my insomnia finds its use (B + E)
If I were to give a status on my relationship with sleep, I'd probably dub it as: it's complicated.
Now put down your pitchforks Gen Z. I know how much you love your sleep, but hear me out. The act of sleeping is great. Good for your health, a nice break from life, and appropriately called "death without the commitment" by the internet. However, ever since high school began, the act of falling asleep has become one of my biggest chores. As a workaholic, having to lie still for around thirty minutes to an hour to get my body to finally clock out for the day is frustrating to say the least. In fact, I write this approaching midnight and I have no desire to even try to sleep, though my eyelids are heavy.
So what is my usual my solution? Stay up late and peruse the depths of YouTube of course!
I'm not sure when the fascination began. In middle school, I would gag at the idea of watching a documentary, but somehow in high school a strange interest grew. At the moment, I have an ever-expanding playlist of eighty-six documentaries which you can check out if you want with this link. With titles ranging from "Academic Pressure Pushing S. Korean Students To Suicide" to "The Land of No Men: Inside Kenya's Women-Only Village" to even "Siberian Cult Leader Thinks He's Jesus", I get to explore a wide variety of subjects from the comfort of my blanket-burrito.
I remember mentioning it once in my physics class and one kid calling me "fucking weird", but little did I know that this form of procrastination would actually be of use at some point.
Enter: The Argument Unit
This was definitely the most enjoyable unit for me in AP Lang. Allowing myself to flex my knowledge on seemingly random things which happened to be relevant to our obscure prompts felt like a nice release as either they never fit in conversations or ranting to my friends about these subjects didn't always trigger the desired response. I was able to pull specific examples out of nowhere thanks to my dictionary of useless facts. Somehow, being a nerd became cool. You weren't weird, you were...respected.
Perhaps nothing was more satisfying than having the exact story that fit a prompt. I remember in our prompt on the value of politeness, I was able to juxtapose the differences in South Korean and Japanese culture using my knowledge from documentaries. With information from videos like "🇰🇷 Plastic Surgery: The Cost of Beauty | 101 East" as well as my own experience, I was able to write about how:
In many Asian cultures, bluntness is favored over politeness. Often times, aunts or even random women on the street begin a conversation with comments on one's appearance. "Hello, you've lost weight" or "Why aren't you wearing makeup" are conversation starters. While seen as a way to be honest on one's feelings, it's effects can be detrimental.
I continued on to compare this to Japanese culture, where the group is favored over the individual and there is a general consensus that if your pain will interfere with the lives of others, you should hide it. Immediately the documentary "The Dark Side Of Harajuku Style You Haven't Seen Yet | Style Out There | Refinery29" came to mind and I wrote that:
People see it as easier to conceal their feelings in order to be polite than truly express how they feel. In fact, a movement called "Yami Kawaii" has begun in Harajuku, a district in Tokyo. The main purpose of this movement is to express one's mental health struggles through cute/ socially acceptable clothing. Many find comfort, such as artist Bisko Hatori, in putting their mental health motifs in their fashion as a way to silently scream their struggle in a society who deems mental health as taboo.
The main point of this contrast was to show the jarring fact that both countries have extremely high suicide rates, especially among their youth. I aimed to qualify politeness in how it is necessary in society, but in excess can lead to an epidemic.
It wasn't only the writing bit that was enjoyable, but also the discussions I had with my peers. The key word here is "discussion". One thing emphasized in this class which I have taken to heart is that a true exchange of ideas is not with the goal to win, but to understand. After all, yelling at someone is a surefire way to ensure that they won't listen to you (paradoxically).
I have always enjoyed standing in the cross-roads of ideas and AP Lang created a base for that. I kept up on the going-ons of the world and was better able to understand how different interpretations of the same thing can form. Our discussions colored my world view in several ways, even bleeding into my casual conversations outside of school, and for that I can say that I have developed more as a member of the human race.
Perhaps nothing was more satisfying than having the exact story that fit a prompt. I remember in our prompt on the value of politeness, I was able to juxtapose the differences in South Korean and Japanese culture using my knowledge from documentaries. With information from videos like "🇰🇷 Plastic Surgery: The Cost of Beauty | 101 East" as well as my own experience, I was able to write about how:
In many Asian cultures, bluntness is favored over politeness. Often times, aunts or even random women on the street begin a conversation with comments on one's appearance. "Hello, you've lost weight" or "Why aren't you wearing makeup" are conversation starters. While seen as a way to be honest on one's feelings, it's effects can be detrimental.
I continued on to compare this to Japanese culture, where the group is favored over the individual and there is a general consensus that if your pain will interfere with the lives of others, you should hide it. Immediately the documentary "The Dark Side Of Harajuku Style You Haven't Seen Yet | Style Out There | Refinery29" came to mind and I wrote that:
People see it as easier to conceal their feelings in order to be polite than truly express how they feel. In fact, a movement called "Yami Kawaii" has begun in Harajuku, a district in Tokyo. The main purpose of this movement is to express one's mental health struggles through cute/ socially acceptable clothing. Many find comfort, such as artist Bisko Hatori, in putting their mental health motifs in their fashion as a way to silently scream their struggle in a society who deems mental health as taboo.
The main point of this contrast was to show the jarring fact that both countries have extremely high suicide rates, especially among their youth. I aimed to qualify politeness in how it is necessary in society, but in excess can lead to an epidemic.
It wasn't only the writing bit that was enjoyable, but also the discussions I had with my peers. The key word here is "discussion". One thing emphasized in this class which I have taken to heart is that a true exchange of ideas is not with the goal to win, but to understand. After all, yelling at someone is a surefire way to ensure that they won't listen to you (paradoxically).
I have always enjoyed standing in the cross-roads of ideas and AP Lang created a base for that. I kept up on the going-ons of the world and was better able to understand how different interpretations of the same thing can form. Our discussions colored my world view in several ways, even bleeding into my casual conversations outside of school, and for that I can say that I have developed more as a member of the human race.
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