Memes and Whatnot

We as children grew up reading colorful children's books, with vivid images that truly spurred the imagination of a young one. But society has told us that these images are strictly for children, and we need to break out of the childish shell. I say, to hell with that! My favorite book series, if you will, is Calvin and Hobbes. The adventures of these little boy and his stuffed tiger illustrate all the good parts about being a little child; it highlights the inconsequential-ness of the problems of a child. These comics contain such powerful messages, to the extent that they make me wish I never had to grow up. Society doesn't get to choose what is acceptable to read (lookin at u mom), and what isn't; if society tells me that I can't be reading those comics, I disregard it. These comics are an escape from the monotonous life that we lead and they provide a place for the nostalgic mind to reconcile what was once had. After reading the piece Show and Tell, I decided to...

This week in 11 AP, we read an excerpt of the essay Civil Disobedience   by Thoreau, which was Thoreau-ly boring. In all honesty, a part of the essay stuck out to me, Thoreau says "Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine." What Thoreau is saying is that each individual has to be the thing that goes against the government; each individual has to be what forces the government to change its ways; each individual has to not be submissive, but fight for change. There are so many examples of people who fought against the government and common stereotypes. A common example is racial prejudice; MLK fought against racism; Douglass fought against slavery. You might be wondering what do I mean by a stripped gear, a stripped gear is simply a gear whose teeth are misshapen due to excess wear and tear. How does this stripped gear play into the metaphorical machine? Well its quite simple, this gear will turn and turn, unknowing that it has absolutely no effect to its sur...

After reading Wallace's This is Water , I was inspired to follow what he said in his speech. I took it upon myself to shift my perspective so that I thought about others first, before I immediately jumped to conclusions about something. These are some events that happened this Friday. 1:14 pm: We were supposed to be dismissed down to the gym for the pep rally, but for some reason my 6th hour teacher kept rambling on even after the bell rang. After a minute, I piped up and asked "Madame, le cloche a sonné, est-ce que nous pouvons partir maintenant?" This translates to, "Miss, the bell has rung, can we leave now?" And to that she told us no, you need to wait for the announcements to dismiss us. Five minutes go by and we had still not heard an announcement, so she checked the hallways and saw that all the classrooms were empty. Since I chose to not immediately judge for her not letting us leave when the bell rang, I realized that for most of the assemblies prior,...

The ideal memorial is something that can't be simply defined. It is something that depends on a variety of different things, for example, the fundamental purpose of that memorial; what is it trying to honor or whats memory is it trying to preserve? If those questions are answered first, then only can we begin to discuss what constitutes the ideal memorial. The ideal memorial starts off with the place. Where should it be constructed? This comes down to what is being represented. Is it something that has a physical, central location? Or is it a more abstract idea. Things like wars, for example, could be represented by a memorial at a physical battle location, or it could be more symbolically represented at a site where the war didn't take place. Continuing on the topic of location, is it to be place in a public, more accessible location? Or a location where it is more secluded and gives the entire memorial a more somber touch. An accessible location has the benefit of being a...