Up: [[Thinking]] Created: 2024-01-26 We are meaning making creatures. Jung [talked and wrote about this a lot](https://jungiancenter.org/jung-on-finding-meaning-in-life/), saying that meaning makes a great many things endurable, perhaps everything. College instructors often require students to step back, to write only objectively. There are good reasons for this. Teachers don’t want to be grading students experiences or their lives. They don’t want students to be so absorbed in what’s familiar to them that they fail to use course material to expand their possibilities. But students report that the most meaningful writing assignments are the ones where they can make personal connections. And instructors find that it’s often the best writing to read. Students read and understand texts more fluently when they connect to them on a personal level Personal connections are part of our drive for self-expression. They are a way to engage deeply in topics you are passionate about. And if you want to communicate with others, not only do personal connections improve your writing but you’ll be wanting to pay attention to the emotional needs of your audience and you do that through personal connections. It’s essential that we begin notes with personal connections. We can use the metaphor of Velcro. What you take in from your larger ideaverse, the books, images, other people, your environment. All of those are hooks. Those hooks connect to the loops of experience, memory, learning and questions that are in you. Try brainstorming a list of personal experiences or memories and connecting them to important concepts in your life.