poems 

Before last year, I used to grimace any time I heard the word “poetry.” However, I never really understood what poetry was. I had such a closed mindset about what it was, and I failed to understand that poems didn’t have to be three stanzas of complex lines that somehow managed to rhyme and flow perfectly. Once I understood the concept of poetry, and how it was whatever you made it to be, I discovered that I actually really enjoyed it. For about a year now, I’ve been writing my own poems. Usually, I write about people or the way they make me feel. Regardless, poetry became a way for me to express my emotions and feelings. In my opinion, my poems now compared to my poems when I began writing are much better. They’re shorter, more meaningful, and have better flow overall. But most of the concepts that I write about were sparked by a small thing that happened. Sometimes it’s an aspect of a movie that I relate to or something that one of my friends said. Regardless, good things don’t always have to come from something big or grand. Sometimes, the best things come from the smallest things.

goals 

I have many goals for my life. I want to go to a good college, and play softball, and I want to get a good job, and travel the world. I want to have a tightly-knit family, and I want to fall in love with life. I want to love what I do and love the people around me, I want to love the things around me and love the life that I have created for myself. I’ve had this vision for a long time, a carefully drawn diagram of what I want my life to look like. Obviously, I am still young, so I don’t know all the concrete details. But I want to work hard when I’m young so I can relax when I am older, and I want to play the sport I love (softball) at the college I fell in love with (Dartmouth). Because when I stepped onto the campus and smelled the damp winter air, I knew that it was where I wanted to be for the four years after high school. The campus is small, to the community is strong. Small businesses and shops line the streets, with the addition of a few restaurants and bakeries. During the winter, Christmas lights adorn the buildings, and blankets of snow cover the streets. And from the moment I stepped foot on the campus, I knew that was where I wanted to be.

change 

Oftentimes, people change or hide who they are from the public. They alter little things about their personalities to better fit in with society. They gravitate towards what society deems as “normal” or “correct” as an attempt to be more well-liked or “popular.” We cover our insecurities by flaunting things like beauty, arrogance, or wealth. These more extravagant aspects of a person’s character cover the little things that they are most insecure about. To the people looking into their lives, they have everything you could ever want. However, at home, when they’re alone, their life isn’t as picturesque as they make it out to be. This is a habit that I have noticed in some of my own friends. Using their social media as a platform to shape their lives to exactly what they want, so the people viewing their content think they have it all figured out. They say insensitive things, tearing others down and judging others for their interests in an attempt to make them feel better about themselves. It’s an endless cycle of a habit, and even though doing this never brings long-lasting satisfaction, the temporary feeling is all they know. So, rather than working on bettering themselves, they tear others down to taste the temporary feeling of self-worth that they’ve lacked their entire lives.

red 
One of my favorite movies is the live-action Cruella. Like the description from the chapter “Beautiful & Cruel”, Cruella has a signature red lip, and two colors in her hair. Her development throughout the movie begins with her being a young, frightful, but undoubtedly intelligent child, to her becoming an ambitious, cunning, and ruthless woman. She used her wit to retaliate against a woman who typically took advantage of people like her. Cruella, who at the time went by Estella, resisted the Baroness’ attempts to walk all over her. Rather, Cruella used to talent to challenge the fame and wealth of the Baroness. She did not settle for second best and she didn’t allow her work to be stolen. Cruella, with her red red lips, did not give her power away.

shape 

What shapes who we are? What determines the kind of person we become? There isn’t just one answer to these questions, because the answer really is: a variety of things. There are so many factors that shape who we are, but we are the most strongly influenced throughout our youth. We are influenced by our environment and the media that we consume. We are influenced by the mentor/adult figures that we have in our lives. Most of all, we are influenced by the people that surround us. The five. It’s a concept that I learned in my 9th-grade health class with Mr. Birinyi. You become the average of the 5 people you spend the most time around. So typically, someone who is surrounded by good influences will benefit positively. Whereas, someone that surrounds themselves with bad influences will be affected negatively. In addition to that, social media has become a huge part of modern society. People such as influencers have a profound hold on many younger children, ranging from the ages of 10-13. I can speak to this as an older sister, seeing my 11-year-old sister attempt to follow each new trend that’s become popular over the past few weeks. I’ve seen such a great change in what kids find “entertaining” now that social media has become increasingly popular. When I was her age, I was reading books, playing with dolls, spending time outside, painting, and drawing. But now, children her age are asking for makeup, for phones and laptops, they’re buying makeup products intended for more mature audiences, and watching shows that are meant for teenagers and adults. Our youth is growing up too soon, their characters and interests are shifting due to the influence of the things that they are surrounded with. They have been shaped by the media they consume and the people they choose to spend their time with. That is what truly shapes the person that we become.