Final Reflection

Dream Catchers

By Sarah Walker

All those children,

those teenagers,

those grownups,

raise your head towards the sky.

Scream to the Gods,

towards the stars,

towards the impossible.

Throw a table at the crowd

and give them a backwards peace sign.

Smirk and act as if you don't care.

Drag your feet,

claw fingermarks into the dirt,

be as vulgar as any proud sailor.

Laugh at other's frustration,

place a shadow in front of your own.

Pause,

shrug,

and move on.

Continue to hit those high notes 

and cackle at the crowd's cringe.

Then stop,

open your hand - palm facing upwards,

and catch the invisible,

the improbable,

the unthinkable.

Don't open.

I repeat:

Do.

Not.

Open.

Your.

Palm.

Hold your breath

and fly down towards

the bottom of the sea.

Land,

turn 360 degrees,

breathe.

Swat away the curious fish

and close your eyes.

Open them.

A hitch in your breath,

reach out and caress the stone

of a floating castle hidden in clouds.

Pull back,

fly back,

hit the ground that suddenly appeared.

Heat,

almost unbearable - but still durable.

Sit up,

look towards the sunrise

on the edge of the African savannah.

Smile,

laugh,

raise your head towards the sky.

Send up a silent thank you.

Finally, gratefully,

open your hand.

A new day has come.

Reflective Blog Post for Ethnography Project

At the beginning of this project, my group and I had absolutely no idea what we were doing. Still, we followed the directions and just tried to find places where music was on campus and document them. We had absolutely no idea why for quite a while. However, I knew that I wanted to include the Anime Club we have on campus into our project.

I always loved anime and I always knew that anime had a lot of things to offer. Thankfully, this was one of those times that I could include anime into my education. The sing-a-longs really did make me realize how much I could use anime for this specific project.

Finally, my group and I we're starting to get a basic understanding of what we were supposed to do. I jotted some notes of a rough outline of what our group would be doing in my daybook before we three went our separate ways to get our individual work done. I was thankfully able to get mine done the next day with the interview of a representative of the Anime Club on campus.

Now I had to figure out how to use technology I've never used before and make the interview of better quality. I got it figured out, saved, and ready to share with the rest of my group. In between this, I started to try and think of a reflection for my part. I realized some important key points:


1) Anime is not only a style for art and for entertainment, it is also a place where imagination can run rampant. There are so many ideas that one can observe from the anime they watch and there are so many ideas one can come up with because of this. Writers are able to get new material inspired by anime and can let it grow by watching more anime. It's the new jungle for writing, music, and art. It's a creative thinker's wet dream.

2) Anime is a place where people can share their thoughts and come together. There is a sense of community one gets with anime. In fact, this sense of community is so strong that conventions have come to be - like Animazement - and people can say with pride that they were in the Anime club. They can even say that they're an anime fan. A small group of people, from all over the world, can immediately bond with each other by only knowing that the other person is also an anime fan. They need no more information to be friendly with a complete stranger.

3) Anime is always a place where one can escape the real world and relax. Every single time my friends and I have gone to Anime Club, during high school and now currently during college, we end up using the time as a stress reliever. We have fun, laugh, dance even, sing, and goof off with others in the club by watching anime, singing the openings/closings, or sharing inside jokes. It's a place where even adults can act like a child no matter how mature they have to be outside the club. In a sense, it also keeps us from screaming our heads off from frustration. We calm after these few hours and feel as if we can take on the world over and over again.


I now understand, once again, why I love Anime so much and how just the sing-a-longs during the club meetings can mean so much to me as well as to others. Yet, back to the process of my group and I getting to our final draft in a sense of this project. We hit a road block. My interview wouldn't go to any other file and we spent an entire class period just trying to figure that out. Heart attack, indeed. Anyways, we finally got it working and I sent all I had for my part of the video to the others. Now I can breathe with a sigh of relief - my part is done!

I had a difficult time with this project. When my group and I tried to get together, someone, including me, were at some part in our individual work but we couldn't really share much until we were ready to share it. We were literally down to the wire with this one. Also, none of us had any idea on what the ethnography project was about until a few days before it was due. Thankfully, we all understood by the time we had to get it finished.

