Yesterday I was talking to an elderly man in line at CVS, when he turned to me and said:
"So what are ya up to this weekend, partyin'?"
At first I was a little taken aback because his question was so out of the blue. But then without very much thought I responded:
"Well maybe, I don't know. I'll probably study, I'm not sure what else yet."
To which the man scoffed and said:
"Sheesh, youth is wasted on the young." And he turned back forward in his spot in line. That was it. He ended the conversation. Now, it wasn't the first time I've heard that saying, in fact I've gotten a fair dosage of it in my life. Mostly from my high school choir teacher who's a Vietnam War Vet. But that's another blog post...
The point is, I'd never really considered it before, but this old guy really got in my head. It wasn't the words he used, it was the way he used them. He had such disdain for the fact that going out and partying was even the slightest possibility for my weekend plans.
I have to admit that my immediate thought was actually a little bit of shame because this old man was judging me. But then I realized that I do not even a little bit agree with the sentiment:
"Youth is wasted on the young."
Nope.
"Youth is for the young."
Youth is for screwing up and learning so that you can grow up to be old and wise. Young bodies are for playing sports and falling down. Running around for hours. Doing stupid stuff and being okay afterwards. Then when you're old, you know what's up because you've been around the block. You've gotten your fill of all the stupid stuff because you were young.
Maybe I'll feel differently when I'm old, but for now, I think I'll be at least a little reckless. I'm young. I can handle it.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
(A)musing...
As I was walking to class the other day, rockin' out to my jams blasting at full volume through my headphones, in a sudden moment of clarity, I realized that I probably looked like a total moron headbanging, air drumming and mouthing the lyrics to music that only I could hear.
Yes, I was actually doing that in public while walking to class. What can I say, it was a great song.
Anyway, I took my headphones out and looked around to see who had observed my ridiculous jamming. But in doing so, I noticed that almost everyone else who was walking next to me, behind me or around me was also wearing headphones. Now, I've definitely noticed that a lot of people wear headphones before, but that day I considered something.
What if every person in the world, whenever they listened to music through headphones, had a digital display of what they were listening to hovering above their heads?
For example, that day, at that time, the words above my head would have read:
"Ozzy Osbourne, Hellraiser, Diary of a Madman" (Artist, Song, Album).
So then, instead of actually listening to my music, I spent the rest of my walk to class finding people who were wearing headphones and trying to figure out what their displays would say. It wasn't until I decided that this was going to be my blog entry for the week that I realized that I was stereotyping people.
I was stereotyping people based on music. What kind of wacky craziness is that? But then when I thought about it, it actually made a lot of sense. Music is a highly influential factor in the lives of many people. So logic should progress such that if a certain style of music is heavily influential in ones' life, that they would (intentionally or not) begin to embody certain qualities of that music or the musicians who play it.
To use myself as an example, I didn't start wearing a bandanna until I started listening to heavier music (rock, metal, glam etc.). I thought, and still think, it looks awesome, and why do I think that? Because guys like Steven Tyler, Nikki Sixx and Keith Richards were rocking the bandanna look.
But even though it's feasible to think that you can judge the kind of music someone is listening to by the way they look, I decided it's best not to. For me, there are few truer sayings than, "You can't judge a book by its cover." Literally and figuratively, I thought I was going to hate the Lord of the Rings, but today I regard it as one of the best pieces of literature ever written. Similarly, how do I (or anyone else for that matter) know that the tiny little girl wearing a PINK jacket and Uggs isn't listening to some seriously heavy shit? And who's to say that the kid with the leather jacket, tattoos and piercings isn't listening to a Beethoven Sonata, or Taylor Swift for that matter?
What I'm getting at here, is that music is one of those awesome things that transcends everything. Race, gender, ethnicity, creed, religion and so on. It's crazy.
Who would've thought that everyone could be brought together by sounds?
I feel like that last sentence was super hippie... but still it's missing something. I'm gonna try again.
Who would've thought that everyone could be brought together by sounds... man
Yes, I was actually doing that in public while walking to class. What can I say, it was a great song.
Anyway, I took my headphones out and looked around to see who had observed my ridiculous jamming. But in doing so, I noticed that almost everyone else who was walking next to me, behind me or around me was also wearing headphones. Now, I've definitely noticed that a lot of people wear headphones before, but that day I considered something.
What if every person in the world, whenever they listened to music through headphones, had a digital display of what they were listening to hovering above their heads?
For example, that day, at that time, the words above my head would have read:
"Ozzy Osbourne, Hellraiser, Diary of a Madman" (Artist, Song, Album).
