Back to Innocence

 “Sex trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation.  It is accomplished through fraud, deception, threat of or use of force, abuse of a position of vulnerability, and other forms of coercion.”

Jubilee project has created a video to spread awareness of the gravity and impact of sex trafficking.  Worldwide, about 700,000 and four million women, children and men are trafficked each year, and many of these incidents occur in middle class families. 

“Sustained by an estimated $9.5 billion annual revenue, sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world and it is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise… Approximately 80% of human trafficking victims are women and girls and up to 50% are children under the age of 18. UNICEF reports that across the world, there are over one million children entering the sex trade every year and that approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood through sexual exploitation over the past 30 years. The average age of entry for children victimized by the sex trade industry is 11 years old.”

Jubilee project supplies all the facts and horror along with its video, “Back to Innocence”, on its website, http://jubileeproject.org/2012/06/27/the-story-behind-back-to-innocence-the-short-film-on-sex-trafficking/.  Read the stories, watch the video and even the emotion creating the video in the behind the scenes video found on the link below.  Help spread awareness about this imperative issue.

Broadcast Media

As soon as my dad comes home, the television is flashes on-assuming it originally wasn’t on to begin with.  

As soon as anyone goes into the car, the radio blares on.  I can lie in my bed at 11 o’clock at night trying to fall asleep after a lot day, and my neighbor across the street can blast music from the radio full volume with bass.  In case of an emergency- an earthquake, a fire, a blackout- we try to tune into the local radio station to find out what is happening.  In today’s society, broadcast media plays a major role in our everyday lives.  It alerts us, entertains us, and keeps us company. 

                My dad literally sleeps with the radio on (of course he snores, not that he can hear it), and my dad’s side of the family are used to sleeping with the television on.  In my house, my dad needs to have the TV or radio on. At all times. It doesn’t even matter if he’s in the house or not.  Now, I know my family is not the only one who depends on the television and radio.  Plenty of people’s lifeblood is broadcast media.  Why else do so many people spend so much time glued to the couch and their eyes stuck to the TV?

                That’s just one side of looking at broadcast media, but what about the impact that it has played in our society- our history?  Broadcast media has allowed an expansion of technologies to be thought up, invented, created, and essential to our everyday lives.   We can see the exact image and voice of a person broadcasting from millions of miles away! That itself was an uproar when the television became popular and available to the public.  We can communicate news and information from across the nation, and even the globe in real time.  Enterprises have been created off of broadcast media.  Broadcast media has created a bridge connecting to the whole world.

                Broadcast media has changed the world for the better.  We have become more aware of our surroundings, and events millions and billions of miles away in seconds.  We are more connected with as a world.  We are able to laugh at the same comedies and sitcoms, we can cry to the same dramas, we can be informed by the same information or news programs, and we can becomes unified as one- the earth.

Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity

For those who did not know, Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the Bestseller novel, Eat, Pray, Love, was one of the many great guest speakers on TED talks: she has subtle yet effective humor, brilliant timing, and conclusive content.  Her message remains clear as she extrapolates scenarios from typical quotidian experiences most people who wish to pursue a creative-based job know.  Her slightly satirical theory from retrospection of old Greek and roman culture mentions a ‘genius’ guarding us who bestows spurs of glory.  This divine spirit explains how to cope with the fact that we may not be creative geniuses or we may have sudden bursts of creativity that may never come again.  She mentions creativity running through the hills and it being luck to catch it in time to make it yours, and not somebody else’s.  Of course, all speeches-let alone good speeches- cause controversy. One of the many comments found in response to the video were:

“I completely disagree with this message. Creativity is not a gift. it's not sent to us by some divine entity. It's in each and everyone of us. We possess wonderful creativity and imagination. We just need to work harder on bringing out more of that creativity. And to do so, requires hours upon hours of daily practice for several years. Too many people want quick fixes, because most of our civilization has become lazy.”

