My City, My Cause

Living in Chicago has its benefits. The delicious pizza, the great landmarks, and my personal favorite, great sports teams. As a huge basketball fan, I love the Chicago Bulls and was distraught with the injury of Derrick Rose during the playoff run. He has been releasing videos every few weeks detailing his recovery, each one describing a different aspect of his road to playing again. But what struck me the most was his closing comments of the first of these video in which he says:

Nobody believed in me in the beginning. Just me and my friends. I mean, my frinds, my city, my fans, that's it, that's all I need. I wanna be great, I'm gonna be great. There's no doubt about it.

(link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt6at8wCkbw)   

Rose speaks with such motivation! I clearly understood now, that what he does from this point is part of his attempt to become great. That the work he puts in, the time he gives, and the steps he takes are a factor of us fans and his past to reach his goal of a championship.

It’s this idea of motivation that I took to the rest of sports, discovering so much more meaning. New light was shed on hot topics such as the Ray Allen trade, the NFL referee’s lockout and quick resolution of dispute, and other such examples. But it begged the question, what else could this be applied to?

My questions were answered during the recent uprisings in the Middle East. The Syrian and Tunisian revolts and attacks was hit news around the world, especially after the American Embassy was attacked.  Why did these nations suddenly react and attack? Why were they trying to accomplish? What would be America’s response? Asking these questions I found that the “Arab Spring” of 2011 as it has been coined set a precedent for these nations to act so. In terms of the American response, I found that a quandary lie for President Obama. For his upcoming election forced him to reconsider every move he made to make sure that it wouldn’t be blasted by Romney and/or the American people. But he also needed to make assertive moves to help the situation. Such discussions of motivation is what this blog seeks to do.  

Ranging from sports, national events, or international crises, I seek to not only understand what’s happening and but why they are happening.  We often ask the basic questions of Who, What, Where, When, and Why. So I seek to go into the What and explore the Why and help all of us understand better. Perhaps together we can figure out the motivation behind events as well.

But who am I to propose this? I’m Shawn Kurian, a senior in high school and an aspiring intellectual. I've been questioned more recently about my motives for my decisions regarding college. A question I had before easily brushed off, I realized my motivation was much more complex than “wanting a good future.” Rather it was combinations of  the different factors of family, school, skills, and dreams. So I take this lens of motivation, my interests in sports and the world, and this blog to discuss and get a better understanding of the What and the Why.