does not necessarily make all the conspiracy theories untrue, but regardless of that, conspiracy theories can generate bewilderment and the feeling of solid ground. Can we be certain about anything, then? Short answer: no. Longer answer: depends how well can you calculate the probability.

"YOUR DOUBT MAY BECOME A GOOD QUALITY IF YOU TRAIN IT." This gets me to the topic of critical thinking. The National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking defined methods of the discipline: “Critical thinking can be seen as having two components: 1) a set of information and belief generating and processing skills, and 2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior. It is thus to be contrasted with: 1) the mere acquisition and retention of information alone, because it involves a particular way in which information is sought and treated; 2) the mere possession of a set of skills, because it involves the continual use of them; and 3) the mere use of those skills ("as an exercise") without acceptance of their results.”

"EVER SINCE THE HUMAN SELF-AWARENESS APPEARED, IT WENT HAND-IN-HAND WITH DOUBT."

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To think critically means not accepting opinions blindly, but taking all of the evidence into consideration. Sadly, all humans spectacularly fail at this. We can only go so far in our understanding of reality. Pointless doubts are dangerous and might send the person down a spiral of nihilism. It can best be expressed by words of a czech-german philosopher and poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “And your doubt may become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become critical. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it…. don’t give in, insist on arguments and act this way, watchful and consistent, every single time, and the day will arrive when… it will become one of your best workers–perhaps the cleverest of all that are building your life.”

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PHOTOGRAPHER: MEGAN BRAINARD, MODELS: EMMA VELASCO & RACHEL ALEXANDER, HANDLETTERING: MADISON NIESSEN

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MALE & FEMALE. BLONDE & BRUNETTE. DARK SKIN & FAIR SKIN. TYPE-A & TYPE-B. LEFT-HANDED & RIGHT-HANDED. TALL & SHORT. UPPER CLASS & BALLIN'-ON-A-BUDGET. CRIARS & NON-CRIARS QUIET & LOUD.

BEAUTY & DEPTH.

ABOVE - PHOTOGRAPHER: ABBEY JO HARMON, MODELS: SHARON MBABAZI, ANASTASIA DEZHNYUK , 52 JOCELYN CHU, TAYLOR POTTS, HANNA HERRERA, AARON ZHANG RIGHT - PHOTOGRAPHER: ABBEY JO HARMON, MODELS: EMMA VELASCO, SHARON MBABAZI, ALEC BURNS, HANNA H

HERRERA

MAGAZINE

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e n d f i n fine

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