A Video Worth Seeing

So as you can probably already tell, I haven't been in the best position to write a lot lately. I promise I'm gonna get back on a roll soon, but for now, i give you this video, originally submitted to the Operation Beautiful website. Watch it, and watch a bunch of the related videos. Then, after you've done that, believe what they say. You are beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szeWIjFbiqY

Art Post 5/6: Roses in Blue/Music Helps You Grow

Hey! So I haven't been in the best place to write lately, I promise I'll have a thought piece up soon, but for now, here's some art. Have fun! And leave comments telling me what I drew or painted- frankly, I bet your interpretation is a lot more interesting than the one I had. :P

What Matters Most

I saw a movie earlier today called Leap Year. Besides being incredibly corny, this movie had a thought provoking side as well. In it, many of the characters were asked or forced to prioritize their lives and affections. One character primarily followed a social-climbing agenda, while another followed his heart to a meaningful and lasting relationship. And over and over, all the main characters were asked what they would save from a fire, if they could only save one or two things -- which got me to thinking.

What would I save from a fire? What means enough to me that I absolutely cannot replace it?

Let's start with my boyfriend. I absolutely love him, and there isn't an hour gone by where I don't think of him. So of course, anything from him is gonna be saved- but the bracelet he gave me never leaves my wrist, so I wouldn't have to consciously look for it to save it, it would just sort of happen.

My friends? Besides pictures and other small mementos, which I can call to memory and picture easily, I have some jewelry given to me by friends, which i never take off.

My uncle? My late, great Uncle James was and is my best friend, and my god-dude -- naturally he means a lot to me, and I would want to save whatever I could of him, but that consists of a necklace which, as you can probably guess, I never remove from my neck.

My family? A bracelet on my other arm. My heritage? Another necklace. Connection to all of the above? My phone never leaves my pocket.

But as I wrote this, it's hit me. For me, at least, its not about what I save that's important. It's WHO I save that matters. And so, in response to a core theme in Leap Year, I would save me: by saving me, I save my memories and all the mementos I hold dear, and I preserve all that I hold dear, from my amazing boyfriend to memories of my Uncle James.

Now let's turn this question around:

If you had 60 seconds to save what you could from your burning house or room, what would you save and why?

Art Post 3/4: River of Time/Childlike Curiosity

Being the delinquent teenager that I am, I fell asleep studying for my math midterm last night, and wasn't able to do an art post, which means you have two coming at you today! "And Sara said, 'Let there be narratives!'"

Have fun! :)

The SAT's Critical Faults

I'm at a point in my high school career where a huge emphasis is put on the SATs. Every single one of my peers has a tutor or a class they go to, including myself. Some genuinely want the help, and some, like me, take the classes to placate their parents. But everyone around me is doing something.
But in the days of yore, people took the SATs cold. It was unheard of to get a tutor- the SATs weren't something you could study for; instead, they were the purest form of aptitude test there is- what can you understand, and how quickly?
It seems things have changed since then. Now, nobody trusts that their child will know how to read a long, boring passage and answer questions about it, or do simple algebra. So they send their kids to teachers, who tell them how to get around answering the questions asked. I'm not joking when I say the teacher of my SAT class told me not to bother doing any algebra besides plugging in arbitrary numbers, and to not bother reading the "long boring passages" in the critical reading section.
This makes me wonder. First, are we privatizing the SAT? Are we basically giving the highest scores to the wealthiest people from the most affluent regions of the country? Because it seems that people with more money to spend on preparation, to get all the best tricks and insights into the mind of the ETS, will have the most opportunity to succeed.
Second, are we really improving the intelligence of our youth by emphasizing the importance of this test? Or are we dumbing our students down? Sure, the SAT is a highly respected test, and counts for a lot in college admissions. But does it really sound so important when you consider that the high school juniors taking it are being given math problems on NYS Regents Math A topics (usually an 8th, 9th or early 10th grade level of math), and are usually using tricks to get around even that (by instruction of tutors)? This sorta defeats the purpose of the test in its entirety.
What do you think?

Art Post 2: Work-In-Progreth

Second art post!

Here's another piece from my sketchbook- give this guy a name and history!

Why the iGeneration is Lost

I've been thinking a lot lately about my grandparents. They had no SAT prep; only two of them went to college before they had kids; they went to dance halls for fun; they listened to big band and Irish music; they got the hugest thrill from just holding hands. And they were, and still are, truly happy. Why is this so rare among anyone else I know?
Think about it. They lived much simpler, easier lives, and were able to get the most happiness out of the smell of baking bread, or every butterfly they saw. But us?
Let's take a poll- Raise your hand right now, and put it down when you read something that sounds like you could've said it. Are you ready? Let's begin.
"I prefer staying near my computer or TV to going outside- COD and Facebook are clearly better than anything outside the walls I sit within right now."
"Dancing and innocent party games are for wimps and nerds and (insert insulting slurs here). The only things worth doing at parties are drinking, drugs, and random hookups. If I left a club sober, and with the same number of contacts on my phone as when I got there, what was the point of going?"
"I can never be beautiful, because I look nothing like Jessica Alba or Heidi Klum, or any of those women I see in magazines."
"My phone is practically from the stone age- its a whole five months old, and my ringtone hasn't been changed in days."
"I NEED that new dress, or I'll die!!"
If you're from the iGeneration and you still have your hand up, I'd be surprised.
The above statements are no way to think, or to live, if you want to be as happy as your grandparents' generation was. My generation is jaded, cynical, and lost in consumerism, and the side effects- depression, eating disorders, and substance addictions- are ever prevalent.
To say the least, we need saving. So please, if you're affected by this post in any way, do what you can to help. Play a board game and make cookies with your kid siblings; go bowling or somewhere else in town with friends; put on swing music on the kitchen radio, and dance around with someone you love; stop judging anyone and everyone by impossible standards created with airbrushing in magazines; slow down and take time to appreciate everything around you as you walk down the street. And ask your grandparents to teach you how to dance like they did in the old days- I guarantee you'll have a blast.