The comment above was marked as spam.  Personally, I would have not marked this as spam for it is still related to the video and not a random comment saying something on the lines of “HUMANITY SUCKS”, “heyyyy!!! check out my channel @ *insert channel link here*” or “Dang.” This user was simply expressing his or her opinions.  Well of the many scathing retorts were:

“I respectfully suggest that you missed the point of this talk. Humans DO "possess wonderful creativity and imagination," as you said, and we DO need to work harder on bringing it out, and it DOES require practice. I would know this because I'm a pianist who has to practice three hours daily or more. Practice makes you much better at what you do. But inspiration does not always come from within ourselves, and to take all the credit for a "work of genius" is presumptuous of a human; destructive.”

Alright, it’s not that scathing, but it was still typed in an offensive rage against the first commenter.  Both comments reflect the contrasting aspects to Elizabeth Gilbert’s speech.  Is creativity an otherworldly evanescent spirit fluttering around and occasionally actually hitting us, or just self-determination?

Others Advice to be Successful

 “Failure is success if we learn from it,” mused Malcolm Forbes.  The American Civil War taught us that we must remain unified despite our differences.  The World Wars taught us that we need to justify when to help an ally based off what is right rather than simply because we are allies.  The Red Scare taught us that fear is a prominent emotion than blocks reasoning.  We can either learn the hard way, by ourselves, or through examples, through previous mistakes or others, but why not simply look at mistakes already made?  It is necessary to look into our history or through lessons in books or in other people for advice in order to be successful and knowledgeable. Ged, the protagonist in The Wizard of Earthsea, learned he must conquer his hubris as Annabel, the protagonist in Just Listen, learned she must conquer her fear of being open with her feelings.

As a young prodigy originating from a small town, Ged had an enormous hubris as he was passed from teacher to teacher due to his excessive power.  Unfortunately, his ego had lead him to lose control of a dangerous forbidden spell- a spell to bring the dead to life.  This mistake and overestimation of his control over his powers caused the death of a dead great professor Ged had considered as a father.  Realizing from his grave mistake which almost cost him his own life as well as his professors, Ged travelled around all of Gont to run away the dangerous shadow he had released in place of the dead.  His travels made him realized that he cannot keep narrowly escape the monster shadow anymore and decides to confront the deadly shadow.  From Ged, we learn that we must remain humble and open-minded and if we run into troubles: we must face them rather than run away. 

            Unlike Ged, Annabel was much more humble and docile- perhaps a bit too docile.  She was afraid to confront her feelings and to tell others about what she truly wants or thinks.  Despite getting raped by her boyfriend at the time, Will, betrayed by her ‘best friend’ Emily, and ostracized by the rest of her friends, she does not tell anyone that she had been raped or she is being ignored.  Along with dealing with a rough time at school, she does not know how to tell her mother she wishes to quit modeling, an apparently family activity and ‘joy.’  Rape, betrayal and isolation are much for anyone, let alone a teenager.  As she meets another boy who has been ostracized too, and people start to come out and sue Will for the charge of rape, Annabel gains the strength and courage to be open with her feelings and not afraid to voice her thoughts.  We learn from Annabel to not be afraid to be open with our emotions and opinions.

            So from both Ged and Annabel, we learn that we must remain open-minded and humble but yet be open with our emotions and opinions, but these are only a few lessons we can and should learn.  Ged and Annabel learned their lessons on their own where we have the chance and the benefit of learning their lessons through their experiences rather than making the same mistakes as them.  We learn through stories, history, and others what we should and should not do and we may build off of these experiences and events. 

Start with a Dream; then Take Action!

