Creative Blog #3: Just keep your head above: how a jack's mannequin song inspired me to never give up

“Just keep your head above,” I say to myself every time I feel nervous about something. It seemed like every day my French theatre director yelled at me for messing up my lines. He had the ability to make a beautiful language like French sound more like nails on a chalkboard. Usually, I am quick to memorize my lines, but this time the words aren’t in English. I could only understand every other word of what I was mechanically reciting to my scene partner. The director kept saying “Merde! Merde! Merde!” while kicking a trash can in frustration. I never knew what that meant, but I had a feeling it didn’t mean fantastic. 

There are times when I wanted to quit and offer to work behind the scenes while my friends shined on stage. Then I remembered my favorite song, Swim by Jack’s Mannequin, and I knew that I shouldn’t give up without a fight. The lyric that resonates with me the most is “You gotta swim and swim when it hurts. The whole world is watching. You haven't come this far to fall off the earth.” I worked very hard to get accepted into the Experiment in International Living and I wasn’t going to let anyone, not even the director, stop me from giving it my all onstage. Besides, I came this far to study theatre so failure was not an option.

This song always reminds me to keep going. Even when all hope is lost and the situation looks grim, just keep swimming. If I “keep my head above” the problem, then sooner or later I will succeed. I love how the song shifts to a more urgent tone towards the end: “There's no shame in drifting. Feel the tide shifting and wait for the spark,” as if the writer of the song, Andrew McMahon, is telling listeners that it’s okay to wait for the right moment to strike and swim again. He wrote this song about his battle with leukemia and how he defied the odds and survived by never giving up. I know that if he could find the horizon despite all hardships, I can do the same. So I’ll always keep my head above and swim. 

Creative Blog #2: College t shirt day

It was fun except for the excruciatingly long photo taking process. I swear I've never seen so many bad photos of me as I have now. And of course they're all on the internet for everyone to see. :/
I was shocked when I saw some people in my grade's college choices. But whatever, if they think that's the school for them...then that's great. I won't judge.
I was a little disappointed though. I didn't hear as many toothpaste jokes as I thought I would. I guess people are either A) more mature than I thought or B) out of material or C) just didn't care. Personally I think it was C.
Anyways I'm excited to go off to college. I know for a lot of people this is a scary time but I don't think I've ever been so prepared to leave California as I am now. I can't wait for all the new experiences headed my way and I'm sure I will be fine. If anything happens I'll just transfer schools. But I really like Colgate and the people who did know about it had nothing but great things to say about the people who go there and the school itself.

First creative blog: My bucket list for college

1. To meet someone at Colgate who loves Jack's Mannequin/Something Corporate as much as myself.
2. To remain organized throughout my four years in college.
3. To turn in all of my work on time and to not forget dead lines. (aka not forgetting to blog before the deadline passes...my bad)
4. To take as many interesting classes and join as many clubs as I can without going overboard.
5. To NOT procrastinate.
6. To get discounts on colgate toothpaste and all oral hygienic products.
7. To study abroad (mainly in France).
8. To become fluent in French and maybe Spanish and Italian.
9. To not misplace any of my belongings.
10. To have a stress-free 4 years.
11. To get a job or a paid internship sometime during my sophomore/junior year.

Just because i felt like it

I can't stop laughing at Rebecca Black's friends who can't dance

 

Just another example of how talentless people can make it in America while the rest of us are stupid enough to support their careers.

Creative Blog numero deux

Sorry this is the LAST time I'm going to talk about conformity:

But I wanted to talk about how conforming the music industry is. During the early 20th century, artists had to rely on their talent and not their overall image in order to gain success in the music industry. But thanks to technological advances in society such as television and the internet, musicians have to focus on having a certain look and because of this, being talented appears to be less of an issue especially since computers can make anyones voice sound decent. While true musicians have to work hard just to get a record deal or even to be heard in front of an audience, lousy singers can gain instant stardom by simply posting a YouTube video. I find it sad that we pay so much attention to people like Rebecca Black (who can barely hold a note even with the help of a computer), we tend to ignore true singers and songwriters.
I know you're wondering, where does the conformity fit into my post? Well, here's my point: Having an image is actually conformity because an artist has to be who they think society will gravitate towards in order to capture an audiences attention and make money. And in my opinion, the biggest conformist of them all is Lady Gaga. She appears to be the most nonconforming person in the world because of all the bizarre outfits she wears but she only does this in order to gain attention. And it works perfectly. If she were to be who she really is (aka Stefani Germanotta) without all the costumes and wigs then she wouldn't be nearly as popular as she is now. Hell, we probably wouldn't know who she is today. The sad part is that she's a really talented girl underneath it all. But sadly the music industry isn't ready to embrace a soulful brunette girl from New York. So she must continue conforming to what todays society wants.

Creative Blog numero un

After writing my essay on the topic of conformity, I've learned a lot about love and different people's views on it. For example, I interviewed my grandfather about the conformity in love and marriage and what he told me was very interesting. People during my grandpas felt pressured to get married at a certain age and work standard 9-5 jobs while people from my generation feel less inclined to follow such standards. But still conformity exists and will continue to exist unless there is a massive resistance. The same message can be applied to Kafka's Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa's conformist ways are what ultimately kills him and if his younger sister Grete doesn't learn from Gregor's mistake, she too will suffer the same fate. The cycle will continue itself unless she stands up to her parents and society by deciding to be an individual.

Intro for essay

Conformity is everywhere. From school settings to at home, we can't escape the pressure society puts on us. In fear of being an outcast, we're forced to conform to what society wants us to be. This is definitely true when it comes to love and marriage. Love used to be the main reason people get married. But now, wealth, connivance, and pressure are factors that convince two people into getting married despite being in love or not. In Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, Elizabeth and Darcy coming from two different classes had to suppress their love for each other in order to maintain social normality. The more we conform, the more we lose our identities and our rights to love whomever we want. Even if we don't want to get married and start a family, society forces us to feel guilty for making that choice. Thanks to outside pressures such as family, religion, and society, marriage appears to no longer be a choice but an obligation one must fulfill in order to gain acceptance.