Art Post 1: Doll

What I'm going to try to do here is post a thought piece and a piece to make you think, every day (unless i don't have any new thoughts, in which case only a piece to make you think). I told you what I thought about Blue and White Night's cancellation- now its my turn to get your brain working.

Now I'm not a very good artist, but I like to think my work makes people think, or reconsider themselves and their surroundings. Here's one such piece. Your job is to tell me the story of the doll- what its history is, who loved it, why it's alone, etc. I can't wait to hear what you come up with! :)

Blue and White Night

In my high school, there is an event called Blue and White Night, and it's one of the most highly attended events in the school throughout the year. This year, however, it was cancelled.

Let me explain how Blue and White Night works first. It was originally called Sports Night, and was the one night where girls would be able to play sports, back when we had no female teams. Now that we do, however, it has become a dance team competition. Girls (and a couple brave guys) try out for positions on teams, and once teams are formed, they rehearse and rehearse and rehearse until they're about ready to keel over, and then they perform.

Another common association with Blue and White Night is scandal. At the beginning of the season, Blue and White team members sign a contract to not have sleepovers during the rehearsal period. Some of this is to ensure fairness- if one team has a sleepover while another can't, the other team is at a disadvantage because their competitors had extra rehearsal time. But another part of the administration's reason for this contract is drinking. As most of you know, many high school students drink. Parties and get-togethers often involve alcohol and those obnoxious red SOLO cups. This has been so for decades, and has worked its way into Blue and White Night. The administration doesn't want teams having sleepovers partly to combat underage drinking- they don't want our school or any of its institutions to be associated with underage drinking.

But how many high school students do you know who listen to the authorities? Of course the teams have sleepovers, all the time. It's almost as old an institution as the event itself! And theres nothing innately alcoholic or nefarious about sleepovers. But this time, a team was caught, and there were people at that sleepover drinking. All the girls on the team were suspended, including many of our top students. And because they refused to rat out the other teams who had sleepovers, the entire event was cancelled.

"What were they doing that they were caught?" you may ask. Here's the story as a dance team member and friend of mine recounted it to me. They held a sleepover, with no alcohol in the house. The entire team was told there would be no alcohol there. Anyone who drank brought their own alcohol- whether that was OK with the rest of the team, I do not know. and a good portion of the team did NOT drink, such as my friend on the team. Many responsible drivers there stayed sober. But someone- many suspect it was a freshman- got freaked out by this transgression against the contract she'd signed, and told her parents and the administration. The team members were suspended from school, regardless of whether they drank or not.

Now, I have never been much of a fan of Blue and White Night. Personally, I don't really want to see any oversexed dancing like that, especially when I know the people dancing- it just kinda weirds me out. Nor have I ever been a fan of underage drinking (or a drinking age, but that's for another post). But I do know a lot of people who love attending it, and i know a lot of people who participate in it, and who live for it, and I know they're devastated.

And it's a question of ethics. I know the team went back on a contract, and that's bad, but the sleepover tradition is as old as Blue and White Night itself, and a tradition that old can't be eradicated by a sheet of paper. And the questioning the team members were subjected to is out of line- the administration basically attempted to bribe the students with alleviated punishment, in order to get them to skewer their friends on other teams. That alone is suspicious, but keep in mind that these are minors, and their parents weren't present. I'm pretty sure that's illegal.

So here you have a school in tears for the cancellation of a time-honored tradition, dancers sobbing because their dedication and hard work was for naught, and a couple of people, like me, who are outraged at the way in which the administration conducted themselves.

What do you think about all this?

Just to kick off

Hello there, Internet!
So this is what it's like to have a blog... Hmmm....
Well, if you stumbled on my page, I'm glad to have you! Some things you'll notice about me are that a) I am often very very introspective, to the point of reaching a sort of morbidity; b) I love social activism, and I might post some on this page; and c) I will often ask questions of my readers, if readers there be. So please, respond to my posts! Comment on them! Unlike a lot of blogs, I created this to start a dialogue, and to hopefully add momentum to positive social movements, not as a vanity project. I tell you what I think, so please tell me what you think! I would love to hear your opinions, and see any increase in involvement in awesome projects, like the ones I'm gonna use this post to reveal to you!!

www.operationbeautiful.com

itstartswith.us

givesmehope.com

These are just three of hundreds of awesome websites everyone should know about, and I hope they can inspire you and make you as happy as they did for me.

Until my next big idea,
Peace!