What Drives Me, Drives Me Crazy!

First of all, I would like to apologies for my absence from the blog world as it has been nearly a month since my last post. As you may imagine, I have been rather busy. I'm not here to make up excuses, I'm just here to write, once again.

During my freshman year of high school, we were asked to produce a project about "what drive us." Basically, we had to make a slide show for the class accompanied with our description of what we were passionate about. Essentially, it came down to what our future career choices might be, what we like to do in our free time, and generally just what makes us want to wake up every morning. Throughout high school and now college, I have had a growing interest of mass media, not only the production of it but also the consumption. I have recently discovered, that while the aspects of mass media may drive me, they also drive me completely crazy.

During a class discussion today, revolving around a documentary questioning the innocence of Disney films, I felt suffocated. I had an intensifying desire to stand up and walk out of class amid the discussion. I won't get into specific details but what amazes me is how driven people are by their personal opinions. Another instance of this occurred when another professor of mine reviewed a rough draft that I produced this past week. I was outraged to see what she had written on what I had believed were well crafted pages.

How can anyone stare blankly into your face and tell you that you are wrong because their opinion is right?!? Its called an opinion because there is no right or wrong answer! This allows people to have different views on the subject. What also puzzles me, is how the hell you can grade someone based on opinion? I did the research and my opinion is based upon what I read. You on the other hand, have read similar materials and have developed a different opinion. Of course, this must mean that I should start over and write my entire paper based on your opinion. This is preposterous!

As you can tell, certain things have been getting under my skin lately. I'm sorry if I sound angry or if you disagree with me. I have digressed. I would like to return to the class discussion. Why is it that every fucking discussion seems to relate back to racism, sexism, or some kind of ism that is negative towards others? Is this the only issue concerning people? Come on, get with the times! We are all just people, we have the same genetic parts. There is nothing that makes us different other than the thoughts and feelings we have. Therefore, we should all just be accepting of each other for who we are. It goes much deeper, beyond ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation.

In a broader sense, we just need to accept the individuality of others. Maybe it lies within the self. If we could all just get in touch with our inner self and accept ourselves for who we are, then maybe we can be accepting of everyone else. This is just what I believe. Feel free to tell me about yourself, you can admit anything at all. I won't judge you. I promise.

May you ignore the intolerance of society and accept yourself and others,
J.F.Q.

The Challenge of Working in Groups

Over the course of the last two days I have been actively working on my first group project of my college career. I have found this to be a challenge to say the least. The project is a group presentation lasting 25 minutes detailing a chapter from our textbook, specifically "Communication and the Mass Media." I won't bore you with the small details, just know that we need to include a PowerPoint presentation along with an outline and a class handout. The work is not the challenging part, although the chapter is rather long.

The challenging part about this assignment is the people that I have to work with. As with any group, certain people assume certain roles. There are five of us within the group, one seems to be controlling and overbearing which is supposedly necessary for the leadership of the group. However, this person in particular has been making everything more complex than it needs to be. Another member of our little group doesn't seem to care much about the project at all but simply seems to think that she has better things to do than to waste her time doing classwork with the rest of us. The remaining two members of the group, excluding myself, are quiet and passive and have little input for the task at hand; it is my belief that either they wish the project was simply over with by now or that they are trying to avoid doing the work. I'm not sure where that leaves me, I have been simply trying to make the project as easy as possible as well as keeping it from being overly time consuming.

I made the mistake of offering my services as a graphic designer, a mistake I often make in such situations. This makes me more valuable to the group but unfortunately this leads to the group leaning on my skill set in order to complete the assignment. As a result, as usual, I will do the majority of the work. I will most likely single-handedly generate the PowerPoint presentation on my own and I predict that the handout and outline will also be products of my work. Had I not offered my talents, I wonder if I could have faded into the rest of the group and gotten away with doing a smaller amount of work. I know the answer to that. I can never simply be a small part of any group that I'm involved in; it is in my nature to take some leadership responsibilities and to help out as much as I can. Although this makes me question myself, does it make me a good leader or am I just being used for my talents to benefit the group? I'll let you be the judge.

May your work flow smoother than mine,
J.F.Q.