Wahid's Words

At the conclusion of training for HGRs/RAs, they took us to a closing ceremony followed by a barbecue. They provided a 4-sided black board and many colored chalks. On each side, the same prompt: "Before I graduate, I would like to ____." Everyone took a chalk, filled something in, smiled as they read the various things written (my favorite? "Find BAE." I feel). But as I stood there, electric blue chalk in my hand, members of my staff looking on urging me to write something so we could leave the heat, I was blank. I literally had nothing to put on that board. I could go generic, talk about finding love, boosting my GPA, finding a great internship, become fit, all of that jazz that ya'll probably associate with me and the likes. But as I stood there thinking, what did I really want to accomplish for myself? Something that's unique to me, that I can check off my list and go "I did that and the reason I did that wasn't because it was expected or...

Blue button-down. Grey dress pants. Black belt and shoes. The shoes- sparkling clean. Nobody would've known where he'd had to walk from to avoid the chauffeur from telling his parents. Red skirt, big black shades, white halter top and electric blue pumps. She's just your typical girl-next-door with a no-bullshit attitude to add some flair to her character. An orange towel, hanging from the balcony of a 34 story tall apartment complex that's still in the process of being built. A family, perfectly well placed in a society that is all too obsessed with perfection. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are wails coming from the nursery decorated with a motif of a terrifying yet friendly bright-yellow lion. The dueling couple inside the duplex couldn't care less. Pieces of a transparent vase scatter the floor, husband and mistress carefully avoiding the big pieces while hurling insults at each other suitable only for the streets. Illusion...

Okay. That title sounds extremely pompous and glorifying. For the purposes of this post, my version of worldly defines a person that has spent a significant amount of time living in 2 different countries with different customs, as well as having mixed with multiple echelons of society and spent a great deal of time reading up, be it novels or news-related mumbo-jumbo. I think I fit into this category. Now that that ramble is over, let's get to the point of this post (the point is not to define worldly, if you hadn't guessed yet). After spending all of high school in the fairly progressive state of Maryland (and the especially progressive county of Montgomery County) and then having finished a year of college in UCLA, probably one of the world's most progressive universities, I've changed quite a lot. Words, phrases, sentiments, thought processes, etc. that didn't even make me think twice now makes me want to gauge my eyes out. Let's take a for instance; t...

I couldn't think of a clever title for this particular piece of writing but it most resembles the columns I used to write for Wahid's Words, so I've just come up with a title that will hopefully be a recurring style of writing on this blog. Anyways, this  song titled "Girl in a Country Song" was released last year as the debut single for country duo group Maddie and Tae. I for one, am surprised that yesterday was the first day I actually heard this, and I can say, in two listens, I've become absolutely obsessed. In the song, the girls basically point out, one by one, every trope that girls in country music are expected to fall under, and what is wrong with each of them. I'm not going to review the song because I feel like ya'll should just listen to the song anyways because it's very accessible. Instead, I'm going to talk about the social implications of this. The "country girl" image has changed considerably since the rise of...

4 years ago I started writing for The Pitch. The next years spent in that room can be characterized by stress, frustration and anxiety. Month after month, we somehow managed to race down to the very last minute- and sometimes past- to put out the paper.  It was tough, probably tougher than every other responsibility in high school combined. The relationships in that classroom are very fragile; in that place, any small thing can set anyone off. Editors-in-chiefs, Section Editors, Assistant Editors, Staff Writers- everyone is prone to being affected by the high strung nature of the job. As the paper existed as a whole, every small mistake affects every other member of the staff, regardless of what section they write for. Fights are commonplace. Every article, every info-graph has to go through many pairs of eyes- the last pair belonging to the well-dressed, eloquently spoken Ms. Ellen. Always looking through everything with a "fine tooth comb" (in Sylvie's words), s...