So then, instead of actually listening to my music, I spent the rest of my walk to class finding people who were wearing headphones and trying to figure out what their displays would say. It wasn't until I decided that this was going to be my blog entry for the week that I realized that I was stereotyping people.
I was stereotyping people based on music. What kind of wacky craziness is that? But then when I thought about it, it actually made a lot of sense. Music is a highly influential factor in the lives of many people. So logic should progress such that if a certain style of music is heavily influential in ones' life, that they would (intentionally or not) begin to embody certain qualities of that music or the musicians who play it.
To use myself as an example, I didn't start wearing a bandanna until I started listening to heavier music (rock, metal, glam etc.). I thought, and still think, it looks awesome, and why do I think that? Because guys like Steven Tyler, Nikki Sixx and Keith Richards were rocking the bandanna look.
But even though it's feasible to think that you can judge the kind of music someone is listening to by the way they look, I decided it's best not to. For me, there are few truer sayings than, "You can't judge a book by its cover." Literally and figuratively, I thought I was going to hate the Lord of the Rings, but today I regard it as one of the best pieces of literature ever written. Similarly, how do I (or anyone else for that matter) know that the tiny little girl wearing a PINK jacket and Uggs isn't listening to some seriously heavy shit? And who's to say that the kid with the leather jacket, tattoos and piercings isn't listening to a Beethoven Sonata, or Taylor Swift for that matter?
What I'm getting at here, is that music is one of those awesome things that transcends everything. Race, gender, ethnicity, creed, religion and so on. It's crazy.
Who would've thought that everyone could be brought together by sounds?
I feel like that last sentence was super hippie... but still it's missing something. I'm gonna try again.
Who would've thought that everyone could be brought together by sounds... man
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Too many fillers
Since talking about fillers in class, I have been quite self conscious about my personal use of them. After class that day I kept a running tally of my "likes", "sortas" "kindas" and "whatevers". The grand total of tallies was well over 50, but my tallies got pretty sloppy towards the end, so I'm not sure of the exact number.
Suffice to say, I use a lot of fillers.
But the thing is, I didn't realize the extent to which fillers rule my sentences. Like everyone else, I thought I only used them sometimes. But once I started paying attention, I noticed little ones, sneaky ones, tricky little fillers that I would have missed if I wasn't paying attention. So I even counted the ones that I caught before even saying them.
Beyond just the pain of knowing that I am such a rampant abuser of fillers in sentences, I also started to feel very foolish every time I caught myself using a filler. And then when I started feeling like a moron, I started thinking about that and would lose my train of thought from what I was previously talking about.
"Yeah, and like... um, li- oh um... sorry, what was I saying?"
Yeah, it was that bad.
After looking at the tallies I reflected on my day. I came to the conclusion that I was not even sure why using fillers made me so uncomfortable. I knew that the reason I used fillers was because of society, so why was that same society now telling me to stop?
It was all very confusing. And frustrating.
Basically, I figured it was a better idea to just ignore my usage of fillers and try to subconsciously stop using them, because purposely thinking about them will drive me absolutely nuts.
So to close, I was wondering how many times on average do you think you use fillers each day? ESTIMATE, please do not count them for real unless you're genuinely interested. It's awful. I can't stop thinking about them now. But anyway, please add with any comment, the number of times a day you think you use fillers.
Suffice to say, I use a lot of fillers.
But the thing is, I didn't realize the extent to which fillers rule my sentences. Like everyone else, I thought I only used them sometimes. But once I started paying attention, I noticed little ones, sneaky ones, tricky little fillers that I would have missed if I wasn't paying attention. So I even counted the ones that I caught before even saying them.
Beyond just the pain of knowing that I am such a rampant abuser of fillers in sentences, I also started to feel very foolish every time I caught myself using a filler. And then when I started feeling like a moron, I started thinking about that and would lose my train of thought from what I was previously talking about.
"Yeah, and like... um, li- oh um... sorry, what was I saying?"
Yeah, it was that bad.
After looking at the tallies I reflected on my day. I came to the conclusion that I was not even sure why using fillers made me so uncomfortable. I knew that the reason I used fillers was because of society, so why was that same society now telling me to stop?
It was all very confusing. And frustrating.
Basically, I figured it was a better idea to just ignore my usage of fillers and try to subconsciously stop using them, because purposely thinking about them will drive me absolutely nuts.
So to close, I was wondering how many times on average do you think you use fillers each day? ESTIMATE, please do not count them for real unless you're genuinely interested. It's awful. I can't stop thinking about them now. But anyway, please add with any comment, the number of times a day you think you use fillers.
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