Life is like an Aquarium
Think
about it. When a fish is moved to a new aquarium it has to suddenly acclimate
to a new environment, new plants, new rocks, new filtration system, etc., and
mainly, new fish. And it usually goes one of two ways, either the other fish
are super hostile, and the new fish dies, or the fish assess the situation and
decide what to do with the new one. But in all fairness, I haven’t witnessed
fish establish a fish monarchy, or a fish economy with fish money, with fish
wishes and food dishes that they really want to have so instead they squish
their dreams into a feasible size-that of a fish bowl maybe- and forget about
it. So these fish can’t really do anything with the new fish…so they just
coexist.
So
what does this have to do with anything? In Finding Nemo, when Nemo is captured
he gets relocated to the dentist’s aquarium. And what do the other fish
immediately do? (Going back to what we have observed about real fish and what
happens in the movie) we know they size him up. They notice he’s small, he has
a weird fin, and that he doesn’t talk much. So what do they do next? They tell Nemo
about their many escape attempts, and most importantly, they tell him about
their newest plan, which involves Nemo getting a rock stuck in the filter so
they have to be taken out to clean it.
Sound
familiar? Probably not. This is a stretch, but it’s like school. Or more
specifically, going to a new school. The other fish size you up, assess whether
or not they want to be friends with you, etc. They see if they want you to be a
part of their “school” of fish, ha funny. But you do the same, you check for
what useful qualities they have that you can benefit from. Is it their
friendliness? So they can make a friend and you by association will be that
other person’s friend as well? Or is it their smartness so they can help you
with homework?
So
a couple weeks or months or years in things shake down and you see who you’re
friends with, you see who survived your fish tank and who moved on to another. Those
who you liked enough, or deemed ok enough to be friends with, have joined you
in your aquarium. You may ask, what about the sharks in the tank? To that I
answer, there will always be sharks in the tank, we don’t know how they get
there, I mean, we usually do our best to avoid them, but if they do get in, we
adapt. Or maybe they start saying “Fish are friends, not food”.
So if we think back to the plot of Finding Nemo, we
see that when the fish finally escape the aquarium in bags because eventually they
manage to break the filtration system, or they do something that makes the
dentist take them out of the aquarium. Either way, they wind up in the ocean,
still in those bags, asking themselves “now what?” Once we escape the artificial
aquarium created for us, we’re just stuck in the aquariums of our own creation.
And the question remains, do we really escape?
I think this is an interesting metaphor for the school environment. Particularly in Uni, where everyone is essentially in a "new fish tank" when they arrive as subbies. I can definitely relate to your comment that the fish have to co-exist because that's very accurate when you attend such a small school. You have to adapt and learn to deal with people because we interact with the same people on a daily basis. An interesting question would be whether a smaller or larger "tank" or school population works better for education.
ReplyDeleteYour take on social habits when attending a new school or being forced into a new environment is not only very relatable, but very enlightening since you reflect on what challenges are at hand and what possible outcomes are. I appreciate how you relate a greater life situation to something like a movie, which is a bit more lighthearted and intimate. I think your post has a lot of truth about it and metaphorical questions that can be asked as follow ups. For example, I'm very intrigued by your last statement asking if we really escape the tank. There are a lot of directions that you can explore from there, such as whether or not we are able to tear the bags and free ourselves, or if it is our environment (or even other fish) that do the tearing and freeing. Going off of that, which possibility is best (if one even is best!)? Lovely read!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very cool post. This is a surprisingly accurate metaphor for school life that I definitely wouldn't have considered on my own. I particularly like the way you end this post, it's very thought-provoking. Even if we do escape the bags -- the "aquariums of our own creation" -- we still have to navigate an enormous ocean, which might be even more difficult to understand than the original fish tank itself.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great introductory blog post! I like your blog title a lot, and I'm glad you're giving us a sense of its significance to one of the lenses through which the blog will (apparently) see the world.
ReplyDeleteI love the metaphor of fish society and the fish tank you extend through this post! There are some great connections there. I love how you ended this post as will; when we escape the tank, do we wind ourselves in our individual plastic bags? I have always thought, however, that the puffer fish could simply blow up and pop the bag. Maybe some people find freedom easier :)
ReplyDelete