Lists

On Friday in AS, we discussed lists. People make lists for many reasons. There's grocery lists, packing lists, shopping lists, bucket lists, goals, etc. Many people in the class said that they make lists all the time which was sort of a shock to me. I never make lists. Lists are too structurial for me and I like the freedom and spontaneity of not having one. I like to do things on my own terms. But that doesn't mean I don't have goals that I choose to set for myself, I just don't write them down. If I accomplish something, then I accomplish and I know I did it, I don't need it written on paper for me to feel proud about it.

However, there is one list I do keep. I have a bucket list. I choose to keep this list because it reminds to me to "live with no regrets" and I find it cool to see things I've done or remind myself of things I want to do. Perhaps this is a little contradictory of what I wrote earlier, but I feel like a bucket list is differnet. It keeps your memories in a way and gives you the freedom to accomplish what you want within your life. I think bucket lists are great because they allow you to focus on things larger than going to school or working or whatever.

Place

On Wednesday, we had American Studies Day, in which American Studies students attend different seminars throughout the day all dedicated to a common theme. This year's theme was place. Place can mean anything. Where you live, where you were born, where you belong within society. But everyone is still very affected by it.

One of the presentations on AS Day was by Maria Finitzo, who showed us a documentary called The Interrupters. Here is a link to the trailer if you would like to see it. The Interrupters is about an organization called CeaseFire is to intervene conflicts before they result in violence. The documentary takes place in Englewood, a lower income community area of Chicago. The filming of this documentary began as Chicago became one of the centers of violence in the United States.

During the presentation, we discussed how different the North Shore, where we live, is to Englewood, which is only on the other side of the city from us. Finitzo said that many of the kids in Englewood believe they are living for today. They don't worry about tomorrow, it's about surviving this moment. But if you look at the North Shore it's completely different. All we think about is tomorrow. Where are we going to college? What do we want to do with the rest our lives? Everything we do is for the future. We do well in school to go to college. We go to college to get a job. We get married and have kids. We have a job to support our families. It's a huge cycle.

I think this really shows the importance of place. I may receive more opportunities than a kid from Englewood just because I am from the North Shore. I don't have to worry about getting shot everyday. I don't have to worry about not being able to go to college or earning enough money to support my family. I look to the future because I can. And it's incredibly sad that not everybody has that opportunity.