The Porch of Indecision

T he poem that spoke to me was a poem called: “Kid, these are train tracks” by Jeffrey Bean. First of all my thought process in choosing this was to go on poets.org and then I looked up Michigan poets for some unknown reason. Then, I saw Jeffrey Bean and said: “yes.”  This is said poem: Kid, these are train tracks After reading this poem by him, it immediately reminded me of random nights hanging out with friends, but at the same time, it reminds me of those nights on vacation where I was alone outside at night and just let myself be with my thoughts. <<not me lol I also just went on a random road trip with my friends where we drove for three hours each way on a whim and explored Grand Rapids and Grand Haven. This same sentiment of just exploring the world and being a teenager I feel is also shared in Bean's poem (although for the record I don't drink or smoke like in the poem). >> me on said trip. It got crazyyyy at 1pm The thing I love about Bean’s poem is his use...

Ah the infamous poetry unit. The only things I remember from poetry units are those quizzes on poetry terms. I still don’t remember how to identify some of them, but I remember what the quizlet flashcard definitions looked like. I also only realized last year that ‘iamb’ was spelled with an i and not spelled ‘lamb’ (like the animal).  The thought of creating my own poetry is daunting and I find I already have mental blocks because I feel like they need to be rooted in emotionally deep topics. For example, many of them are about death and love, but if I am just going to school and back everyday I don’t experience those on a major level to be writing deep symbolism and metaphors about them. Now, I know I could write a poem about anything, but that pretentious aspect of the poem having to have an intellectual background is a little frightening.  On the other hand, if someone said to make a song, I could make up random lyrics on the spot because songs don’t have to be serious. Thi...

First semester was a shock. No longer was I thinking about Econ tests or writing essays every single week in English. It was quite relaxing compared to the last semester of Junior year. Realizing that I stressed out a little too much last year, I decided this year I would take a step back and ask myself: “is it really that serious?” And you know what it never was…? That serious. It was never that serious ← that’s a tiktok reference everyone. Yes, there were some stressful parts of senior year, but not the things that everyone had prepared me for. Writing college essays was not a big stressor for me because once I decided I would finally start writing them, I gave myself deadlines for each essay and submitted them with ease. I think that is also the reason I liked the midterm project deadlines. They stopped me from waiting until the last minute, they split the work up into manageable chunks, and the final submission did not feel like a big important date because 90% of it was already wr...

The amount of times I heard/read the word ‘villain’ or ‘villainy’ in Act V was insane. The word “villain” appears 36 times in the entirety of Othello. That stood out to me because there is normally one villain in a story, but in Othello it is difficult to tell whether Iago or Othello is the villain. Where Othello killed his wife, Iago manipulates Othello into doing it, so who is the villain? Is this an exception where there are multiple villains? That question was marinating in my head as I watched Disenchanted with my mom yesterday for our “25 movies of Christmas.” Turns out, the whole plot of Disenchanted (sorta) is the battle between which “villain character” is the true, sole villain.  ‘Disenchanted’ and Othello both explore the idea of having more than one villain, or having two villainous characters– which goes against the typical storyline of only having one villain.  In my opinion having multiple villains in a story is more accurate to real life. You aren’t going to g...

Essentialism is apparent in the Aotearoa (New Zealand) culture. Ever since I went to Hawai’i over the summer I have been enamored by polynesian cultures. So obviously my phone listens to my inner thoughts and recommends I watch every haka recorded, which I end up having a screen time of an hour and a half on Youtube watching them. Once I heard that essentialism is the belief that everyone is made of an unchanging essence, I immediately thought of hā – the breath of life. In this video (which came from my Youtube deep dive), you can see that throughout the entire video everyone’s hands appear to me shaking — this is hā flowing through them. They believe that hā is the essence of oneself and lives inside your whole being, hence it would move your hands as there is a lot of power within you.  Link to video The māori (indigenous people of Aotearoa) believe that everything in nature, including themselves, has a purpose. For example, mana (authority power) exists in those who are destine...

Where is the breaking point in toxic relationships? The simple answer: an exact point does not exist for every scenario; however, there are some pivotal breaking points that seem to be a trend among toxic relationships that depend on if it is a short-term or long-term relationship.  The complex answer: When people are involved in a relationship that is sadistic, abusive, and toxic they tend to stay with each other because there is a sense of safety that is associated with having an established relationship. However, there comes a point when the rose-colored glasses shatter and there is a realization that something has to change in this relationship. This can take many different forms depending on the person— one way may be the continuous lack of change within an abuser, another may be a physical barrier being broken.  To further explore this point, I will discuss it through the lens of the pieces we have read in class. In Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Kya continues ...