Through the Eyes of ADOLESCENCE
“You made me hate my own reflection, question every choice I make so I could try to be perfect, but I won’t try to be fake. So forgive me ‘cause I really could care less that this world has changed me.” --
Who Are You Now? by Sleeping With Sirens.
I once thought socialization was simply talking with your friends, and I assume you think that, too. But, that’s where we were both wrong. From the moment you were born, you’re first in contact with your family, who socialize you in a certain way. They teach you to flush the toilet and wash your hands. They teach you your religion and raise you into a political party. Even the media socializes you; girls act this way, boys act that way. The actors do it, so you should, too. Small things can shape you, too; your mother really likes to wear red lipstick, so you may like red lips on a woman or on yourself. How you are raised shapes who you are as a person. You see?
Because of the way we have been socialized, we fall into different categories, called stereotypes. Stereotypes are when you look at a person walking down the street and think “That boy is a punk,” judging him, thinking he stole something or is on drugs. It’s when you ignore the heart, and just focus on the looks. An example of this is when my friends sit at the park, talking and having a good time, when somebody drove by in their car and shouted, “Emos!” at them. Of course, they felt insulted by being judged based solely on their looks. How they looked on the outside affected how other people saw them, when they might have been totally different than what the driver had thought. They are searching for their identity, branching off from what they already know to find it. In the article, The Complexity of Identity by Beverly Daniel Tatum, he said, “Choices made in adolescence ripple throughout the lifespan.” And, because of this, the ones who are victimized by stereotyping the most, are teenagers.
Teenagers are stereotyped as violent, rebellious young people without a care in the world. When I walk into Rite-Aid, and everybody’s eyes are on me. I can almost hear them thinking, is she going to steal something? Why are her hands in her pockets; did she put something in there? I can even walk down the street, and a family walks by, and, by seeing the way I dress, steer their children away. We really can’t help that we are seen as dangerous people, and we also can’t help if we come off that way by our actions; we are searching for an identity. “Somewhere,” Beverly Daniel Tatum said in his article The Complexity of Identity, “on the edge of consciousness, there is what I call a mythical norm, which each one of us within our hearts knows ‘this is not me’.” With that being said, we each have a feeling of who we are, but we have to find it, first. Added with all the hormones, it’s no wonder people think we’re unsteady and dangerous, but they need to understand we are off in search of an identity we are comfortable with. They tend to focus on the bad more than they do the good.
In the news, all you ever hear about is the destruction in the world; the current status on the war, a mass shooting, a murder, a kidnapping. Only on those rare occasions do you get more than a minute or two discussing something pleasant that happened; a baby lived after it was born prematurely and the parents were told it wouldn’t, a man saved another man’s life without even thinking, a gay couple married and beat the odds. That’s the same way with teenagers. They ignore the positive things we do, or they tend to turn our positives into negatives. I work as an assistant teacher with kids eleven and under, teaching them the performing arts. A lot of the time, an adult would look at me and take in my upper ear piercing and skinny jeans, and instantly assume I’m up to no good, teaching the children what I shouldn’t be. I see people doing so many good tasks that go unnoticed by others, and I see it go unnoticed especially when it’s teenagers that do the deed. Are we really so negatively stereotyped that even our kindness gets brushed off? I think this comes off in my mask especially.
The top mask represents the stereotyped teenager; the random blue colors symbolize us being ‘cold as ice’ and unstable. The anarchy symbol over the lips symbolizes the rebellious way we speak and how we act; teenagers are rebellious and dangerous. The ruined eye symbolizes getting into a fight, seeing the world in a blood-died fashion; teenagers seek violence and want it. The police tape over the other eye symbolizes crimes; drugs, violence, stealing. The clouds atop the head symbolize ‘having your head in the clouds’ and fantasizing more than working. The stitches where the ears are supposed to be symbolize that there are no ears there, making it looked like we got rid of them to not listen to what people say. The rough feeling of the top mask gives it the rough and tough feel of teenagers, and the damaged look also falls into play with that rough and tough, damaged package.
The bottom mask represents my true identity, ignoring any stereotype; the diamond over the lips means truth; a diamond is pure and strong. The truth, however, can be hurtful at times, and the diamond can be sharp. The three divided parts of the mind show the three sides; the light, the middle, and the dark. Within the light, there are hearts and words such as ‘yes’ and ‘hope’, showing the positive side of the mind, while the dark side has words like ‘hate’ and ‘no’, showing the negative side of the mind. The center of it all is where we try to reside, so we have an even mind, but it gets all jumbled up between what’s good and what’s bad, hence the words ‘fuzz’ and the cross over between an X and a check mark. The heart over the eye, under the dark side of the mind symbolizes seeing hope in the dark. The X over the eye, under the light side of the mind, symbolizes seeing dark in the light. The stitched cuts symbolizes being hurt by the world, even though our positive actions, we are still shoved to the ground. The white, creamy pale and mostly plain background symbolizes that there is still much to be left up to us. I am still searching for an identity; I’m a blank slate.