I found this project different and hard because it was in a group, which I always have a difficult time with, and because it was something I've never really done before. I was out of my comfort zone and I did not like it. At all. Guess that's a pattern that I'll have to get used to for the rest of my life. Still, we got our project done and now that stress is over, I just want to go back to my club and relax with my friends.

Stranger Danger

I've decided to go back and look over all that I've written in my daybook for class. For some reason, I'm reflecting on many different things in my life. I've actually noticed that I do this every once in a while (maybe this is how I keep my ego in check). However, I chose the entry that I titled "Stranger Danger" which is about an event in my childhood that changed my life.

When I was seven years-old, I was playing in the driveway of my house. I then noticed a man taking pictures of houses just on the other side of the street. Out of curiosity, I approached him and asked him what he was doing. In response, he said that he was a photographer and he's trying to find the construction area that is further into our neighborhood (I am seven so that didn't sound weird at the time).

I chose to help him out and show him where the construction area was.

The walk itself isn't far from my house, it's just down the road and to the left. I took him to the corner just before someone would take a left and pointed out the construction area. He then asked me if I wanted to join him on exploring.

This is the part where I thank god for instincts. All that I knew at the time was that something was wrong. So, I told him the most convincing lie I have ever spoken to this day. I said to this man that I had to get back and eat lunch otherwise my parents get the neighbors to help look for me. Therefore, after saying goodbye to him, we went our separate ways.

Immediately, I went home and told my dad about him because I knew that he was acting strange. My dad called an officer who then came down to take my statement. The stress I was under and the fear that I was in the wrong caused me to tell the officer that he took a picture of me and ran off (He did ask for a picture of me before we went our separate ways, by the way). I think if I said what really happened then the officer would have done a patrol of the neighborhood or something. Instead, he left and I never heard anything about this man again.

All that I heard were rumors that my friend at the time told me. Rumors suck, just so you know.

I was told that they caught the same guy taking pictures of little kids at a pool just down the street. I decided not to think about it at the time. Yet, it all came back to me during middle school when another friend of mine described a scary event that took place just a few days prior.

He told me about how this little girl, that looked exactly the way I did when I was seven, was following him around the neighborhood. They came across this homeless man that fit the description of the man who I remember. This homeless man (which I now believe isn't the same person) had seen the little girl and started to come towards them. They called the police once they got away and there was nothing else.

However, when my friend told me this, I had a near panic attack. All those thoughts and memories of the close call I had came back and I was left with a large puddle of confusion, guilt, and much more. At the time, I felt as if I put a guilty man away or that the man was guilty and went after someone who looked like me. I was so confused and I didn't know what to do. I had an anger management problem at the time and that got worse because of all of this.

Now, however, I know better than to doubt that this stranger from my past wasn't in the wrong and was, in fact, up to no good.

I had to figure out if I had to live with the thought of putting an innocent man in trouble with the police or not. I had to figure out if I was a good person and where I stand in life, morally. I had to figure all of this out in middle school because leaving it alone would have caused me to become an emotional wreck. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever gone through.

The good that came out of this though was that I came out stronger, more mature, and wiser. I know better now and that shows in everything I do. The confusion and guilt I went through are remembered but I don't experience that at all anymore. It has made me stronger but I always am amazed at how close I came to having something really bad happen to me.

To think all of these thoughts and emotions were caused just by a close call. I am so glad that nothing else happened because I think that I wouldn't have been able to handle the aftermath as well as I had.

I had to get this out because I'm in one of my reflecting moods once again and I like to see what will make me into a better person. I also want to tell you all my short story on this traumatic event (for a seven year-old). It's incredible how short events that really don't physically harm you can have such an impact on your lives. Especially when those events occur during your childhood.

My Ethnography Project Drawing Board

To all of those in our class reading this post, I am writing this out of dire need for organizing my thoughts involving my part in my group's project. I have a basic understanding of what my part will be like. Yet, I am lost to the point where I feel uncertain of my every move. I know that I need to focus on how music is important for the literacy underlife instead of just music itself. When I wrote my annotated bibliography, I didn't understand that. Now, I believe I can cross off the radio website in that other post and also put the calendar I found to the side. I can also add an interview I've completed since that post.

What else am I supposed to do? I have to do some type of reflection and I have to organize some type of video with the audio recording(s) I have. Is that all? Is this all I'm supposed to do or am I missing something. Or maybe I'm overthinking it. I dislike this project currently for making me so uneasy about my entire process. Also, how is someone, who doesn't even know their way through a computer that well, supposed to create a video? I have a website that may help but I feel unsure about whether or not it's the right thing to do.... Joy....

