14 - Charlene H: My 17th Birthday

Challenge: descriptive piece about a favorite birthday memory.

Generally, I don’t see my birthday as something special, but there is one particular day that I still look back on even if the things I did were simple.

My 17th birthday in 2021 was the only day in 17 months of social isolation I got to see friends in person. Though I loved my sedentary lifestyle, not being able to see friends for over a year was hard on me. But my 17th birthday was the first day in a long time that happiness truly and quietly bloomed within me. I logged on, took on the role of a different character, and immersed myself in a world unlike the one I was in—both figuratively and literally.

The second person I had invited came to my house at 1 PM, and we played Pinball FX3, Trivial Pursuit Live!, and Overcooked 2 on my PS4. She and my mom also got to know each other when we were eating in the dining room. At 3 PM, the first person I had invited arrived. The girl and I continued playing our game for about five minutes before she had to leave.

Sometime after I led her out the door, my other friend played my guitar. I was captivated by the music and drowned in its chords. The sounds were deep, pure, and soothingly warming. I had always heard him playing guitar through videos and even through two phone calls. But seeing him play in front of me for the first time, his hands plucking at the strings, the notes that he played—it was enchanting.

After he was done, we played Overcooked 2 and Goat Simulator. We also ate my birthday cake after my parents and brother sang “Happy Birthday” to me. Eventually, my friend left my house when it was almost 6 PM.

To many, this may have seemed like an ordinary day with friends, but to me, it has value. At the time, I hadn’t seen friends in person for over a year, so hanging out with friends meant I was doing things that I couldn’t in my normal life. Like video games, that day invited me to step into a new and transcendent space. It inspired different kinds of interactions and play. It allowed me to forget my worries.

I think it is necessary to mention that I was happy even when I didn’t receive any material gifts, which show the worth of experiences. Though new gadgets could be exciting for a short amount of time, the pleasure eventually wears off. What doesn’t wear off is the delight of memories and experiences; they can last a lifetime. While it is true that my friends and I used objects, the act of hanging out with friends was what made me happy. It’s not always the objects that matter. It’s the way we go through new experiences.

I will always remember my 17th birthday. What I did was a sunbeam that filled me with joy on a rainy day.

Word Count: 497

14:Krishna Clay-Family

 

Families come in all shapes and sizes, some connected by blood and some through non tangible bonds. There is no set definition of family in the real world, it means many things to different people. 

For me family isn’t blood but it is a connection that I have between myself and the person. I have friends that are like family to me, that doesn’t mean that we hangout everyday, or that we have everything in common. It means that they contain all the traits I want in the people around myself. 

Everyone that I would consider family is different, some are athletes, some are hard working driven people, and some are people that are like little brothers to me. By diversifying my family I feel like it has taught me so many different views of life, I have been able to understand why certain people act the way they do. It has also taught me what I like and don't like in people.

Family has always been different from person to person, my meaning of family are the people I love and that's it. 

WC-184

14- Antonio L: Jack Of All Trades

 Jack Of All Trades

Are you more like change or the same? In people’s “Are you more like…?” blogs, They always start off with the question they’re asked and then make comparisons between the two choices and why they chose one over another. And me writing the beginning like this has a meaning to my message to this blog.

There are both pros and cons to changing and staying the same. Pros for change would be that you get something different out of your life, leaving you wondering what the next day will bring, and it allows you to get that spice on your palate of bland normality. 

Cons to change is the fear of repetition and unsureness of your own future. You put so much effort into making changes and taking leaps every day that you don’t know what will happen in the future. You’ve become too unpredictable, even for yourself. And if you try to slow things down, you’ll find yourself picking up old habits and end up back at the start.

Of course, this can’t be seen as a con to everyone since you still get to learn new things and have new experiences to help you in the future, making yourself pretty proficient in many fields that could be useful in the future.

As for staying the same, the pros would be having control of how you do things, and staying within your comfort range. You don’t have to take many or any risks, and you get to do things you can control and understand. You follow a routine, and you stick to it because you like it.

The con however is becoming predictable. Someone can take advantage of your cycle and throw it into disarray, usually for personal gain. Becoming accustomed to a certain way of living and having it fall apart by unexpected change can make people in some ways dysfunctional. 

