Truth

In high school, we expect a lot from each other. We expect friendships, support, and, most importantly, loyalty. With loyalty, comes truth. In any relationship, whether it is intimate or friendly, we expect truth from the mouth of the other person. But of course, in high school, we rarely get the truth. 

Almost all the time, we catch another lie coming from someone we care about. We ask a friend, “Hey, do you want to hang out?” They reply with: “Sorry, I have to do [blank].” But do they really? Probably not. Truth is a key aspect in every realtionship between two people. But if that’s the case, then how do so many relationships last without it? 

Because we trust each other. We trust the other person to tell us the truth no matter what the situation is. And when we find out the truth about their untruths, it hurts. When you expect one thing from one person, and they don’t have enough respect to even tell you the truth? It’s ridiculous.

On a more positive note about truth. I think it’s very important to stay true to oneself. Find out your own strengths and limitations, be able to say no, don’t live to please other people. Staying true to yourself is being able to be yourself 100% of the time with no regrets and no worries. I think the most important thing a person should do in their life is sit down and just think about theirself. Think about their own identity, their own wants, their own needs. It’s a very personal thing. No one can tell you how to be true to yourself. 

Of course, the opposite of truth would be lies or untruthfulness. It’s very easy to lie because in some cases, the truth can lead to bad things. One example: affairs. Many partners lie about having affairs with their partners because they don’t want to lose them. If they flat out told their partner, “Yeah, I had an affair” it would lead to some pretty bad results. Many lies also lead people to have to remember their lies because otherwise, the other person would find out that something isn’t right. In trials or investigations, on mutliple occassions, people begin to forget their lies after days upon days of questioning. This leads the investigators to catch on the to lies and throw it back at them to essentially get the truth. 

Honor

Honor is a very essential trait, especially in Asian countries like Japan, as well as in native tribes. Citizens in these countries and tribes honor their elderly and they greatly believe that one should honor oneself.

The Japanese have the most interesting code of honor to me. It either ends in a beautiful life of honor and dignity or a really horrible ending. In Japan, samurai follow a code of conduct that defends their honor as well as other traits such as dignity and loyalty. While defending their morals, they were required to maintain these traits by protecting Japanese officials, Shogun. If a samurai were to lose their honor, they could save their reputation by commiting a very painful but fearless suicide called “harakiri”. That was the only way a samurai could sustain their honor after losing it for whatever reason, whether it be that the person they should protect dies but they do not or if they retreat from battle.

In Indian tribes, they honor elderly by treating them with utmost respect and kindness. Compared to the way American elderly people are treated, tribes and villages usually keep their elders at home and treat and care for them until they pass. In America we usually send our elders away to nursing homes where they would never be treated as well as in their own home. Truly, it’s kind of awful.

Honor is important because it values people and life. We honor people in the military because they risk their lives to defend our country. We honor elderly because they have lived more life than us. Honor is something that is achieved, whether it be credibility from medals or from positive attitudes. A person’s character gives them honor in the eyes of another person.

Without honor, there would only be shame. In the example from Japan, if a samurai does not regain their honor, they would be shamed for the rest of their lives, living a shameful and sad life. Humiliation causes shame usually. When a person loses their honor, it’s usually in a very shameful way.

Power

Power can be either an extremely negative thing or an extremely positive thing. In my sociology class last week, we were discussing government, so of course we had a small discussion about power. My teacher said something along the lines of “since I am your teacher, I have enough power to give you an F if I wanted to, even if it wasn’t for a good reason.” Of course, this sparked an entire debate about teachers abusing power, but that is exactly what leaders of entire countries have done in the past. Except they kill people.

In my opinion, power is the ability to change someone’s life, opinion, or behaviors by a command of some sort. People with great religious power could be able to change someone’s opinion on God or the afterlife. Government officials have the power to change laws or policies. These are positive changes by power of command or influence and is accepted by most individuals in a society. However, in monarchies, kings and queens have the power to decapitate someone if they wanted to.

Another example is student leaders in classrooms, especially in music programs. When a student gets picked for a leadership position, sometimes they can turn rotten and rude to people under them in the heirarchy. Just recently in my chorus class, a classmate of mine found out he made allstate, a very rigorous audition process that most people dont proceed through. Ever since he found out he made it, he gained the thought of power took it out on our class everyday. He would make rude remarks and just be very demanding.

The opposite of power, technically would be weakness. If a person is able to be controlled by someone with power then they are most likely weak. Weakness is defined as the lack of strength, which makes sense because power is having the strength to be influential.

My favorire kind of power is the power of people that go through horrible things but are still able to push through and succeed. In my definition, I mentioned that it’s the ability to change someone’s life or behavior. That can also apply to one’s own self and behaviors, relating more to mental power. People that have the power to get through poverty or sexual assault or unemployment are so powerful to overcome these things and be able to live their lives afterwards.

