Photographs

Today is just a photo and this brief self-worth poem [written by me]:

"I will make my days make meaning,
Even as the darkest skies do cross,
That long horizon."

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More poetry is also available for your perusal.

Oh My Goodness! SYNTHESIS!

Childhood

Photojojo has given me the excellent [and probably totally obvious] creative idea that connects words with pictures! Ahaha!
I previously was going to do a story based on a picture [which sounds cool, but is actually pretty high maintenance for someone like me who has a lot of story ideas bubbling around even without external stimuli] but the newsletter for this week presented the opposite effect: The Picture Dictionary.
You choose a word (an abstract one, generally) and then take a photograph which represents it. And, as it happens, I have a copy of Word Nerd [and a ton of writing prompt books that also involve word-y things] that would be perfect for this assignment! Brilliant!

Perhaps you are wondering why I am writing at 9am on a Thursday [or maybe when I read over this, it will make perfect sense, who knows?]. Well, we had an unexpected snow day come down on us last night, so school was canceled - which is both good and bad. Good because I need the rest and recuperation; bad because we have one less rehearsal. Oh well, it comes.

Today, aside from the excitement of a free day, I wanted to give out my impressions of viewing the Darius Goes West movie for the second time with the cast actually there. First of all, it's still an awesome documentary! I was really impressed by how many people it attracts time and time again. The Sammamish theater was packed top to bottom, and they said that it was the same at the 1pm showing as well. Though I had already seen the film, it reminded me about all the different issues facing this world and how we can actually help out; no matter who you are, there is a way to help. For Darius, it is getting to the 1 Million DVD goal, which would help people learn about Duchenne muscular dystrophy and aid in finding the cure (which is much closer to happening than people think - I know that whenever I think about curing a disease, I believe it's way off in the future, but no!).
Anyway, the best part of the night was not [at least for me] just the film itself. It was the fact that the filmmakers were there to talk to and question and say "goslabi" with. As a stupid side note, I love Southern accents (oh, Georgia boys...) and these guys were always cracking jokes ("cause you know, he's always hanging out at the gas station" - haha) and making the entire audience laugh. It makes sense because the point of the movie was actually not to be a downer, as many documentaries seem to be, but to raise awareness for a bevy of different issues [accessibility for disabled people, Duchenne, the freedom/lack thereof for someone in a wheelchair...].
All throughout, I kept thinking that this would only happen in America. Since we were talking about it in bio, oddly, I also thought about cystic fibrosis and other diseases that need a lot of care and attention. And, well, it made me really grateful. Grateful because Life is a precious gift, and sometimes I can't even believe that so many people exist on this world without having to go through some hardship like that. But, in the end, it's only a hardship if you treat it like one (similar to awkwardness) - if you try your hardest to be as great as you are, there should be nothing in your way. And that's their mission, and a mission I can totally agree with.
Aside from all the serious stuff, there was a "goslabi" eating contest to raise money [through pain!] and they made a lot of cash just from doing that. Aidan was running around all over the place, and Mindy Leffler gave a great talk about the current research (which really made me hopeful that this might be cured or the quality of life improved very very shortly). Overall, it was just a great night and I hope that their message will continue to reverberate until this disease is cured, these places accessible, and these dreams realized.

Unfortunately, I had no camera/got completely nervous after the movie let out so I did not nab a picture with any of the guys. Darn it! So, instead, my picture today is of the word:

Childhood - (noun)
1. The state or period of being a child.
2. The early stage in the existence of something.

This was not drawn from Word Nerd, but I just thought it fitting [perhaps because Duchenne affects children or perhaps because my dad made pancakes before leaving this morning; either way, it's quite representative today]

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It's Always Darkest...

I believe that this week is Speak's "darkest." Cancellations, illnesses, and the juggling of stricter performances with prop finding and tech meetings are all attempting to pound me into the ground. Yet I put my faith in that dawn that will inevitably come; how to drag it into being is the real task.
So today was generally productive school-wise. We watched Waiting for Godot [hoorah!] and took notes in biology, finished up projects and watched The Daily Show. We squirreled away our smiles for the end of this short Wednesday - though I was hard-pressed to bring one about as we filed into the gym for our senior picture.
It was such a horrible experience to be stuffed into the center of the bleachers with a bunch of rude jerks [who kept stepping on people and standing up and making general asses of themselves, ugh]. They had prescribed that we all wear bright clothing, but there were so few people who did [I garnered a small victory by having a yellow highlighter-colored sweater]. The photographer took many many many photographs, which I could probably expect, but he kept telling more and more people to put down their hands or that we were too blurry or something else that was wrong. It was all student-induced, which is why it bothers me. People need to either behave or be out. Oh well, though. Ms. Bennett says that it was actually better than average - haha.
I finally felt in control again this morning; I am trying to remember that fleeting time when I did not feel as if there should be more and more assignments for me to do. I think the difference between being a junior and being a senior is that you know what needs to be done, and when, as a junior. So you do it. As a senior, you know there are assignments due, things to be done, and other items - but rather than finding this out way in advance, you are forced to do it the morning before its due date. I'm not sure if this is a function of senioritis, laziness, or poor planning though I assume it could be all three.
Anyway, hopefully this afternoon will prove nicer than previous. I am trying to shake the sleepy doldrums from my shoulders and put together all my work before running off to the gym for some exercise and then going to see Darius Goes West again - this time with the cast in tow. Then, perhaps then, I can start to edit for the next editing class [I feel horrible for not even looking at it!] and working on long-term projects for IB. Who knows? Maybe I'll just sleep.

Also, the picture above is the year of my graduating class. '09! '09! '09!

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