Thoughts

I've been thinking...

We are surrounded by things out of the ordinary. Everywhere we look there are things that could potentially not belong. It's how we perceive things that decide whether they belong or not. Like, right now, I'm pouring my thoughts out onto a little screen while typing on little keys. A hundred years ago I would have looked like a crazy person and someone doing a photo project on things that don't belong would have taken my picture. Today, I look like a perfectly normal teenage girl.

About a week ago I went to my friends' dance concert. The theme was Generation Y: A dance concert that explores culture and how it interfaces with a new globally conscious youth. All but two or three of the dances were choreographed by students. Basically the dance director had said choreograph how you perceive the world. Many of the student's choreography was about conformity/non-conformity. It showed how so many of us feel pressured to be like everyone else. This idea is talked about over and over again by adults. They always talk about how teens feel so much pressure to look like the girls in Teen Vogue and how there is so much peer pressure to do drugs and alcohol, etc. But they are missing the key problem. They are adults trying to understand what's going on in our brains. How could they possibly understand the pressures of going to high school in 2009? How could they possibly understand what it feels like to be surrounded by thin as a rail girls our age in magazines? How could they possibly understand?

And the issue is so much more than looks. It's the idea that if you are different in any substantial way, you don't belong. And so many people, including myself, conform to that mentality EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Believe me, it's not a conscious choice and when I find myself thinking that way I don't like myself for it. But those ideas surround us. They pour out of every portal of information.

All of this swirling in my head brought me back to the theme of my final project. Things that don't belong. Some of the pictures I got were, in my opinion, simply beautiful. And I don't credit myself with their beauty. I credit the fact that it is incredibly refreshing to see things that don't belong.

And then that thought brought me to Mr. Slade's challenge of writing about an image we wished we had taken. When I first saw that challenge I was confused. How could I possibly come up with an idea of an image that I didn't even think to take in the first place? Then as all this was brewing in my head I found my answer. There wasn't one image that I wished I had taken. There is a group of them. Try and follow my brain... (I'm literally typing all the chaotic thoughts in my head. :D)

If I had come up with my theme a bit earlier and had a bit more time... here is what I would have done:
I would have focused my theme on things that we all think belong but that if we sit back and look, completely don't.
Like girls that we all think are pretty because they are scary thin and look like the models in fashion magazines. In reality, we all probably know maybe one or two of those types of girls. However, we all know plenty of other beautiful people. We all know people who would probably never get hired for a modeling job because something about them isn't "perfect" by modeling standards. But those same people, we look at and say, "Wow, they are so pretty! I wish I had their hair/eyes/smile, etc." So for that, I would have found a "model" girl and taken her picture with all my other beautiful friends. She would be the one that didn't belong. Not all of them.
Or maybe I'd find someone who still calls people on the phone (instead of texting or facebooking) and who writes letters (instead of email, IM, facebook, myspace, etc.). All of us are slowly losing our social skills because all we have to do is know how to effectively use emoticons and slang. I hardly ever talk to people on the phone anymore. I hardly ever write letters. But those are both such sincere ways of communicating with people. So I'd take a photograph of those few people that still call and write letters and stick them with all of us who would rather text. We would be the ones that don't belong.
Or maybe I put a person who has no "fashion sense" with a bunch of people who always have the latest trend. All of the fashion conscious people wouldn't belong in that picture.

I'm not usually the one to get all philosophical... I usually don't like taking things too terribly seriously. But as all this was cooking in my head, I decided I wanted to take this seriously. I'm not trying to change the world here... I'm simply trying to point these things out. I'm not even sure if any of what I just said will make sense to anyone. It's just some jumbled thoughts from my brain. I didn't even intend this to be my extra credit writing assignment. I'm not even sure if it meets the criteria for it to be my extra credit writing assignment. I don't really care either way. I had to get this all out and my blog seemed the best place to do it.

Bottom line here: I'm done conforming. I'm done judging books by their covers. I'm done trying to be someone I think I have to be. I'm simply done.