Pride

When I first think about pride, I think about high school pep rallies and football games, the marching band, the cheerleaders, and the fans. I think about homecoming and spirit week because, wow, people go all out for those things and I love it because it shows so much school pride. On the last day of every Pride Week, we have a crazy orange and black day, and there is always one person that shows up painted from head to toe with orange paint, showing the most Tiger Pride. As a member of the marching band, I have so much school pride as I put on my uniform and march into the field, hitting my drum to the beat of my heart that bleeds orange and black. The fans, decked out in Cocoa Tiger apparel, screaming the chants and supporting every step of the guys on the field, they all have so much pride for our team. Everyday I am so proud to be a Cocoa Tiger in academics and sports and music and everything else.

At my school, we even have an acronym that we added into our daily routine. It spells out PRIDE and stands for Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Disciple, and Empathy. We see these five characteristics to be the most important in every school setting and we are encouraged to practice these five principals at all times on campus: in the lunch room, in the halls, in classrooms, even in the front office. It’s a very subtle and effective way of reminding everyone on campus to keep their tiger pride in all aspects of their lives. 

Another aspect of pride would be the pride that a parent feels when their child accomplishes something. I know that when I make my accomplishments for my music events, my mom always tells me how proud of me she is and it makes me feel very loved and appreciated. Many parents boast about how proud of their children they are at graduations and award ceremonies. But imagine if when the parents saw their kid walking across the stage, they didn’t stand up and scream their child’s name. Imagine if they hid their face, worried that anyone would make the correlation between their child and them.

That is the complete opposite of pride, embarrassment or shame. When I first started going to Cocoa High School, my first year there, a lot of bad things happened, giving my school a really bad reputation to the public and other schools. My freshman year, when I was accepted into the All-State Mixed Choir, every time someone asked me what school I was from, I was almost ashamed to tell them that I was from Cocoa, because I knew it had such a horrible reputation. But I had to put that worry aside because I know my own school better than anyone else. I couldn’t bear it if my own mother was ashamed to talk about her daughter. 

Below is a picture of our football team and cheerleaders after winning the state football championship two years ago. At this game, I felt the most pride for my school.

Inspiration

I think that inspiration is essential to a person’s creativity. Everybody, especially in art and music, has that one thing, person, or a place that inspires them to do what they do. Without that thing that inspires them, they can get discouraged and it can be very difficult to get things done and do those things well.

These past few days, I ventured to FAU in Boca Raton for an Honors Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Joella, a very musically involved person that speaks through the mind of the music, not the musician. On our way back to rehearsal from lunch, I got a chance to speak to her. The first question I asked her: “What inspired you to start playing music?” And her answer: her father. Almost every musician has something that inspired them to start playing an instrument, for some it’s family, for others it might be that they saw a violinist in a movie one time and thought it would be cool.

Me, personally, I don’t really have anything that inspired me to start playing the violin. No one in my family plays an instrument, there was no movie that struck something inside of me, there was nothing to help me make this decision. It was just one day in my 5th grade music class, my teacher told us about the strings program and asked if anybody was interested and I just thought “sure why not?” and here I am today. I could definitely tell you what inspires me now to continue music: my teachers. I look up to all three of my music instructors, hoping to be like them someday since they are all such great musicians.

Inspiration for artists is much different than for musicians, though. I don’t know much, but I do know that some artists have a certain place that they sit down to draw so ideas will flow. Some people get inspired by observing other people or just by going on a walk around town. Others get inspired by song lyrics, hearing a line that makes a picture explode in their head so aggresively that they have to get it on paper. My favorite types of art are the ones inspired by problems in this world. Many artists recently have been noticing issues that other don’t particularly see and making art from these issues. They usually come out to be very beautiful pieces of work once they are interpreted correctly. Here are just two examples.

The first picture on the left shows that nowadays, doctors don’t really work for the benefit of lives, they work for the benefit of money. Personally, I think this may have been inspired by the amount of people that say “I’m going to be a doctor when I grow up because they make a lot of money.”

The second picture is for sure inspired by the cell phone epidemic in today’s society. It shows a lonely little boy that wants to play soccer but no one will play with him because they are too busy being on their phones. I think it’s really interesting how observations of society and problems in society and result in such meaningful artwork.

Rejection

Rejection is one of the most awful things that could happen to a person. It makes people feel unwanted, unloved, and unimportant. It can really put a toll on a person’s mental health and a person’s self-worth because it truly is that traumatizing and negative.

The first thing I think about when I hear the word rejection is bullying. One form of bullying that a lot of people disregard is exclusion which is a form of rejection. In elementary school, if you’ve ever seen a kid ask a group of other kids to play soccer or basketball with them and they get told no, that is rejection. That kid feels horrible after that incident, thinking that they’re not good enough to play with other kids.