Some believe that in order for us to achieve, we must take action, whereas others believe that in order to achieve, we must dream.  Both of these beliefs forget to acknowledge the other. How can we take action without a dream?  Do we simply run blindly in one direction?  And how can we possibly achieve only by dreaming and no action? “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”   

Right now is graduating season.  Ecstatic graduating college and high school students are cheering and celebrating their achievements over the past years whether the past few years have been 4 years or 30 years.  Gasps of relief and accomplishment overwhelm the students as they reminisce and see all they have gained and grew over their years. How did get recognized to graduate: by dreaming? Everyone starts with just a dream, but it is what we do with that dream that defines us.  Should we take action to make that dream attainable one step at a time, or should we leave a dream in the dream world-untouched?  

Along with graduating with the bare minimum requirements, there are those who graduate with honors and with more recognition than the ones who barely scraped by.  Usually the ones who graduate as-let’s say for example- valedictorian have memories of all the sleepless nights to study for their biology test or to finish that extended essay and last of college applications, all their days of sitting in class trying their best to learn as other students are enjoying their 5 elective schedule,  all their stress to be in the top of their class with A’s or B’s as others are contented with C’s or even D’s, all their hours of volunteering,  joining clubs, and helping others… and they see their reward for everything they did over their years to strive to be the best they can be.  And for those who don’t want to be the best student and want to be an artist, and writer, and musician; why practice music or drawing for hours, why write, why work? For all their lives, there is always a doubt of “Why am I doing so much when I can just do the bare minimum? Why put myself through all this?” and it is in the end when they see their efforts turned into rewards.  

Every year, around the middle of second semester, my calculus and geo/trig teacher makes her class write our goals and aspirations on an arrow-shaped sticky note and puts them all in the wall east of the classroom to remind us of our purpose for working as we do.   Although we may feel like quitting and feeling like there’s no point of our efforts, we must push through and stay strong for ourselves.  These are our dreams and goals; we must work to make them come true.

Feel the Music

My old violin teacher used to always tell me, “Just breathe and feel the music” and last night, those words resonated in my mind.  Last month, I stopped my violin lessons that I’ve had for almost 9 years.  Needless to say, I was not thrilled when my mom wanted me to quit; of course she had her reasons to make me quit, and she had the best intentions.  I was dejected for weeks after as I felt as though I had lost a part of me and my teacher of 4 years were almost as depressed as me if not more.

I have joined my local orchestra for 6 years now, and I served as concert mistress for 3 years until recently when I moved to the higher level orchestra. I decided to stay in orchestra so I don’t become completely musically illiterate, but the results were worse than I expected.  Since I quit, I tried to keep my skill level up to par as I have for the last 9 years, but I could feel my fingers harden.  For a few weeks I couldn’t hear the 3^rd octave A on my E string instantly.  I had problems playing fast separate-bowed 32^nd notes.  Slowly, my skills fell, and I could feel it slipping away -literally- from my fingers.  I increasingly grew frustrated and dejected, for music has never been a struggle for me and suddenly, I had problems on things I used to do in my sleep.  With each practice I felt as though I wanted to just give up and cry in the corner for being a failure.  

Now I may sound overly dramatic, but music had been my life since I was born.  Both my older brother and sister played violin and piano; and since I was allowed to play, I aspired to reach and surpass their level.  Music played a huge role in my life; it made me learn to be comfortable in front of a crowd or audience.  It made me realize I can never please everyone- only myself.  It made me confident in myself.  It helped me though all the tough times in my life, especially all my stress.  Then all of a sudden, music became another stress for me rather than a stress reliever.  For weeks, I felt out of place and I started to retrograde into being shy, uncertain in myself and my actions, and out of place.  What had made me unique was gone.  

So last night I had an orchestra concert which I was certain I would not do well because of all my mess ups during rehearsal.  I was worried that I would destroy the prefect sound the orchestra would make and it was nerve wracking.  I had never been so worried just to perform in an orchestra performance; solos yes, but never what used to be a simple orchestra performance.  It was such an unusual experience for me; I was not used to being rusty, not sitting in the primary two seats, having to worry about messing up on parts I previously could master, and so much more.  But as soon as I heard that fanfare introduction from the trumpets and trombones, I could feel all my fear and worry melt away and I remembered, “Just breathe and feel the music.”

