Logan Cauthen
English 1109 at 10:30
10-21-2020
Journal Six
I think that being able to get on the zoom call with Maurice Clarett and Bob Eckhart was a really good experience and a one in a life time chance. I loved that we could ask him question directly and they both answered them really well. I also think it was really cool that Maurice told us that Bob was his tutor and that's how they met and that they are still friends to this day.
I think that my biggest takeaway from the zoom call with Maurice and Bob is that Maurice really got into the point if having a good mindset. This really stuck out to me and I believe it is the most true thing. He talked a lot about manifestation and about speaking things into existence. Before reading this book and talking to them on zoom I already kinda did this. My friend and I are always talking and for example when I am trying to do something and I give up quick he is always on me telling me it's all mental and I can do it. I think that this is kinda what Maurice was talking about as well.
One thing that I took away from the book is that when he was in prison he kept to himself and did his own thing. He stayed on a schedule and still does to this day. I think this is a really important thing to do. Learn how to be independent and don't get involved in the mess that others are in. When he was in prison he could've been getting into fights, doing drugs, and other bad stuff. Instead he stayed out of that mess, stayed on his routine and did better for himself. I think that prison is the reason he got into a routine. Also I think that's why he still does it to this day because he stuck with it and did it for so long that it is just apart of his life now. Which is also a really good thing.
Another thing that I took away from the book is that people and things can change you for the better if you let them. Maurice was running the streets selling drugs and stealing cars. Doing all the bad stuff that he shouldn't be doing. He was around bad people that were influencing him to do bad things. When he was in prison he was reading a lot. Reading books can change your perspective on a lot of things and I never realized it until I read this book. The first book he read was when he was in the county jail and the book was A Man of Thinketh. He said this was the first book that he had ever read in his adult life. "When the guard handed me the book, I would have read anything. At that point, I would have read the dictionary."(Clarett 216). I think that this is really powerful and makes me wants to read more so I can think more and get a better outlook on life and what it's really about.
Hi logan, I agree with you I feel like Maurice did all these bad things because he surrounded himself with the wrong people even after he left youngstown he still continued to hangout with people from there influencing him to the wrong things causes him to get into big trouble and almost cost him his life at some points. It was good he was able to start reading and turn his life around or he would have ended right back in the same place he started.
ReplyDeleteClarett just had a mindset change to be able to help himself and to be there for her daughter as well. I do agree that once he was a kid he was surrounded with bad people in which at that age he looked at them as "role models" due to his situation at home, mom working all the time and practically them being able to get away with everything. In overall it makes me happy that he was able to change and be who he is to this day.
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