joy in simplicity

8/8/2019 Joy in Simplicity

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Elizabeth Willis

Dr. Dietel-McLaughlin

FYC 13100: First Year Composition

16 November 2010

Finding Joy In Simplicity

As German composer, Richard Wagner, once stated, Joy is not in things, it is in

us. As a society, we now find ourselves a midst an era that is focused on things.

Technology is advancing on what seems like a daily basis, and when it comes to wealth,

the limits are endless, as billions have become the new millions. We have become

accustomed to the ideal that more is better, but what happens when we become stripped

of all these material items? This is when we must find joy in simplicity.

In the month of February of this year, I traveled to the small town of Mityana,

Uganda on a mission trip. While there, I both spent time and developed relationships with

the children of the Maranatha schooling system, and people of the town. I immersed

myself into their daily lives and attitudes of living, and truly did experience culture

shock. I was amazed by how little they had, yet how genuinely joyous they were for life.

They had a passion for where they came from, their town, and their daily lives that I can

say I honestly had never encountered before my trip. I went on this trip expecting to be

helping the people of Mityana, I did not expect to be the one gaining such valuable

lessons that I will continue to carry with me for the rest of my life.

While there, I spent the most time at the Marantha schools. Every morning, I

would get up, along with others in the group I was visiting there with, to go greet the

children as they arrived at school. Due to the severe poverty and lack of resources, the


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children walk to and from school for miles to receive their education. I will never forget

the joy coming out of them as they turned the corner of the dirt road and got their first

sight of the school. As soon as they saw the school, the children would run out of

excitement to go start their day, and would greet all of us with smiles and laughter. All I

could do was feel guilty as I compared my morning school routine to theirs; get out of my

bed to go eat breakfast that my mother had prepared for me before driving to school in

the comfort of my car while complaining about not wanting to go. The contrasts

continued as the days went on at the school each day. The children and I would share

stories and laughs among a lunch every day of a soup-like mixture of milk and corn. I

took part in their class time activities that consisted largely of rejoicing and singing, and

genuine excitement and eagerness from the students that was almost unrecognizable

compared to the classroom setting I have become accustomed to. When not in class, the

children would spend time together playing games and using their imagination and

creativity, to make up for the fact that they lacked the conveniences that children of our

society are treated to such as computers, televisions and videogames. From my

experiences in the school, to sleeping on the floor every night surrounded by a mosquito

net, because that is the norm, and going to their weekly church service which I came out

of feeling both grateful and truly happy, I realized that I do not need all the things I

thought I did to feel joy. I have learned my Ipod doesnt bring me joy, and neither does

Facebook, orthe new sweater I bought before coming to school. These are all material

items that I am lucky to be blessed with having, but my true blessings are the immaterial

things in my life; my friends, my family, my faith, my education.


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When assigned this visual essay, I immediately knew that I wanted to use my

experience in Uganda to create a striking visual representation through the photos I took.

Going back through the pictures brought back all of the sentiments and strong emotions I

felt while being there, and although I have carried what I learned on that trip with me, it

was a special experience to almost be able to relive the time by taking part in this project.

I knew that I wanted to keep the photos simple, and wanted to carry the theme of

simplicity into the text that I used and the pictures I chose. So, I chose different messages

I wanted to get across within the theme of finding joy in simplicity, such as focusing on

education, food and health, and entertainment, and then formatted text to appear across

the screen to convey the messages I wanted to in the simplest of terms and in a uniform

way. I also integrated quotes about happiness into the essay along with some information

about the poverty found in both Uganda as a country, and the small town of Mityana.

By creating this visual essay, I hope to show my audience what I have learned,

and hope to pass this lesson onto them; joy is found in simplicity. We need to return to

the immaterial things in our lives to find happiness and joy, rather than depending on

objects and conveniences to attempt to find them for us. If we cant learn this lesson, then

what are really left with at the end of the day?

joy in simplicity

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