Carry It Forward: Shakespeare

William Shakespeare. I had to Google the name to get the spelling right, I always feel that it should end in -sphere, it'd make everything simpler. He's always seemed so mysterious, like something you'd need to Google to truly understand. That's what the world has made him out to be, a genius that only a select few can understand. Now, I hadn't had any experience with his writing prior to this springs' Romeo and Juliet, only short references here and there, such as Julius Caesar in the iconic movie Mean Girls. His works had never interested me, and I remotely looked forward to the play because I'm a sucker for a love story.

Immediately, I was thrust into a brand new experience. I could follow along with the action, as long as I read each line two or three times, and read the annotations on the other page. That was fine for me, I enjoyed the story and that was that. Then, we spent a class analyzing about a paragraph of text- maybe half a page of text. Inside he began to point out layers upon layers of meticulousness. Everything was intentional, everything had meaning from the rhyming pattern, to sentence structure, to word choice, to even how syllables sounded. It was beyond overwhelming, and made me feel this small. I had always wanted to be a writer, and thought that I was decent at it. The writing of Shakespeare was on a whole different level, one that I didn't know where I would begin if I tried to write something like him.

To put it plainly, Shakespeare scared me. It set a bar I would never be able to hit, yet alone surpass. As the class dug deeper and deeper into the book, all of my 'surface level' comprehension never seemed adequate. I'm too literal of a person to have things like how the syllables affect the meaning' stand out to me at first, second, or third glance. Reading R&J became a chore, and I felt that if I focused on the writing, it would trade off with my understanding of the story, and vice versa: I couldn't find a balance.
I began to focus on what I could understand easily, like identifying figurative language, while still understanding the gist of Romeo and Juliet's antics. By easing myself into the insanity, it became easier to handle. I plan to carry this plan into King Lear, by understanding the plot first, then what I can easily understand about the language, and finally work into harder, more complex ideas that have disappeared between Elizabethan time and now.
I also hope to use this in my writing - laying out a plan, and then making lots of revisions to add little quirks for further generations, or future teachers, to discover. All in all, my singular experience with Shakespeare with Romeo and Juliet was one of learning! I liked discovering all of the patterns and things that can be done with language, it just took some getting used too. It's a break from the status quo, but in the blur of high school, sometimes that's whats needed.

An Inconvenient Truth: Cosmopolitanism

Over the past year, I’ve become more acquainted with philosophical ideals and theory, due to inclusion in Academy and debate. One of the most common theory is that of hegemony – that a single nation can control the stability of the majority of others through expansive hard (military) and soft (cultural and diplomatic) power. Unaware, this has been ingrained in my brain for as long as I can remember – ever since 9/11, which is about as far back as I can remember, America has been on an ‘America’ kick. I’ve grown up learning about how the US military is the greatest in the world, our political system is far superior to that of other nations, we have the best scientist, doctors, innovators and students, that as a country, the United States is #1. I’ve taken this idea for granted, operating under the assumption that I’ll be forever safe on American soil. These assumptions have been changed, after reading novels like our health care book: there is at least one area where the U.S. isn’t fantastic. I pay more attention to the news, learning that America is having some major issues.

Now, even with all of taken as the truth, I’ve never heard of something that could overtake the United States, with the possible exception of China economically. Through the hard times, America will prevail is the word on the street. This weekend, while debating I was exposed to a new theory for the world, cosmopolitanism. The overarching theory of cosmopolitanism, of which there are numerous subsets, believe that all the nations of the world should “come together and sing Kumbaya,” in the words of my coach. It advocated that all human beings, regardless of their political affiliation, can belong to a single community, I’ve heard of things like globalization and economic interdependence, initiatives working toward coherent international trading systems and norms for the benefit of all, but never a ‘global society’. The idea seemed so shocking, and when it was first explained to me, my knee-jerk reaction was ‘that’s stupid,’ because I didn’t think it was possible.

World peace seems something to merely wish for, not something that could become a reality. But is that really the truth? Could my mind just be clouded by constant images of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, forcing a pessimistic viewpoint? Is hegemonic theory wrong – could states come together as one, without an higher power to keep the peace? What would such a place look like? What steps should be taken to achieve an international regime, and would it follow a current governmental model?