Well here's my interview that I'm citing:

JAMS. Personal interview. 7 Nov. 2012.

This interview involved the Anime sing-a-longs this club has done.  As of now, I'm making the sound better but I don't know what to do next.

Sincerely,
The freaked out student

Annotated Bibliography

For our homework assignment over the weekend, our class had to find three primary sources for our Ethnography project and then write a paragraph explaining the importance on each of these sources. After some thinking and digging, I finally found three sources that I believe will be primary in my Ethnography project.


Lambla, Ken, and UNC Charlotte College of Arts and Architecture, comps. The Arts
     at UNC Charlotte 2012:13 Calendar. Charlotte: UNC Charlotte College of Arts
     and Architecture, 2012. Print.

This source is actually a calendar of musical events that was handed out to many students at the beginning of the year like a pamphlet.  This calendar has events of many types of concerts: jazz, symphony, and even wind and percussion ensembles. This calendar also had events for dance concerts, plays, and art galleries as well. Even though there are many events that occur on campus, it's surprisingly difficult to find some of these events - especially for a freshmen. This calendar has the dates, times, and locations of each event and also places the average price of the events in the front of the pamphlet. This calendar locates all of the events that the school helps organize and run on campus.


Radio Free Charlotte. UNC Charlotte, n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2012.
     <http://radiofreecharlotte.uncc.edu/index.html>.

This is another source that the school helps organize. There is a link on 49er Express that leads any student to the website. Even though the website itself doesn't play any music, from what I'm able to see since it never plays anything, it does have information on where to listen (itunes) and when the radio is playing music. This fits the lifestyle of the students and is free for any who listen. The office is located on campus and they ask for anyone who would want to volunteer to play some music on the radio. A valuable source to anyone who wants to play the music instead of being a listener.


LightningXBlade2. Jormungand OST - Time to Attack. YouTube. Sony Pictures;
     Universal Music Group, 2005. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/
     watch?v=wf-pqcTa5xg>.

This is the only primary source I've found that the school does not organize. In our school's anime club, the member sing along to the opening and closings of anime shows we watch. This gives the club a sense of community even if the singing isn't planned and the members just do it. The members only sing to the songs that are catchy and interesting like the one I've chosen. The actual version is shortened than the one I found since it's the ending for a show. Also, the members only sing a few lyrics in this one unlike other songs where members sing the entire time. The sense of community when the members do this is strong and fun. It's a way to relax and lighten our stress level.

Ethnography Fieldwork

Earlier today my group and I met up outside the classroom for some fieldwork we have to complete for our Ethnography project. For a few minutes, we had absolutely no idea where to start. But then, we figured out how we were going to do this fieldwork. We knew that we had to go to certain places on campus to gather the data required. So, we planned the easiest route and headed of to the first destination.

The first place we headed was inside the building where our college's campus is held (I'm not placing the name here to keep the identity of the college a secret. A clue though is that there is a piece of architecture outside that lights up at night and half of it is in another language and it is also right next to the building we have our English class in.). More specifically, we headed to the downstairs lobby where I already have very fond memories involving literacy underlife that has to deal with music.

The reason why we couldn't head into the room where our school's anime club is held is because there was a class going on and anime club is later in the week and later in the day. In fact, most of what we knew as underlife involving music happens when it's warmer and later in the day. Though there was the anime opening and closing sing-a-longs and the music or music videos being shown on youtube in the lobby as well as the name-that-anime-tune contest.

We then visited the large tower where people are free to speak their minds (*cough* Crazy Preacher *cough*). There we saw nothing, nobody's crazy enough to stay outside too long in this weather, but on other days there are public music displays, people playing their guitar and such.

However, there was one thing that we thought up of that we haven't really discussed before for our musical topic: the ("robin") building where concerts are located. Yet, we couldn't get in since you need special access to the building at this time... for some reason. So we kind of people-watched to see who was going inside. I've seen a lot of musicians go inside and since class already started it was only the stragglers that rushed into the building.

Finally, we headed over to the S. Union where random people can play on the piano there. I've already had a lot happen there and I know it is a hotspot. The S. Union was crowded as always and I can remember the songs I've heard being played on that beautiful instrument which echos all over the building.

