It's About Graditude

Dear Elliot,

          I was asked to write a note of gratitude to someone that has had influence on my life, so I chose you. You'll probably argue that it's the other way around; that I've had more influence on you, because that's just the way you are. You're nice and you're generous and you underestimate the effects you have on people. You have no idea how much you've influenced me. I'm not one to share my problems very openly, but whenever I am willing to share, you drop everything and just listen. You have always supported me and pushed me to do my best. I rely on you more than I'd like to admit, but you know what? I'm alright with that because I know with you, I have a solid shoulder to lean on. You've helped me through so much and I can't thank you enough! I could go on for pages, but I'll save that for when I get a chance to talk to you in person. I hope I'm at least as half of a good friend to you, as you are to me.

          Your friend, Nadia

Banning Writing: Why bother?

          While searching on YouTube, I stumbled upon a simple video about how banning books is unethical and unnecessary.  I wanted to comment on this issue because I generally agree with the message in the video. I say, “Generally” because in certain circumstances, I feel as there should be a line left uncrossed. As humans, we have general and mutual morals and ways of nature. Such as, if something bad is going to happen, we try to prevent it, or if something good is going to happen, we let it be. So if a book that is known to a wide public audience with a capturing and persuasive negative message, I feel as there should be some filtration of that book. Whether it be that it gets banned or copies stop being printed, there should be something put in place. For example, if there is a book out there that is sending a message to all Catholics, to go out and harm all Jews, and manages to actually persuade people to do so, it should be filtered out in some way as I said previously. This example now brings me to my next point.

          Being a writer is about sharing a message or opinion, and being a reader, should be about deciding whether you agree or not.  So if a writer's opinion, happens to be that one religion is better than another,  it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to agree with it or have the writers written thought, be shunned.  It is not the writers’ job to create something that everyone agrees with.  Now some may argue that there are different forms of writing, like being a journalist or writing about research, which then makes being a writer about how informative and correct he or she is. Well, what I have to say about that is, on a grand scale, everything has a biased influence or point of view. It will always lean towards one side verses another and from there, everyone also has a slightly different opinion; no two people will ever feel exactly the same about a given topic. I will repeat; everything has a biased influence. Even in science, there are biases. Whether it be, actual human opinion on research that has been collected or human error in the collected research, there is a form of biases, which also affects everyone else’s outlook. Also, in journalism, although it may be an informative means in media, most articles that are read, don’t share every detail of what actually happen, therefore it is biased.

          I have one last thought I’d like to share. First I want you as reader, to stop and just think. Now, think about what you’ve read, here, in the past, all of it. All of it, exactly, all of “it”; as in what you’ve read, has an opinion. I mean, again, stop and think, would you really have read it, if it didn’t. Could you imagine how boring would it be to read something, everything, if it didn’t have an opinion. Like I said before, isn’t that point, the relationship between writer and reader. It wouldn’t be any fun if you couldn’t agree or disagree.

Listen then Talk

        It was suggested recently, that I watch a TED talk titled, “Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit.”  As I was listening to what was said in the video, I came up with the following list of things that caught my attention and that I would like to talk about a little more.

 1.     The key to success is grit.

        I think this statement is true. You have to have grit, motivation to succeed, or to even want to try to succeed. If you don’t want to do something then, most likely, you won’t. It’ll just be left undone. You can have everything going for you, but if you don’t have the motivation to do it, it simply won’t happen, or at least it won’t be done as well as if you were motivated to do whatever it is you want to do. In the case of this video it was learning, which is something, that I think a fair amount of people struggle with from time to time.

2.     Talented doesn’t mean successful.
        This is another statement that was said in the video, which I also happen to agree with. As I said before in my last point, “you can have everything going for you” but that doesn’t mean you’ll be successful. You can be good at something, you can be good at multiple things, but it doesn’t mean you’ll be successful. You can be a good player and still lose the game. You can be good at anything, but it doesn’t mean you want to pursue it, or keep up with it. Personally for me, it’s the thought that if I’d try, I’d be good at it , and if I kept doing it, I’d have some overall, lasting success.

Who am I? Beyond my name and age?

        So what is there to know beyond my name and age? Who am I and what am I about?   Frankly, I’m about the arts; I like a wide variety of the arts and have had a lot of experience with different art forms! I’m about the visual arts, painting, drawing, sketching, sculpting, etc. I say, “I’m about the (insert type of art here)” because not only do I like the art form that I’ve named, but I’ve also experienced it. I’ve either taken a class, or I’ve been part of some sort of project or production that I’ve used it in.  I’m about media arts, photography, editing, advertising. I’m also about the art of music/preforming arts such as singing and playing instruments. I’m about the language arts; the writing, reading, editing, listening and learning about different languages. The last two art forms I’m about are the culinary arts, baking, sculpting, decorating, and in the art of fashion, designing, sewing, creating.  Some other arts that I like, but don’t necessarily participate in, are the preforming arts of acting or dance for example.

Who am I? Wait, you want me to introduce myself?

         First off, good luck to me because as simple as one may think it is to introduce themselves, I feel as it can be a daunting task. First impressions sometimes like to last longer than you’d like and I don’t really know how to put into words anything other than the typical introduction of name, age and where I may go to school. For example, my name is Nadia, I’m sixteen, soon to be seventeen and I’m a grade twelve student. Wait, let me reread that! I think I just got the typical introduction I was talking about, out of the way, yes? Well, we’re going to say I did!