In addition to the political conundrum, cosmopolitanism confuses me because of the cultural differences from region to region of the world. The idea sounds utopian, but in ever utopian novel I’ve read there doesn’t seem to be a culture, only an enforced set of rules. Is this what’s ideal, and best for the human race? This idea also seems illogical because of another ingrained theory, realism. The main concept of realism is that states/countries will protect against conflict and war, and be distrusting of other nations to preserve sovereignty. A favorite argument in debate is that realism is biological, ingrained in our genetic code as part of being human. If this is true, how can a world order survive, if offensive action is inevitable?

In my two hour debate round focused on cosmopolitanism, I was forced to get out of my ‘America is incredible’ mindset and consider other possibilities. For those two hours, another choice sounded pretty decent, even while having pride from being an American. The more preparation I did for the debate, and the additional research put in for this post, simply learning about it has allowed me to sort out my thoughts and opinions, but has left me with a thought. If more people were exposed to these kinds of thoughts and situations about IR theory, would notions like cosmopolitanism be possible, or is society too grounded in hierarchies and current supremacy structures? Cosmopolitanism, standing alone, is a fantastic idea, but I think its best applied to the world through on a moral level. Organizations like the United Nations and NATO are positive and helpful, but could never govern all six billion human beings on the planet.

iMedia: Mad World

The world is a crazy, strange place. --> HYPERLINK It's mad. HERE <-- In the span of a single day, a human being can experience the intensity of the emotional spectrum - euphoria, brilliance, disgust, rage, fright and misery. The human mind has the power to of incredible innovation, like the late Steve Jobs. Our discussion in class today, with so much encouragement about what opportunities lay in front of us, to be the next entrepreneur, inventor, dreamer, left me thinking of how those positive people are the minimum. The majority of our population is simply put it, sad and mad. I then went to a journalistic writing class where our assignment was to read old features articles in the Oracle. The class unanimously agreed that a memorial of Chris Chung was the best, because the author had done a fantastic job of covering all aspect of Chris's life. Other profiles we had read only showed one angle of a person, a superficial grasp on their life. I realized that just about everyone - students, teachers, parents, workers all hide little parts of themselves; and they normally hide pain and sadness.

"Mad World" by Gary Jules exemplifies all of these feelings. Society and the mass media have made it a crime to appear unhappy or imperfect. This then leads to greater unhappiness and pressure, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. "Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrow No tomorrow, no tomorrow" We are living in a world where tweens and teens are self-harming, and in some extreme cases, committing suicide. Popular sites such as sixbillionsecrets.com have constant postings about thoughts of these horrific crimes - and they go unnoticed. "Hello teacher tell me, what's my lesson? Look right through me, look right through me." Everyone suffers individually, causing a sense of crushing loneliness and inadequacy - thus the disco ball quote, in honor of 70's day.

When I first heard "Mad World," I was very young, I thought it sounded very melancholy, the piano and slow but steady tempo had a sobering effect. As I matured, the song continued to pop up, whether it be in a chain email, a youtube video, or a presentation in school. It stuck with me, and now I can understand the lyrics and see the truth. I see people running in circles and worn out faces during my daily journey through the halls of GBS. I can admit to being one of those people, doing what society expects of me, to finish my English homework. But when are these cycles going to end? Is there a way out of the pain and monotony that we experience? and why are we letting unrealistic goals of perfection and happiness control the way we life?

While I admit to feeling bouts of overwhelmed and disparity every once in awhile, and keeping them locked up, the most shocking revelation in the song, the sickest idea is "Children waiting for the day they feel good." The idea that children, whom when thought of are bright, exuberant and curious about everything the world has to offer, no longer feel good, is repulsive. I've experienced, firsthand, how hard even young kids work already suffering from insomnia as a result of over scheduled lives. While babysitting, I've had third and fourth graders worrying about a test, a worksheet or a project, but afraid to show the stress. The song is describing a dystopia that has become America's reality.

What can we do? The penultimate line of the song offers a possibility: enlarge your world. People need to make it acceptable to show pain and sadness, and they have to be willing to aide others in return. It could offer an opportunity to take burdens off of our shoulders, while learning about others as well.