This past weekend I traveled to the University of Maryland to visit a friend of mine. This journey represented the sublime to me because of the act of traveling to an unknown place. Getting on a random bus by myself and traveling across several states to a place I’m unfamiliar with is quite scary. I was traveling to a place where I knew only one person and everyone else was a stranger. But there is also a side of traveling that is beautiful. Exploring a place you have never been before and not knowing what you are going to find is very exciting. The fear is worth the experience and memories you can make by traveling to a foreign place.

After I climbed this hill, I turned back to take a picture. This is the hill that i always walk up on my way to work and it is a representation of the sublime. It has beauty and terror. It has beauty in the sense that I am allowed to enjoy the daily surroundings as I walk to work, but at the same time I know there is danger. When it is dark at night, the road seems to become especially narrow, from my perception. It is perhaps only my opinion. I do enjoy walking up this hill on my way to work as I can enjoy nature around me. But, this hill also has terror. The roads are very dark when night hits and a couple incidents have occurred here. The hill also represents the upward motion of looking toward the future. I see myself climbing up to better things. Looking back, just as I did in this picture reminds me that I have overcome many things. People are always supposed to move forward and not backward on their mistakes and this picture is a depiction of this. The hill has sublimity. There is beauty is surpassing and overcoming the challenges in your daily life, but there is terror in not knowing what is beyond and past the hill. Looking back at the hill gives me a sense of calmness that there is both beauty and terror in our future and past.

In class, we had discussed that sublime could describe when two opposite feeling appear at the same moment.

This picture was taken when I was on my way to the campus. Every day, I had to take the subway to commute to the campus. The most interesting thing about taking subway is I can meet tons of people every day on the subway. How they act, and how they express. To give up your seat to some with disable or elder or pregnant or kids normally appears on the subway. The other light spots are those freestyle artists; they are either sing or dance or play instruments or just do the combinations. but there are many thought behind those easy movements or actions.

There was one day, when the 7 train was stopped at the Queensboro Plaza station, one disable man boarded up. At the first, I thought he was same with those artists who just sing two or three sentences and then start to collect the donations. But just few seconds after, I knew I was wrong. This man came in, then started to sing. I didn’t know what’s the title of the song, but I just felt that it was songful. He sang the song completely; it was so beautiful.

I choose this because when I was at that moment, I felt pleasant for his beautiful and talented voice, in another way, I also felt sad about his missing of leg.

            by: Xingyu Zheng

How does it feel when looking at this picture? It feels like a beautiful day with such nice and warm sunshine. There is this small round sun shining above us all, even the clouds surrounding looked bigger. Looked closer, there is also a flying helicopter, so small that we wouldn’t notice without close attention. I am sublimed by this picture that it makes me feel both beauty and terror of our human eyes. Looking at that flying helicopter, it is as small as an ant; but in fact, the helicopter is huge comparing to humans. The sun looks even smaller than the clouds. However, the sun is a lot bigger than the earth. we , humans, are just like the dust in this universe. It is so true that we often are being deceived by our own eyes. What we see and believe might not be true. Additionally, there is another dark side about the sky, which is weather that it brings us everyday or every moment, such that it could be shiny in this moment and rainy the very next moment; not to mention other terrified event, such as flooding, typhoon that are so destructive. No matter how technologically advanced we are, we can never control weather; that is why God existed. The power of nature is Incalculable and indescribable, we can only keep searching for new ideas and ways to better predict and deal with weathers.

As we discussed in class, sublimity is a great feeling that spans the spectrum and is when one feels beauty as well as terror. The picture I chose that represents the sublime in everyday life is this picture I took of the sky on my way home from work. It is very incredible to look at, the slight changes that occur throughout the day and how from one minute it can go from beautiful and bright to dangerously dark and scary. The sky is incredibly grand and can be seen from anywhere and yet it seems to fall into the background of day to day activities as we are all preoccupied and fail to look up and see what lies right above us. I think the sky is very amazing and awe inspiring and it really does evoke the feelings of the sublime whenever I look up at it.

I reside in East New York, Brooklyn. Many times when I tell people where I am from they either have no clue where it is or cringe. East New Yok is notoriously known one of the roughest neighborhoods in the city. Although there are many people who will probably never step foot in my neighborhood or see it as a nasty place, to me I couldn’t have asked for a better place to grow up. At times, it could be dangerous, but even within its flaws, I can’t help to see its beauty.

This is a photo of my coach after I beat him 15-14 in overtime.

Often times the things most common to us are the things we overlook. By definition, you would think something with the quality of sublimity would be so grandiose that it’s rendered almost impossible to miss, but this picture represents the complete opposite. The clouds are inanimate cogs in the machine of nature, so out of reach that we often forget about their splendor. Whilst on the plane ride where this picture was taken, I was struck by the view and realized that something so common can look so amazing given an alternate perspective. The same goes for many things all around us that we take for granted. While sublimity may entail splendor and magnificence, often the plain and basic things around us fit the bill, they just need to be examined under a different lens or view.

Here I have a picture of a street light that I see everyday when I go home.  This street light is often overlooked because it is not appealing nor is the wooden pole beautiful at first glance.  This may not be a vast visa, but it can still be sublime.  By fixing our eyes on the street light and paying closer attention, we can see it’s inner beauty.  The light is very subtle.  It gives a sense of quietness; a feeling of peace.  The street light helps us to relax and slow down as if it represents a growing hope.  It is beautiful because of the feelings it gives us.

According to German philosopher Frederic Nietzsche, science can not explain the world, but only describe it.   Science can not fully explain this street light.  It can not explain why the light exists in the way that it does.  In the same way, we can not logically explain the beauty or sublime of the street light, yet it can give us a bundle of feelings.