I have decided that for my passion blog I will write about my journey to my marathon and document my training ups and downs.

For my civic issues blog, I’m going to expose the manipulation of the political parties as it pertains to the growing polarization in the last decade.

Nobody likes to feel embarrassed. The feeling of your stomach dropping, your cheeks turning red, doing everything in your power to hide from your mistake. I always feared embarrassment until my dad taught me a trick: purposefully embarrass yourself once a day. 

I learned this lesson when I was nine years old. I was considered the weird kid which was pretty understandable because I had a crippling obsession with “Toy Story.” But it’s not what it seems. I loved Toy Story because my little sister who was three at the time loved listening to songs like “Woody’s Round Up” and “Jessie the Yodelling Cowgirl.” It became a way to bond and play with her.  Unfortunately, I thought everyone appreciated “Toy Story” as much as I did so I made a cardboard cutout of Woody to submit for the artist of the month competition at school. As you can probably guess, I got made fun of, big time. 

When I got home that day, I cried to my dad telling him how embarrassed and stupid I felt. I begged him to never let me go back to school. Dramatic, I know. After finally calming down, my dad put his arm around me and told me something that has been ingrained in me ever since. He said, “All great actors embarrass themselves once a day.” 

At the time I thought this advice was stupid. Actors get paid to make believe and are celebrated for it. In my mind there was no correlation in submitting a cardboard cut out of Woody and getting paid millions of dollars to act in a movie. But after a few years of remembering this advice, a switch flipped inside of me. 

That terrible feeling I associated with embarrassment was similar to the great feeling of excitement. The same way my stomach dropped and my cheeks turned red from making a mistake was the same feeling I had when I saw my crush or walked on the field before a big game. By reframing embarrassment in my mind, I enabled myself to take more risks. 

When my dad told me to embarrass myself once a day, he didn’t mean literally go out of my way to make a fool of myself. He meant that I should not be afraid of failure and strive to make as many mistakes as possible so that I would have no regrets. After all, fireworks were the result of a mistake with gunpowder, gravity was discovered because an apple hit Newton square on the head. Many of humanity’s historical innovations were the results of mistakes and yet we look at them as pure genius. 

I appreciate the guts it took my nine year old self to submit my artwork even if it wasn’t other people’s cup of tea. Without that experience, I would not be as bold with my choices. Because of this I try to embarrass myself once a day whether that be through answering a question wrong in class, or shooting my shot with a guy. And yeah, I still feel embarrassed every now and then, but I am able to bounce back faster and be comforted by the fact that I tried.

“This I Believe”

For my podcast, I’m thinking about talking about the importance of family dinners. My other idea is to talk about the importance of embarrassing yourself at least once a day. Both of these practices have had an impact on my outlook on life and I think they could make for an interesting podcast.

Passion Blog (pt. 2)

For my new passion blog, I’m thinking about following the ups and downs of my marathon training, which I plan to run next fall. My other idea is to talk about the things I’ve learned from my first year of college.

Civic Issues

For my civic issues blog, I’m thinking I want to discuss inequality in education regarding funding and resources. My other idea is to talk about the turmoil in the two party system. I would discuss the manipulation and divisive tactics politicians use to increase polarization while using important Supreme Court Cases and various sources to provide evidence for and against my topic. In other words, I want to talk about why Americans can’t find middle ground.

I think it would be really interesting to focus on early 1900s cultural movements such as the rise of child labor laws or the Harlem Renaissance. While today we don’t find these movements controversial, for their time, the rise of jazz and putting children of all social classes into school was seen as threatening. It’s also an interesting time period to look at in regards to social movements because of the growth of what we now consider ‘American culture.’

Specific topics for controversy include, workers rights in regards to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, Harlem Renaissance, and the rise of leisure activities. I’m open to plenty of ideas but I definitely love looking at popular culture shifts and think jazz in particular would be really interesting to look at in regards to public controversy.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12KwTq4cDj_GdMPDc1GVPqgvS-gDPsX_hDGb4DC-_GTE/edit?usp=sharing

All images on slides were from google slides free domain images.