At that moment, I realized just how silly all my worries were and how I was over-complicating things.  I could still feel the music.  It wasn’t as though all my 9 years of playing disappeared in a month.  I still had a joy for playing the violin.  Unexpectedly, last night’s concert was the best orchestra concert I had performed in so far in my life.  Music has played such an important part of my life that I will always remember, “Just breathe and feel the music.” 

Disclaimer: I know this is a bit long and there is more like a life story post than a strictly one event post, but this was the only way I could convey the affect of this event.

Birthdays!

What makes a birthday so special?  Is it the colorful floating balloons, moist delicious cake or even tightly packed presents?  Or is it the loving friends and family that surround you?  Along with all the previous reasons, I believe we celebrate birthdays also because “Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new.”

As in during New Year’s Day or even Easter and Christmas, our birthday is when most people decide a goal they want to fulfill.  Usually that goal may be to have good grades, lose weight, and improve oneself.  I mean really, how many times have we chosen one of these resolutions or one similar to these at one point in our lives?  We gain a newfound motivation and push to try to better ourselves, and this motivation can carry us far in life if we keep it up. 

We realize exactly how many people care about us, how many people have believed in us and how many people have and will support us throughout our lives no matter what.  This may be proven by physical presents and gifts or simply by a short call and warm smiles.  Our birthday is when we feel loved and reminisce about our lives and how we have changed and what we have learned.  We remember our birth home, our hometown, our family both in front of us and a great distance away who both love us exactly the same and our friends who have been there in thick and thin.

 Our birthday is a day all about us.  There are seldom days where we can have a day to do what we want and decide what we want or would like to do-of course in a reasonable amount.  We wouldn’t want to be delusional and demand what we know is not possible, but we can have ice cream for lunch, sleep in, watch what we want to on TV and everyone is especially nicer to us.  We can demand a day to ourselves where we can turn off all electronic devices and simple relax alone, or we can have a gigantic superfluous party.

 So much is intertwined in our birthday that we do not realize.  We discover all that we have in our lives and how blessed and lucky we are, and we can create a new self that we can to be for the rest of our lives. 

We're Original! ... or So We Think?

Edward Young once pondered, “We are all born originals - why is it so many of us die copies?”  How ironic is it that American society, the country that treasures and gloats about its diversity and how open it is to being unique and creative, tries to stamp out all “abnormalities” in our population?  Of course this is not just in America, this is all over the world; in fact, America truly is one of the most accepting countries in the world.  Society tries to fit its youth into a certain cookie cutter image which is why children and teenagers and people in their early-20s are generally seen as rowdy and unkempt.  Since we learned our ABCs when we were around 5, we have slowly been assimilating into society and our image of who we should be.
Being open to being unique can benefit society.  The United States have somewhat addressed, although not fully accepted this fact.  How many parents told their children “Don’t you want to be the president?” generally with a false smile?  Of course they realize not every child can or will be the president, so our society aims our children to become lawyers, doctors or CEOs.  Recently in the last century, universities and colleges have expanded their majors and minors to majors such as film, design, although they have expanded their major lists so much it is almost unreasonable to find a job, such as ethnic studies.
One may ask, “But we have the chance to become individuals, how is it possible that we all become similar?”  Well, by this time that we have the opportunity to “become individuals” we have had these walls of expectations and standards that block us from truly wandering from our imprinted selves.  How can we destroy the self we have known and were expected to be for at least the last 15 years? Unless we were fortunate to have open parents, we have been trapped into this box labeled “Who to Be” and only the ones who revolt under the rule of parents have a chance to break away from the cage.  This break causes a rift and tension between the parent(s) and offspring until there is a mutual understanding or agreement which may not occur.  In short, trying to become an individual can be detrimental for at least a short period of time. 
So how can we become unique individuals?  We have to fight to create our own path.