This week was pretty standard, just working hard to balance different parts of my life and tread water until Thanksgiving break comes along. Nothing huge stood out to me this past week, but the weekend was a different story. On Thursday night the madness started as the Browns won a crushing victory over the Steelers which had me and most Clevelanders celebrating, until the crazy fight at the end of the game that resulted in a damaging suspension for our team. No, it doesn't really connect to the rest of my reflection, but I'm still pretty salty about it.
Friday night, I went to my first concert since being at collge and my second live concert ever. Getting ready for the concert, which I went to with Asim and another friend, I realized that it was about more than just music, especially for them. NAV, one of the performers, is ethnically Punjabi, which means his family originates from the northern Punjab state of India. He has made it really big in the hip hop community and is an icon as a brown man who has achieved success in an industry that's quite hard to break into. A lot of his music refers to this aspect of his identity, which I really appreciate as something that helps him stand out and put out a good message. One of my favorite quotes of his is "Imma break every box they try to put me in.", which is a lyric in one of his songs that shows why he's such an inspirational artist for so many.
One big thing I've realized since I've been at AU is that despite everyone's "openness" and "tolerance", people are still put in boxes here for whatever reason. People who take certain majors, have certain political opinions, observe certain religious/cultural traditions, etc are still sometimes treated differently in odd ways for strange reasons. Life in general also seems to be very much a series of boxes that one is trapped in, always striving to break free and move on to the next goal and next part of their lives. I hope to reflect more about this in the future while also making a concerted effort to just be myself and not care as much what other people expect me to do, what me to do or how they view me.
Hey Jacob! Your post made me think of this song. It is very corny sounding, but the message is so revolutionary and speaks to our generation. I love how her song just touches on what your post is basically talks about! Tell me what you think of the song. It's very idealistic and cookie cutter, but it symbolizes the different facets of the American Dream. Though she claims that everyone looks just the same, we really aren't and she is very metaphoric when she talks about all of the different colors of the houses and the different professions.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=little+boxes+made+of+ticky+tacky
Wow! Gave it a lesson and liked it! It has a very deep metaphorical meaning and it reminded me of the "boxes" idea I was talking about, too. Thanks for sharing it! It partly reminds me of the song "Cats in the Cradle" because of its speaking to some cookie cutter ideas of life vs. alternative.
ReplyDelete