Those are the main locations on campus where music happens. We've noticed how people react to music at different times in the day, and with the weather. I also noticed there was a lot of people listening to their ipods and such on the way to class. One of my favorite past times, personally. This information will really help us once we get rolling with this project.

Reflective Blog Post On Literacy Narrative - Final

I have to say that this was probably the most difficult paper I've had in a very long time.

For the past few years, I had reached what I thought was a vertical wall in my potential as a writer whenever I had English school assignments. Now I know that this is not the case. The wall was just really steep. Took me a while to notice this too.

Everything was going fine for my rough draft. I was used to it - this was a process that's almost automatic for me now. Write a complete draft for the first due date and make sure the essay has only the grammatical errors that I missed. You see, I was taught for 5 years to get rid of as many mistakes as possible before the rough draft is even finished. Now, after that amount of time, I do a lot of this in my head. Again, the first due date was easy for me: automatic.

Then I was thrown for a loop. At first, I had no idea what our teacher was talking about when she gave us our revision homework. As a matter of fact, I didn't even touch on that at all. I edited my rough draft. The reason? I, for a while and still sometimes, consider revision and editing to be the same thing.

I did both revision and editing at the same time and also mainly in my head... before I even wrote it down on the rough draft. I always thought they were the one and the same. Hence, the very confused student in the 2nd row for 3 days of class.

Finally, I started to understand what I needed to do. So I tried it. I took the most general idea that I had in my narrative and I took another experience I've had with it and wrote my second draft. Yet, I was so unsure that I couldn't even bring myself to finish that draft. Also, I do consider this the first time that I've ever really done this deep of revision. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

Therefore, I went back into my comfort zone. My rough draft. After all, if you had the choice of comfort zone or shaky land, wouldn't you choose the same thing? This time I did more revision than I originally did on it.

I then reached another issue. My rough draft was already close to the page limit.

Oh, thank you previous teachers for giving me the experience of rewording sentences so that my paper always fits the page limit. Trust me, I had to do a lot of this and it's always very difficult to figure it out. You have to think one way and then do a complete 180 the next second. It gives you a real headache by the end of the process.

Anyways, I finally got room to add only a small amount of the revision that I wanted to add. But then, I reached the limit again and I couldn't even reword my sentences to get more room. So, all that revision that I finally figured out, I couldn't put a lot of my new material into it. I couldn't add what this identity searching for me was like during high school and what I found to help me through it. I could only add a small amount about my video game experience and then I was out of room! It was a real bummer.

I've learned a lot through this paper, mainly the difference between revision and editing, and it's going to be real helpful for future papers. Still, I did not enjoy how difficult this was. I also was dead set against the revision we had to do before grudgingly accepting it as neutral territory.... Doesn't mean that I ended up liking it. At. All.

I'm willing to bet that there's a fair amount of students out there that have always considered revision and editing as one and the same. This could really hold them back as it did me (it was a total of a week and half for me to finally get it) and really stress them if they didn't have a complete rough draft by the first due date. I think that for my generation, hope I'm right on this theory, we need some more explanation on the differences between revision and editing. Other than that, throw them to the sharks. They'll swim. They might not like it (like me) but they'll get it.

Mapping Campus

Today we were given a homework assignment to find an area on campus that has a lot of objects or areas which literacy underlife events thrive. I chose the building where our school's anime club meet. Specifically, I chose the downstairs floor.

The stairs wind down, once you got used to the weird smell of the building which I have absolutely no idea how to describe, and you're met with the sight of people sitting in an open area which I refer to as a lobby. Chairs are placed everywhere in that small square area. People sit and work on homework, relax, or play strategic card games.

Once you sit down, you notice the vending machines that only come across as one thing: energy. Then you see the art on the walls, the elevators, the classrooms with their doors open, and the Anime Club chilling in the lobby area until a specific classroom opens up.

There is a cafe that people can sit in if they prefer that type of atmosphere with the coffee and the food. A nice area to go to relax at to think and have a great time for a small amount of time when life is busy and hectic.

Reflective Blog Post - Rants

A few days ago, I woke up and struggled to get out of bed for my last day of classes (for the week, at least) at 8:30 am. Since I stayed up late the night before like any foolish student, I was exhausted. My body and mind were so tired that when we were given the chance to rant about anything, I literally did not want to think about it. You would think I would start complaining about waking up early or talk about wanting some more sleep. But, no - I just wanted to sit there in a state of nothingness.

