It's Not You, It's Me

Dear Childhood,
    First things first, I want you to know that its been fun. It was quite a ride and I don't regret a thing. The countless hours of running free and sleeping whenever i wanted were luxurious. Looking back, I regret how much I took you for granted. At the time it felt like we would be together forever and no one could break us apart.
    But now it seems as if the distance between us is ever growing bigger. When I was 8 and realized that maybe I shouldn't wear my Elmo shirt to school or watching Disney Junior was too babyish, you took it lightly and never blamed me. "We can still be friends" you said. "Lets play again tomorrow". But at that time having Elmo as your friend wasn't the cool thing. No one asked to "play" we just "chilled". Maybe it's just a phase?
    But as seventh grade came around and I wore a dress to school it became evident that maybe the days of skateboards and scraped knees were a thing of the past. Boys like girls who jump rope and dance. Cuts and bruises are so not attractive. I hope you'll understand.
    Now don't get me wrong, I loved the endless free time and guiltless amount of sweets and cookies but I'm in high school now. It's time I move on. Saturday cartoons are now to be replaced with essays and books. Cookies and sweets? Maybe just one- there's a track meet tomorrow afternoon.
   I know it will be hard for you and trust me, this is no easier on my part. I mean who couldn't miss the matching sweatsuits or piles of beaded jewelry you made with your best friend last weekend? But now the sweatsuits are to be replaced with expensive clothes from the latest trendy boutitque. Any beaded jewels have been turned to diamonds and gold. While having mom clean all my messes up was nice and blaming everything on my brother is tempting, I've come to realize I need to take a little bit more responsibility for my actions. I learned how to do laundry the other day and yes, it was actually me who broke the handle to the cupboard.
    While I don't want this to be a full on goodbye, I think it's best if we leave it as a "see you later". Sure we can still be friends but maybe the fact that I still love a good episode of PB & J Otter is best kept a secret between us.

Taylor Swift: Modern Queen of Revenge

Taylor Swift is well known in today's society for her sweet love songs and powerful breakup ballads. Many a joke has been made about her constant stream of boyfriends and the #1 Hit Single that goes along with them. Some of her best selling tracks have been the ones clearly about a past love who have broken her heart or hurt her in some way. Most people just look at as just another one of Taylor Swift's relationships gone bad but when you listen to the lyrics, it's clear that Taylor is REALLY good at getting back at her exes. By writing a catchy tune with a few well thought out lines, she is able make her boyfriends pay for what they did AND make a couple bucks out of it.

One of Taylor Swift's most famous breakups is arguably her breakup with Joe Jonas. After a wondrous relationship, Joe broke up with her over a quick 30 second phone call. Heartbroken and angry, Taylor wrote the song Forever and Always . Lyrics like "Was I out of line?/ Did I say something way too honest that made you run and hide/ like a scared little boy? I looked into your eyes,/ thought I knew you for a minute now I'm not so sure" are perfect examples of Taylor's ability to make a guy feel horrible about himself with just a few choice words. 

Continuing on with Taylor and Joe's love affair, Taylor's song Better Than Revenge is rumored to be about the girl Joe Jonas started dating immediately after their breakup. In this song, Taylor boasts that "there is nothing she does better than revenge" and that she "always gets the last word". With a song like this, so clearly calling someone out for their hurtful actions, I couldn't agree more. Writing about her problems in a song not only gives Taylor a way to get her emotions out, but when she puts the song out, everyone will then know what that person has done to her and be able to voice their opinion about it as well. Under the highly judgmental eye of society and Taylor's fan base, a song like that can ruin a person's reputation. 

Probably one of her most recent examples of revenge through song lyrics is We are Never Ever Getting Back Together . The song is reportedly about ex, Jake Gyllenhaal, with a fun video featuring a close look-alike to add to the rumors. 

While some people might make fun of Taylor for her numerous cases of revenge, we're all just lucky that she didn't take a lesson form Shakespeare's Hamlet. In this story, revenge is shown as a bloody warfare where the only way to get vengeance is by taking the other's life. Hamlet is set about to get revenge for his father's murder. This leads to multiple extravagant plots of poison, weapons and other cruelty. In the end, Taylor's once cruel way to get back at her boyfriends, now seems completely harmless compared to what Hamlet goes through. While I don't exactly agree with Taylor's way of humiliating her exes, I'd rather she continues her catchy singing career than follow in Hamlet's footsteps. 

Sources:

- lyrics provided by metrolyrics.com

- start of analysis read on http://starcasm.net/archives/178408

- photo link

- video found on youtube.com 

#firstworldprobs An Eye Opener

Huckleberry Finn is famous for its use of satire. Mark Twain used satire in his work to poke fun at how life was back then and people's views on things in society. The book really opened people's eyes to how dumb some of their actions were. Some might think that satire is just for the classics but if you look, it can be found everywhere in our daily lives.

Ryan Higa is a popular YouTuber in today's society. More widely known by his username, NigaHiga, his videos get thousands of views a week; ranging from vlogs, to music videos, to skits he has made up. But one thing that all these different videos have in common is that they are dripping in satire. Ryan uses his videos to poke fun at infomercials, current topics, or other things of today's culture. By creating crazy scenarios and adding a lot of humor, his videos make people laugh at just how silly some of the things in our daily lives are.

Take this video for example. Here, Ryan makes fun of the newly popular saying "First World Problems". People use this saying as a way to express daily complaints that really aren't that big of a deal when you look at the big picture. It's most commonly shown on Twitter as a hashtag along the lines of #firstworldprobs . By using exaggerated acting, fake hotlines, and a "helping kit" Ryan opens our eyes to see just how ridiculous we sound whenever we tweet about our "horribly hard lives".

Another example of satire in Ryan's videos is in the fake infomercial The Snuggo. The Snuggo is a clear spoof of the popular "Snuggies"today. It shows us both how silly we look wearing them and how ridiculous the people in the commercials sound themselves.

The satire found in Ryan's videos is comparable to that found in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain uses satire to make people aware of the irony in the things they know as "human nature".  One example he gives is showing them how horribly they go and treat their slaves but then turn around and try to teach their kids about being "good Christian people". To these people, this is just daily life for them because it's what they were taught as a young age. But when Twain exaggerates it a bit in his book, it has the potential to open someone's eyes to how foolish this seems. Another is when Huck stumbles upon the family feud between the Grangerfords and the Sherpardsons. The two families have been fighting for so long that they don't even remember what they are fighting about. While the fight is a bit exaggerated, it shows how ridiculous the families are for fighting but not knowing why. These examples are similar to Ryan's videos because they poke at things we as humans do or see in our daily lives but don't realize how silly they are. Twain and Ryan both send their messages through humor, exaggeration, and relatable things in our lives, making us realize just how we look.


Sources:

• Videos taken from youtube.com
• Hashtag is a live link to tweets on twitter with #firstworldprobs
• Ideas and better understanding of the satire used in Huck Finn found on here
• Huckleberry Finn is a classic by Mark Twain. If you have yet to read it, I highly recommend you do.