I recently found out that I won a scholarship I applied for back in October in which I had to send in a short story. Unfortunately, I cannot accept the scholarship because I'm not going to the college that it is to be used for. (So that's sad.) However, on Wednesday, I got an email informing me that the story I submitted would be published in the spring edition of their college journal. Therefore, I am getting published!!! I don't care that it's small, and that not a lot of people are going to read it, but I'm still super excited!! So, I will be posting the story "Finding Love in a Taxi Cab" under my Writer's Notebook tab, so all of you lovely readers may read my soon-to-be published story.
I'M REALLY EXCITED!!!! There are famous INFJs from all ends of the spectrum: Agatha Christie and Leo Tolstoy to Hitler and Osama bin Laden to Cate Blanchett and Benedict Cumberbatch. Personally, I think it is cool that I share a personality type with great minds that wrote famous books or actors who have made a huge name for themselves. Even though Hitler and Osama bin Laden were not good people, they did manage to convince people to follow them and die for their cause, even if it was a despicable cause. The point is that all of these people are powerful people who changed the world in some way, good or bad. These people have the same type of thinking and feeling that I do, and it makes me feel powerful. What does it mean to be an INFJ, though?
INFJ stands for Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging. “The individual who prefers Introversion is aware of the internal world of experiences and is generally less in tune with the Extraverted energy field” (Pearman and Albritton, pg. 8). We are less likely to feel the need to express our thoughts and ideas until it is necessary. INFJs are also Intuitive: we have a thirst for knowledge and are seen as imaginative, unconventional, and intellectual. A popular phrase used when talking about us is “head in the clouds.” “Feeling types respond first with acceptance of an individual and a desire to accommodate before bringing logic and analysis to a situation” (Pearman and Albritton, pg. 14). Feeling types are accepting, rely on our emotions, and seek an overall agreement on something. Judging types are extremely organized. We are attached to calendars, which I can verify, and are especially skilled at prioritizing and organizing. In fact, I bought an agenda this year, and I have never felt so accomplished in my entire highschool career. I also do my best work when I am left alone with my thoughts. I have been particularly accomplished this year in the school newspaper because most of my close friends are not in there to distract me. As an Intuitive, I am extremely imaginative. I have a million book ideas in my head, and I know that they are all wonderful. I just need to put pen to paper. (Or rather, fingers to keys.) “... Intuitives like instead to explore paths that have never been imagined―often just because they are different” (Tiberio and Jensen, pg. 41). I am a dreamer, and I am extremely proud of that fact. I like to think that I bring a lot of ideas to my families and friendships. As a Feeling type, I am extremely accepting and trusting of emotions. Due to this, I have a tendency to let people hurt me. It has often made me wonder if I am at fault for letting people in; I hate how emotional and trusting I am towards people. However, due to this research, I have learned why I am the way I am, and it has helped me come to terms with it and even love myself for it. Everybody is different; I just happen to be a person who puts up less of a front than others. A particular quote that I find extremely fitting is one from Emilie Autumn’s book, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls: “‘You’, he said, ‘are a terribly real thing in a terribly false world, and that, I believe, is why you are in so much pain.’” I have always been personally fond of writing. It is a good outlet, and I love to create new ideas and stories. As an Introvert, I do tend to work better when I am in a quiet environment and am not worried about how my decisions will affect others. Personally, in order to write well, I need a topic that I find engaging. For the school newspaper, I have to choose articles that I am genuinely interested in, otherwise it is just not that good. I tend to choose book reviews, movie reviews, and articles about the royal family. (I love England way more than is necessary.) I pour a lot of myself into my writing, so it is extremely important to me that people like my writing, particularly my friends and family. I read somewhere that authors put a little bit of themselves into every character that they write; I know that is definitely true for me. Due to this, I get personally offended if someone dislikes my writing. I get defensive even when someone just corrects a grammar mistake. However, one thing that did not correlate with my writing style is that Introverts do an outline before writing. Sometimes I write an outline, but that is mostly when I am forced to. I would love to be able to outline my ideas and have a plan for where a plot-line is going, but I just have trouble doing that. I will get an idea for the middle, or I will know how I want it to end up, but everything in between is pretty much made up as I write. As a Judging type, I “like to take charge of the outer world in a planful and orderly way” (DiTiberio and Jensen, pg. 25). I definitely start my project as soon as it is assigned. However, sometimes I procrastinate. I hate it when I do, but not everyone is fully motivated one hundred percent of the time. Either way, I always manage to finish my work in time. According to Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger, INFJs are independent, original thinkers with strong feelings who trust their own ideas and decisions. We are loyal, committed, and idealistic. Our strengths include bringing out the best in others, excelling at resolving conflicts, and are charismatic and accepting. Our potential weaknesses include making decisions based on our own likes and dislikes, staying detached, being practical, moody, unpredictable, and overemotional. As Ernest Hemingway once said, “The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable: they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.” I have always felt more connected to everything than most people. I feel things deeper. I give everything I do my all. I pride myself on my imagination and my organizational skills; I am always worried about how someone might feel about something, and I would much rather read a book than interact with people. Some people may not think that these traits are that important, or that they mean anything at all. To me, though, these traits are everything. They make up who I am. Who would I be if I was not an INFJ? How would I be different? I do not know, and I do not want to know. I love who I am. While it may be hard sometimes, while I may not have the relationships I want with people, while I may wish I did not get so attached to certain things, I would not trade who I am for the world. What does it mean to be an INFJ? I am sure there are a million different answers, but for me, being an INFJ means being me because that is who I am. It has been quite awhile since I have posted on here. Yes, I posted a blog literally two minutes ago, but that was an article I'd written three months ago and it's kind of cheating. So here I am, attempting to explain why I have not posted in so long.