Having to think on your feet in stressful situations will be a permanent way of life, and people who follow the same routine over and over won’t be able to think for themselves if they’re not following what they normally do.

Now that I’ve done the comparison, what am I more like, change or the same? 

It’s predictable, but I’m more like the change. Change is always going to happen in life, so why not be part of the change, usually for both you and others that also get affected by change. There are always more benefits in terms of long-term situations when making change. Connections that never would’ve been made without change can build a new perspective of living life for someone.

There’s nothing wrong with staying the same however. If doing things one way is better efficient for someone, then it’ll work for that person. You can stick to your normal schedules, but eventually you’ll have to be prepared for change, because change can happen at any given moment.

Word Count: 484

14- Alejandro M: We Hate it and Love It

 

Change. The one thing that many people hate. People also know that change can be beneficial and help bring out a better person. I am one of those people who understand that change is helpful, but also don’t like it at all.

I have lived most of my life living the same way. Hanging out with very few people, focused usually on only school, being very quiet. 16 years of the same thing. It made me be the way I am: calm and quiet. This junior year I have tried to put myself out there more. Many new things that I have tried. It has made me encounter many new people and has brought me many new friends and more people to talk to. But even with these new experiences that have brought me some new things to be happy about, it tired me. I just wasn’t used to this change. I lost a lot of energy because of this change and struggled to keep myself up. 

I have been going back to my usual life, the “boring” one, and have been enjoying myself again. I’m ready to finish off this school year with lots of energy. Some people have told me that I need to become more social and try new things, and I do agree with them, but not completely. I did enjoy those activities that made me more social and I still look forward to that. But living in a quiet world again where I don’t have to worry about anything else but myself is a life I grew up with and enjoy more than putting myself out there. 

This change I experienced earlier in the year helped me learn a lot about myself and I don’t regret it, even when I felt like I was losing myself. It brought me something new to look forward to and has helped me open myself up to new experiences. Without the change, I would probably still be living my normal life without experiencing new highs and lows to my life. This change has made me want to experience new and different things that are out of my comfort zone. Change is the only way this would’ve happened.

Word Count: 368

13. Kaiyue L. - In Defense of Needy People

We've all considered someone in our lives "needy" before. There are many caricatures of a "needy" person: they call too much, they cry when you leave to get a glass of water, they feel put out when you check your phone, they get upset when you watch a film without them.

We seem to hate needy people a lot. But let's look at this another way.

There are, of course, a few pathological-dependent people at large. However, a lot of the time, far more than generally accepted, the person who has the problem isn't the "needy" person, it's us ---- the ones who are doing the accusing.

We will feel that someone is sickeningly "needy" when we don't see ourselves as the appropriate targets of someone else's needs. Somewhere inside, we don't trust that we're dependable, reliable, or we aren't quite grown up. So at the first sight that someone is becoming reliant on us, we flinch. We suspect that someone who needs us enough to depend on us for a pleasant weekend or evening must be diseased.

At the root of our hatred of so-called "needy" people is also self-hatred.

Ostensibly, we all want love, but when love actually starts to be reciprocated, it may seem intensely alarming if we're not convinced of our own lovability. We can start to think badly of the person we liked shortly before. We feel they are naive, gullible, and too easily taken in by characters that we don't believe in.

The solution isn't to try to change a person by telling them to stop asking so much. They most likely aren't asking too much at all. They're just strong enough to prove that they aren't invulnerable and judicious enough to like the look of us. They rightly presume that showing need is a precondition of strength rather than weakness. The solution is to revise our view of ourselves, to see ourselves as deserving or simply plausible for someone else to need. 

The need that our lovers, family, and friends have for us isn't delusional, it's an accurate request that any flawed human might make of another. We'll start to find other people a lot less needy, that is, a lot less alarming when they need us when we can accept with good grace, that there's nothing usually or abhorrent about someone deciding they like us. 