How can you change this? It’s a daunting task, but you can slowly and surely ‘break it down’. You can instead of discouraging your children to, for example, pierce their body, encourage it. Encourage differences, and by doing that, you’re getting rid of the cycle for yourself, and that’s the first step.
Who Are You Now? by Sleeping With Sirens.
I once thought socialization was simply talking with your friends, and I assume you think that, too. But, that’s where we were both wrong. From the moment you were born, you’re first in contact with your family, who socialize you in a certain way. They teach you to flush the toilet and wash your hands. They teach you your religion and raise you into a political party. Even the media socializes you; girls act this way, boys act that way. The actors do it, so you should, too. Small things can shape you, too; your mother really likes to wear red lipstick, so you may like red lips on a woman or on yourself. How you are raised shapes who you are as a person. You see?
Because of the way we have been socialized, we fall into different categories, called stereotypes. Stereotypes are when you look at a person walking down the street and think “That boy is a punk,” judging him, thinking he stole something or is on drugs. It’s when you ignore the heart, and just focus on the looks. An example of this is when my friends sit at the park, talking and having a good time, when somebody drove by in their car and shouted, “Emos!” at them. Of course, they felt insulted by being judged based solely on their looks. How they looked on the outside affected how other people saw them, when they might have been totally different than what the driver had thought. They are searching for their identity, branching off from what they already know to find it. In the article, The Complexity of Identity by Beverly Daniel Tatum, he said, “Choices made in adolescence ripple throughout the lifespan.” And, because of this, the ones who are victimized by stereotyping the most, are teenagers.
Teenagers are stereotyped as violent, rebellious young people without a care in the world. When I walk into Rite-Aid, and everybody’s eyes are on me. I can almost hear them thinking, is she going to steal something? Why are her hands in her pockets; did she put something in there? I can even walk down the street, and a family walks by, and, by seeing the way I dress, steer their children away. We really can’t help that we are seen as dangerous people, and we also can’t help if we come off that way by our actions; we are searching for an identity. “Somewhere,” Beverly Daniel Tatum said in his article The Complexity of Identity, “on the edge of consciousness, there is what I call a mythical norm, which each one of us within our hearts knows ‘this is not me’.” With that being said, we each have a feeling of who we are, but we have to find it, first. Added with all the hormones, it’s no wonder people think we’re unsteady and dangerous, but they need to understand we are off in search of an identity we are comfortable with. They tend to focus on the bad more than they do the good.
In the news, all you ever hear about is the destruction in the world; the current status on the war, a mass shooting, a murder, a kidnapping. Only on those rare occasions do you get more than a minute or two discussing something pleasant that happened; a baby lived after it was born prematurely and the parents were told it wouldn’t, a man saved another man’s life without even thinking, a gay couple married and beat the odds. That’s the same way with teenagers. They ignore the positive things we do, or they tend to turn our positives into negatives. I work as an assistant teacher with kids eleven and under, teaching them the performing arts. A lot of the time, an adult would look at me and take in my upper ear piercing and skinny jeans, and instantly assume I’m up to no good, teaching the children what I shouldn’t be. I see people doing so many good tasks that go unnoticed by others, and I see it go unnoticed especially when it’s teenagers that do the deed. Are we really so negatively stereotyped that even our kindness gets brushed off? I think this comes off in my mask especially.
The top mask represents the stereotyped teenager; the random blue colors symbolize us being ‘cold as ice’ and unstable. The anarchy symbol over the lips symbolizes the rebellious way we speak and how we act; teenagers are rebellious and dangerous. The ruined eye symbolizes getting into a fight, seeing the world in a blood-died fashion; teenagers seek violence and want it. The police tape over the other eye symbolizes crimes; drugs, violence, stealing. The clouds atop the head symbolize ‘having your head in the clouds’ and fantasizing more than working. The stitches where the ears are supposed to be symbolize that there are no ears there, making it looked like we got rid of them to not listen to what people say. The rough feeling of the top mask gives it the rough and tough feel of teenagers, and the damaged look also falls into play with that rough and tough, damaged package.