Finally, I decided to rant about the most general idea I could think of in an attempt to stay in the sleepy haze I was in. I chose to rant about ranting. Predictable, yeah? However, that was a bad choice I made. Sometimes the most general topics can be the most thought-out ideas. I found that this was the case with ranting. Thankfully, I only wrote a paragraph so what I've thought about this topic was after 12 o'clock in the afternoon. Happy, happy day.

The first thought I had was about the stereotypes we place on ranting. Mainly, how most people should swallow their issues with something and how ranting is always seen in a negative light. I found, through my own experience, that any issue or complaints I had with something is the most important thing I should keep to myself. If I really, really don't like steak, suck it up - it's for dinner. If I'm throwing up, go to school and don't whine about it. Oh, I passed out again? Don't let the teachers make me go home - it's not worth it.

What I've figured out is that pressure from others to keep our complaints, and especially our rants, to ourselves soon evolves into our own selves telling us to stay quiet. Then I realized something else, I'm grouping rants and complaints as the same thing. This negative light we've placed on rants has actually begun to label a rant as a complaint. Yet, rants are so much longer and unorganized than one-sentenced or one-paragraphed complaints.

I find that real rants are the ones that take minutes to finish. They're the ones that have people throwing their arms all over the place. The energy and time are caused by one emotion: passion. I'm passionate about Harry Potter (it's detailed writing style more than anything else), creative writing, economic features found inside video games and much more. These topics have led me to rant, argue, and debate with someone else over the issue. it takes me ten minutes to really let the topic go.

that is the main difference from a complaint and a rant. A rant you just don't want to let go of while a complaint is easily forgotten. Now that I've finished my rant involving more than just ranting, I want to show you how funny rants can be.

Pachelbel Rant

Midterm Mentor Text Post

                As my group gathered outside of the library, most of us had only a general idea of what type of mentor text we were looking for. All of us knew that the mentor text we chose must involve writing or creativity in some shape or form. Other than that, we were all clueless…. Or at least I was.

                We knew that the mentor text must be in paper form, hence the reason why we had to go to a library of all places. Honestly, is there anywhere else you could think of that would have books, journals, newspapers, and magazines all in one place? Though, we all realized something: we haven’t been in the library enough to know what floor all these were on. This is probably the main reason why librarians are there, to help those clueless enough not to find their way around a 10 floor library.

Three cheers for librarians!

                Amazingly, we only figured out to read the signs about 3 minutes into us just standing next to the information desk. I’m glad it wasn’t longer, that would’ve been embarrassing. So, my group and I made our way up to the 2^nd floor and found ourselves wandering over to the periodicals. Reason? The periodical section seemed like the biggest section on the floor. Ah, the logic of simple-minded teenagers. 

                There we were, skimming through the rows and rows of books, very thick books too, and finding everything from chemistry to geometry. Yet, we couldn’t spot anything involving writing or creativity in any way, shape or form. Did I mention that they were all very thick books, too? Finally, we spotted a pile of magazines stuck in the middle of huge, enormous, GIGANTIC books. I was the first to zoom over to them in the hope that they’ll have something to do with what we need. Please, for the love of whoever’s up there, please be what we need.

I have to say that the top magazine was very misleading when it came to what the pile was about.

                Out of that pile of Quality Progress magazines, we found two articles that could be of use.

                The first one was a bust. Only vaguely, and with great difficulty, could we have linked it back to anything of use. The second one was much, much better. The article was called “Up and Away” in the June 2012 magazine of Quality Progress. In summary, this article talked about how to add more creativity into work. All of us agreed that the audience was definitely employees and bosses of businesses. Still, we learned a lot about the process of group creativity in the workforce that we can add to our jobs-of-the-future.

                Now this is where we sat and crunched down to do our work. The article was jammed tight with information and a short and simple, but quite effective writing style. Thus, it was decided that note taking was required…. Fudgesicle. 

These were just pages 18 to 24 in the magazine.

Don’t be intimidated by how many pages I have for notes. Some say I’m on the verge of becoming OCD.