WC: 393

13: Tyler B. - Living in the present

 

Am I doing another media analysis on Arcane? Yes, what can I say it’s a really good show. This time I’m going to be talking on a character who in my opinion is a really good side character, with great leadership qualities, I am talking about Ekko. Ekko was probably around 11 or 12 when everything goes wrong in the show, he watches his parental figure get brutally murdered, and from that point on, everything changes. After the events where Vi loses her father and all her friends and disappears, Ekko is the only one left, except of course, Powder, who now goes by Jinx, both Ekko and Jinx were very similar before this tragic event, they both wanted to be like their sister, Vi, strong and independent who punches every problem in the face. But after this event, Ekko slowly starts to distance himself from Jinx and Silco and his gang. Instead opting to start his own, much kinder gang, The Firelights, this is where we get into the meat of his character, most characters in Arcane are focused on 2 things, the past and the future, people like Silco, who only look to the future of the great city of Zaun. Or characters like Heimerdinger, a near immortal being who is too scared of the past to take any risks, not being able to understand that humans don’t live as long as he does. This is where Ekko comes in, I haven’t mentioned with yet, but in the start of every episode there is some form of backstory, whether it’s a story of one of the founders of Piltover, or a flashback of a characters backstory or inspiration. But the episode that is for Ekko instead opens with a rap music video style intro, with a really cool art style and song (Misfit Toys, listen to it) that leads into the episode. So why wouldn’t Ekko get a flashback or story? Because Ekko lives in the present, while all the big heads of government in both Zaun and Piltover do what they do for the future of their respective cities, Ekko grounds himself in the present, he doesn’t do things for the future, he does things for immediate change, here and now, in the present. The Firelights get from place to place on floating skateboard like objects, and when Heimerdinger finds Ekko and helps him back to the Firelights hideout which is the only place in the underground to have ever grown a tree, and a large one at that. And when he is asked about why he does these things and why he rides around on dangerous forms of transportation, Ekko tells “It’s not enough to give people what they need to survive, you have to give them what they need to live”. Ekko understands that not everyone thinks in such broad ideals like looking to the future, so he doesn’t just serve the future or the past. He pays respect to the past through a mural to all the lives lost, and he looks to the future in terms of wanting to end Silcos reign, but makes sure to stay in the present, and doesn’t forget about the little guy, who he once was, and now lives to protect.

Word Count: 543

12: Tyler B. - A modern hero

 

Arcane is a show that has taken the internet over, a prequel to video game League of Legends, set in the fictional locations of Piltover and Zaun, we see multiple of the heroes from these 2 cities navigate the political and personal issues of these 2 cities. One of these said heroes, Vi, is who I believe to be the main character, I also think she is a perfect example of what a modern hero in fiction should be. Vi is from Zaun, a city that is abused by Piltover and their high and mighty rich people, where drugs and toxic disease run rampant, after a tragic event when she was a teen leading to the death of her father figure and almost all her friends at the hands of her mentally unstable sister. She is kidnapped and taken to a max security prison, after around 6 years, she is released on the condition that she helps her new found friend take down the corrupt gang leader (chem baron) Silco, who flooded the streets of Zaun with drugs in effort to achieve independence from Piltover. Throughout this adventure, Vi proves my belief that she is a perfect example of what a modern hero should be. Vi is flawed, very flawed and has years of unpacked trauma that she has never been able to talk about, she blames herself for the mess that is Silco, Zaun and her sister, Jinx, who has become even more deranged believing that Vi abandoned her, turning Silco into her bad and deeply uncomfortable father figure. And all this, Vi blames herself for, and she has never had anyone to talk to about this, until Caitlyn (the one who released her) comes along, I feel that this is something a lot of people can relate to, having all this trauma with no one to talk to about it. She also doesn’t always make the right choice, which makes her human, and it’s not like her decisions are evil, she just makes dumb, stupid decisions, like leaving Cait in The Lanes to go fight Silco right hand woman, which almost leads to her death. Much like real people, she doesn’t always do what’s right, but she is still more of a hero than most of the other characters. She also just looks super cool and is personally my favorite character in the show, Arcane is a really good show and I am not doing it justice talking about it now. If I have peaked your interest, you should absolutely watch it, it will definitely be worth your time. The characters are great, the story is great, everything about it is great. Just go watch the show!

Word Count: 449