The bottom mask represents my true identity, ignoring any stereotype; the diamond over the lips means truth; a diamond is pure and strong. The truth, however, can be hurtful at times, and the diamond can be sharp. The three divided parts of the mind show the three sides; the light, the middle, and the dark. Within the light, there are hearts and words such as ‘yes’ and ‘hope’, showing the positive side of the mind, while the dark side has words like ‘hate’ and ‘no’, showing the negative side of the mind. The center of it all is where we try to reside, so we have an even mind, but it gets all jumbled up between what’s good and what’s bad, hence the words ‘fuzz’ and the cross over between an X and a check mark. The heart over the eye, under the dark side of the mind symbolizes seeing hope in the dark. The X over the eye, under the light side of the mind, symbolizes seeing dark in the light. The stitched cuts symbolizes being hurt by the world, even though our positive actions, we are still shoved to the ground. The white, creamy pale and mostly plain background symbolizes that there is still much to be left up to us. I am still searching for an identity; I’m a blank slate.
How can you change this? It’s a daunting task, but you can slowly and surely ‘break it down’. You can instead of discouraging your children to, for example, pierce their body, encourage it. Encourage differences, and by doing that, you’re getting rid of the cycle for yourself, and that’s the first step.
Project reflection
Project based learning is very different from what I’m used to doing. Since I was home schooled for all my life, we never saw any need for doing projects, whether they were as large as this mask project, or gathering up a week’s worth of whether data for math and finding the average. I’m used to just learning the content and being done with it, and moving onto the next thing I had to do. But, I’m really enjoying getting that hands on learning; it helps me understand so much more.
The Habit of Heart and Mind I need to improve on for future projects is refinement. I’m one of those people that really like working on the small details and not a large image; I had the sides of my mask crumble slightly in certain areas, I had small paint detail, and I added texture to the top mask. I think I need to improve on working on the big picture and to refine it more than I did on my mask.
I’m really proud of the way the top mask it cut down the center, and opens up like French doors, from the stereotypes of teenagers to what really lies inside. I really liked people’s reactions to it, a lot of people talked to me about what the door stood for, and that was when you see someone, you stereotype them and see their clothes and the way they look, but when you meet them, they open up and you really see what’s behind the door.
In my essay, I said, “In the news, all you ever hear about is the destruction in the world; the current status on the war, a mass shooting, a murder, a kidnapping. Only on those rare occasions do you get more than a minute or two discussing something pleasant that happened; a baby lived after it was born prematurely and the parents were told it wouldn’t, a man saved another man’s life without even thinking, a gay couple married and beat the odds.” I’m very proud of what I had said because it speaks truth in many ways. We focus on the negative, the media focuses on the negative, and that’s what we wake up to. Only sometimes do we get a small sliver of the positive before it’s beaten down by the negative once again. I’m proud of it because people can relate to it, and that’s what I’m aiming for.
I want to leave with project with the knowledge that I’m only different from people because of the way they’ve they socialized, not because two people are just very different from each other. I want to remember, though, the negative sides of socialization; the media making girls feel like they have to be skinny, that they need to look perfect. I don’t want to forget how guys are ‘supposed’ to act and how that can make them feel trapped. I don’t want to forget the negative, so I can see the positive in all it’s beauty. I think I learned a lot more than just socialization in this project; I’ve learned what people feel about it and how people can break the social norms and create change. This project will stick with me for the rest of my life.
The Habit of Heart and Mind I need to improve on for future projects is refinement. I’m one of those people that really like working on the small details and not a large image; I had the sides of my mask crumble slightly in certain areas, I had small paint detail, and I added texture to the top mask. I think I need to improve on working on the big picture and to refine it more than I did on my mask.
I’m really proud of the way the top mask it cut down the center, and opens up like French doors, from the stereotypes of teenagers to what really lies inside. I really liked people’s reactions to it, a lot of people talked to me about what the door stood for, and that was when you see someone, you stereotype them and see their clothes and the way they look, but when you meet them, they open up and you really see what’s behind the door.
In my essay, I said, “In the news, all you ever hear about is the destruction in the world; the current status on the war, a mass shooting, a murder, a kidnapping. Only on those rare occasions do you get more than a minute or two discussing something pleasant that happened; a baby lived after it was born prematurely and the parents were told it wouldn’t, a man saved another man’s life without even thinking, a gay couple married and beat the odds.” I’m very proud of what I had said because it speaks truth in many ways. We focus on the negative, the media focuses on the negative, and that’s what we wake up to. Only sometimes do we get a small sliver of the positive before it’s beaten down by the negative once again. I’m proud of it because people can relate to it, and that’s what I’m aiming for.
I want to leave with project with the knowledge that I’m only different from people because of the way they’ve they socialized, not because two people are just very different from each other. I want to remember, though, the negative sides of socialization; the media making girls feel like they have to be skinny, that they need to look perfect. I don’t want to forget how guys are ‘supposed’ to act and how that can make them feel trapped. I don’t want to forget the negative, so I can see the positive in all it’s beauty. I think I learned a lot more than just socialization in this project; I’ve learned what people feel about it and how people can break the social norms and create change. This project will stick with me for the rest of my life.