                After a fair amount of time just taking turns reading the 6 pages (It didn’t seem that long – I swear!), we finally had an understanding not only for the information but for the writing style the author used. This is definitely something we can use in our futures. Anyways, we had to bring up the instructions for our project because, mainly, we forgot what we were supposed to do. Oops. 

                Then, we got down to the nitty-gritty and tried five minutes of writing in the style the author used. When I started, I found that I had a few seconds where I had to actually think about what I wanted to write. Ever get the moment where you’re faced with two things and you can’t choose between them? Yeah, that was me for about 30 wasted seconds. Yet, I got down to it and, man, did time fly! It only seemed like 3 minutes when one of my group members said that the five minutes were up. All I got through was one paragraph!

"There's a test you can take to see if video games are for you? Enter an online game and read the chat. You'll find that words are shortened, there are words you haven't even seen before and discussions that will have you looking on in shock. If you begin to understand some of the words and shortened sentences, the game will be a breeze. However, if everything's flying over your head, retreat. Now.

Only those who have the open...."

And that's how far I got before time ran out :)

                Afterwards, there was that momentary pause before we realized that we did everything we were supposed to do as a group. Thus, we packed up, placed the two magazines back, and headed for the exit as fast as possible! We all had things we had, or wanted to do, and we weren’t going to let one second go to waste!

                Now, what did I learn from all of this? I learned…. Ah, who am I kidding? I don’t want to write my reflection like that!

                The most creative thing one can do is adapt creativity to something you’d never expect it to be found in. I swear creativity’s like bacteria. I mean, how somebody cannot be engulfed by the boredom that an everyday job must have and think outside the box like this is incredible! I bow down in respect…. Repeatedly. This just saved me a lot of time for when I get older.

                I actually enjoyed the reading and writing style. I saw that she/he added a personal approach in the introduction and conclusion by addressing the reader. Then they sat back and let an instructional voice take over to present the information in the middle. Even then, I may have felt like I was sitting in a conference room but I never felt bored. It’s a miracle! Anyways, I found the introduction and conclusion a little similar to some of the writings I’ve done in the past. Though I’ve never taken an instructional voice until my rough draft of the literacy narrative… I think. Maybe I should have someone read it to make sure I’m not thinking of things that might not actually be there. That would be bad. Very bad.

                So, yeah. I plan on keeping those notes I took and even showing them to my parents, they might find them useful as well. Hoorah for notes, they’re much more handy than anyone would ever want them to be.

Reflective Blog Post 4 - Response to Creativity Requires TIME

Today for one of our day book entries, we as a class watched a video some people created to show their customers why they need more time to be creative:

 Creativity Requires TIME

                The way the world works now is that everything must be organized and placed onto a day-to-day schedule. However, all the best ideas come when they want – not when we force them. Did you know that the idea of Harry Potter was in the mind of J.K. Rowling for years before she wrote the first draft?

                Writing on a schedule pressures the writer to get the basic idea across immediately in the blandest way possible. All of those interesting, small details can’t be added in if the writer doesn’t have the time. Hence the reason why people who start immediately on their writing assignments for a class end up with a better paper then a person who postpones it until the night before. However, this doesn’t just have to be in context with writing.

                Ironically enough, I’ve heard my dad come home a few times from his job complaining about the new way they have to plan out their work. Instead of what he’s used to and what he’s best at, he and his co-workers must plan with a certain “outline” in mind. They also have less time to do this. My father used the old way of things to plan for problems that may occur later on, as in a few years from now. That idea he used saved the company’s computers from crashing many times (yes, he’s amazing at what he does). So therefore, creativity can be seen in something that others may see as computer code.

                Just so you know, he’s so fed up with this new organization technique that he’s basically said, “Fine – if it blows up in your face then it’s your problem, not mine.” Also, he’s this close (imagine almost no space between two fingers) to quitting. He won’t take this invasion in to the way he’s been doing his job for years. Don’t fix something that’s not broken, right?

                I see that as a prediction of what will happen if we as a society keep on suppressing creativity because of a simple schedule. Schedules can be changed easily but creativity isn’t even in the same orbit as that thought process. Creativity can’t be changed and it can’t be controlled. Creativity is like a wild horse – untameable.

