Lego Project

I am Erin O’Keefe, a student at Immaculata University, a small Roman Catholic university located on the Mainline approximately an hour or so from downtown Philadelphia. I am enrolled in COM 230 Global Media where we examine the role of communication media in the context of changing global realities.  We have reviewed McDonald’s commercials from around the world at the local McDonalds. We have read The Good Earth and then visited the Pearl S. Buck Foundation. We have eaten and reported about ethnic restaurants in the Malvern area.  We are to visit the United Nations next month.  Today, we were to build something from 20 Lego pieces and tie the effort to our Own Personal Legend, as described in Paulo Coelho’s classic tale The Alchemist.

For my Lego project, I built a person sitting at a desk. In addition, there is an eye on the desk. These tie into my Personal Legend because I hope to spend my life learning all that I can so that I am able to truly see the world around me. Whether it be pursuing a higher degree or traveling the world, I will learn as much as possible during my life. I named by building “The Seeing Eye” and named the Lego figure “The Seer” because of how that fits in with my Personal Legend. The best part of The Alchemist for me was learning about all of the omens and looking for them as a way to guide your life. Santiago constantly looked at the omens around him, something that I think is useful especially since many characters in the book noted that everything in the world helps us to achieve our Personal Legends. I have not yet seen the Lego movie, but hope to see it as it is an important piece of mediation in today’s society. I also really enjoyed reading about Lego at the UN, because this shows just how great of an impact Lego has on our society. It is not just in everyone’s homes or on everyone’s TV, but Lego has transcended even to a global level. In my childhood, I constantly remember seeing my siblings playing with Legos, and especially playing with the themed Legos like Harry Potter. Legos were always a part of my childhood, and even now are in our daily lives.