School: I mean, I guess I don't have a whole lot of homework, but I do have some. I have articles to write, books to read (for school-related activities), and other stuff to do. Extra Curriculars: I have play practice, piano lessons, 4-H, and books to read (for me). It was a busy past couple of months! Other: Christmas. Christmas Vacation. Babysitting. I have been filling out scholarships nonstop and it's starting to get to me if I'm being completely honest. Then, I also co-wrote a book. Really. It's done and in the process of being edited. I'll keep you folks posted on when we release it. So as you can see, I've had quite a bit on my plate. 'Tis the curse of being a senior in high school. Now, if I wanted this to be like one of my other lovely blog posts, I would add some tips about how to deal with your stress-filled life. Sadly, I don't even know how to deal with my own. Therefore, I shall update when I can, take lots of ibuprofen, and pray that you, my insanely cool readers, are not suffering the same fate as I am. Peace out. The buzz surrounding Tim Burton’s new movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was subtle but strong when it came out Friday, Sept. 30, 2016. It was named the number one movie in America, and the tag line #Stay Peculiar has gathered a substantial group of followers. Book fans were excited but hesitant when they saw the changes in just the trailers for the strange book, but made up their minds to be happy about their beloved, curious book being turned into a (hopefully) beloved, curious movie.
Burton is one of the most famous directors of all time, renowned for movies such as Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Corpse Bride, and the 2010 version of Alice in Wonderland, to name a few. He is known for his quirky, disturbing scenes and for always casting Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp. Many people joke about how Burton thinks those are the only two available actors, but when the casting for Miss Peregrine was released, people began to question his lack of diversity between black and white actors. Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Mr. Barron in Miss Peregrine, is the first person of color to play a prominent character in a Tim Burton movie. He is also the only black actor in Miss Peregrine. At first, people were somewhat confused, and iffy, about his casting choices, but perhaps those actors and actresses were just the best people for the part, right? Unfortunately, during an interview with Bustle, Burton was questioned about his casting and his response was ignorant, asinine, and offensive: “Things either call for things, or they don’t. I remember back when I was a child watching ‘The Brady Bunch’ and they started to get all politically correct, like, Okay, let’s have an Asian child and a black―I used to get more offended by that than just―I grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said, ‘That’s great.’ I didn’t go like, ‘Okay, there should be more white people in these movies.’” You can imagine the backlash that his comment got. People flocked to Twitter with hashtags and sassy comments. “#TimBurton Logic: REALISTIC―A Corpse Bride, Man with Scissors for Hands, Dead Couple Haunts House. UNREALISTIC―PoC in any of these situations” tweeted one user, and “Tim Burton has an incredible diversity record. Actors in his films range from alabaster to porcelain” tweeted another. One fan, DeLa Doll, even wrote a letter entitled “An Open Letter to Tim Burton from a Black Fangirl.” In it, she described how she loved his work, how she felt that he captured the essence of outcasts and made them feel like they were not alone. “I love(d?) all your work because I always connected to it,” she wrote. “To the focus on individuals who live on the fringe of society. Weirdos. Freaks. Outcasts. Who in this society is more outcasted than people of color? I thought you were someone who understood what it was like to feel as though you may never really belong or find your place, someone who saw the beauty in outcasts finally accepting themselves and finding love and true homes in the process. But you don’t really understand. You don’t get it at all.” The letter goes on, but that paragraph is the one that really stuck with me. Let’s face the facts: I’m white. Most of us here at Delphi Community High School are white. We see people like us represented in the media all of the time. Sure, seven times out of ten you’re going to see a pretty, skinny blonde woman, but we can still connect to that. And some could argue that you could connect with any character you want, regardless of color or gender, but that’s not always true. Sometimes, you just want to see someone who looks like you up on the screen, doing something amazing. Take the new Ghostbusters movie for example. Young girls everywhere now have those four women to look up to, just as young boys everywhere had the four men in the 80s. Or the 2014 remake of Annie, where the title character herself and Daddy Warbucks were black. It’s important for people to watch movies and see someone who represents them. Diversity does matter. Diversifying casts is not hard. What is hard, however, is choosing the right actor or actress for the part. I wish that people didn’t see skin color. I wish that people of all ethnicities could be seated in the waiting room and go in, audition, and have an equal shot at that part, but stuff like that doesn’t happen in these times. I think that, regardless of skin color, the best person for the part should be chosen. If a black person is the best actor, then the black person should get the part. Likewise, if a white person is the best actor, then the white person should get the part. But one person shouldn’t be chosen over another simply because of something so silly as the color of their skin. There were plenty of roles for people of color in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. They were orphans, not wanted. There was no reason that they had to be white, even if it was in the 1940s. Not to mention that the story takes place on a Welsh island. There is absolutely no reason that every single child in that orphanage had to be white. “Things either call for things or they don’t”? Really? I don’t believe it. And, as Doll pointed out, why was the villain black? “The only time your films have called for any significant diversity so far has been when you needed someone to be the worst kind of evil? That’s not a good look, buddy,” she asked him. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not good about noticing a lack of diversity. I’m not black, so it’s never stuck out to me. But it should. We are all people, regardless of the color of our skin, and we all deserve to be respected and honored, which is why it is so important to have people of all ethnicities, skin color, etc. to be represented everywhere. Tim Burton, I loved your work. I truly did. But that comment you made? Your ex-fangirl was right. That’s not a good look, buddy. |
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April 2018
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