                That’s the reason why I absolutely refuse to write stories that I have in my head until the creative ideas for that specific plot nearly explode outwards. I wait until my imagination is filled to the brink before I serve myself that delicious soup of creative thoughts I’ve been stewing for, literally, years. Let me ask you something, don’t you do the same thing? It may be with what you want to do with your life. It may have to do with exploring or it may even have to do with how you plan to live on a personal level. We all do this “stewing” and for good reason. Our best decisions in life aren’t as new as we thought they were.

                Our greatest moments… well, they actually take years to start and end. Creativity is definitely not a short burst of inspiration. It’s always there.

Thanks for listening to my small rant about the importance of giving creativity enough time to expand! Do you want to see something that is really creative (Both for the camera style and the actor who works it so well)? See this link and hold on until around 3 minutes and 30 seconds because that's when things get interesting:

 Epic Tea Time

P.S. Watch his head! It doesn't move AT ALL. That is some incredible control :)

Me and My Cello - Reflective Blog Post 3

So you want to know more about what makes me, me? You say that you want to dig in to my head and experience my thoughts…. You sure?

Just kidding – I don’t mind at all. Thought I poke fun but I don’t know how well that came out. Anyways, you remember that assignment we got a few days ago involving us choosing five objects in our room that inspires us? Of course you do! I bet that there’s a whole bunch of students in our class that are writing about the same thing… again. I should get back on topic.

I made a list of the five objects, both hidden and not, in my room that inspire me above everything else. These amazing pieces of human creation also mean the world to me. I love when everything works out like that.

However, I’m only going to pick the one that means more to me than anything else and that object is my baby – my cello named Vesper. For those of you interested, I named my cello that because “vesper” means evening prayer and that just has a ring to it. Trust me; I’m not a romantic at heart… really. 

Guess what? Y’all get to read a story and for those of you who have to read this blog and don’t want to read the story…. Well, too bad – so sad. I think I might actually be feeling some sympathy for you.

…

Not really. Onwards my fellow fairy-tale readers!

To start, my whole experience with playing the cello began with one thing: my friends’ nagging. For an entire year certain friends of mine gradually warmed me up to the idea of starting in my high school orchestra and, at the time, I was not the inspired musician I am now (if you had the time to notice that yet). So, what did my friends get for the continuous planting of ideas into my head?

…

My decision to join Beginning Stringz (yes that’s spelled like that for a reason and this class is a required class for those who have never played a string instrument before) was the outcome from all of those nice suggestions they gave me. Honestly, did you guys expect anything else? Don’t get me wrong – I loved it and I still do! Also, it was the second best decision I’ve ever made during my high school years. The fun class periods I had with those ten or so students and our Orchestra teacher, at the time anyways, made up the best memories I have of my four years at high school.

Then, I joined the actual Orchestra. The only bad memories I have with that class was the dreaded jump (The jump is the skip that one must take from easy music to more difficult music).  I nearly had a heart attack the first day of Orchestra. The music was so hard and I sucked at the time! 

No joke, I did.

Over time, I started to get better and our class began playing amazing pieces from Handel to Mozart.

AND PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEAN AS WELL AS THE IDYLLS OF PEGASUS! … Obviously, you can tell that I love those two songs. 

Any ways, I started to gain an inspiration for the music I was playing and the cello itself. Musicians are lucky in the sense that we can become one with our instruments while we’re playing. The sensation of that is incredible – feeling as if you’re the one who’s making the sounds instead of the wood. I then started to notice that this also began to show up in the writing I was doing at the time. In a very obvious way, too.

My writing was becoming more romantic, optimistic, in style. This is neither a bad or good transition – it’s just a transition. I was moving into the next stage of my writing and my life. I was gaining experience and loving it at the same time and through it all, I felt as if the cello was giving me a way out. No matter what anyone else says, the cello opens a gateway towards a path where one’s heart can soar to an inner peace just like the freedom of a bird can.

It’s my inspiration – my soul. And that will never change as long as I can help it.

See, was that so bad? You guys thought I was going to draw the story out, didn’t you? 

I’d just like to tell you all that the way I wrote this (as in format) is for a reason – it’s kind of like research for one of the personal blogs I’m going to put up soon. 

Also, I have absolutely no idea where all that sarcasm came from. Eh, who cares? Hope you all have a pleasant day!

OH! You guys should watch this video cause it's amusing and you'll probably get some idea of what I'm talking about when it comes to me and my cello :)

 Me and My Cello by the Piano Guys