That continues on in middle school and high school when people try to get accepted into unofficial “social groups”. Sometimes in the football world, Junior Varisty players won’t be accepted by Varsity players. Or in the music world, sometimes chorus kids don’t accept orchestra or band kids because apparently they are “uncivilized” and “obnoxious.” It really hurts a person’s self-esteem when they are rejected by another social group.

On a more positive hand, when people are accepted by others, that feeling of loneliness and rejection disappears because that means that the person has found some people or even just one person that cares about them enough to include them. Acceptance is very important to a social butterfly because otherwise they will feel rejected and hurt since they love to socialize.

Another great example of rejection is college applications. Everyone knows that when you apply to a college, you either get accepted or rejected. It can hurt a person extremely if they apply to a college that they have been dreaming of for a long time only to get the rejection letter in the mail later on. It’s really tough on a person, especially if they have only applied to that college and that college only, expecting to get into the college of their dreams.

Another form of rejection is, of course, the rejection of love. I know we’ve all seen the cliche movie moment where the dude goes up to the girl, or vice versa, confesses their love, and then gets brutally rejected by the other. This is the type of rejected that truthfully makes people feel unloved. It makes them feel like they will never be good enough for someone to love them and that puts a dent in their self-esteem.

As I mentioned earlier, any type of rejection can severely plummet someone’s self-worth because acceptance is the goal of most people’s lives. Acceptance makes people feel successful, loved, and confidence while rejection makes people feel like failures and just gives someone a very negative view of their own self.

Love

When most people think about love, they think about falling for a boy or a girl and being head over heels about them. They think about marriage and late night conversations about your deepest secrets.

It’s really tough for me to think about love in that way, because the one and only time that I have ever fallen in love, it was the worst experience of my life. So when people mention love, I think of my family: my mom, my brother, my grandpa, and my grandma, as well as my friends: Janna, Bradley, Jaime, and Luis.

The people in my family are the best people in my life. I love my mom because she somehow manages to be so strong and confident while taking care of me, working 4 days a week, and working towards her Master’s degree to be a nurse practitioner. I love my brother because he’s mean but he’s taught me so many life lessons and he’s always there for me when i need him. I love my grandma and grandpa because they practically raised me and taught me almost everything that I know and supported me in every way. And even though my grandma passed away, I will always love and cherish her and the time that I was able to spend with her.

As for my friends, I honestly don’t know what I would do without them. They are the reason that I am confident and loving and full of happiness. There’s never a dull moment with these guys and I love each and every one of them in their own individual way. If I’m ever sad, you already know that they will be on a mission to make me feel better I love them so dearly for that. I also love that they are all so passionate about music and strive to do their best on a daily basis.

Specifically out of my friend group, I truly do love Janna. She may seem cold sometimes, but she’s the biggest sweetheart on this planet and she’s a big softie for the people she cares about. She’s always there for me 24/7 for somebody to talk to, for when I need a ride (like when my car broke down two weeks ago) and when I need a shoulder to cry on. She’s always encouraging me to do my best and telling me to disregard the negative things that other people tell me, especially about the drum major race, and I just couldnt be more thankful for one human being.

I want to discuss the difference between loving someone, liking someone, and being in love with someone.

When you love someone, you care about that person, you love hearing about them doing well, you want the best for them, you want them to be happy, and you want them to succeed. When you like someone, you have an infatuation with them and you care about them, but it’s not as deep of a feeling as love. It usually sits on the surface instead of plowing deep into the feelings. It usually comes from knowing someone for a short period of time but being close enough with them to care about them.

And being in love with someone is thinking about someone all the time, thinking that you cant live without them, wondering if the world will ever be the same if they leave, having your heart flutter by just thinking about talking to them or seeing them, wanting to stick by that person for a long time, and wanting to be the reason that they succeed.

Notice the difference between “being the reason they succeed” and “wanting them to succeed.” It’s a minor change in words that makes a large change in character.

Love is just crazy. It makes people do crazy things, it makes people think crazy thoughts, and it makes people imagine crazy things.

Without love, there would be hatred and negative or neutral thoughts about people. Hatred is so negative and I’m so glad that we have love to balance out all the hate in this world. Hippie moment: love is one of the most important things on this planet. If everyone just loved each other, hatred would be long gone and everyone could be happy.

Pictures in order: Bradley, Janna, Jaime, and Luis

Loneliness

I, myself, struggle with loneliness. I’ve always had anxiety about being left alone or having people leave me because they get tired of me or just find other people. Loneliness is one of the worst things that can happen to someone in my opinion.

Those kids you see at school that never talk to anyone, never eat with anyone, never do any extracurricular activities, never hang out with anyone... it saddens me to see them so lonely. Now, why don’t people just go talk to him? Especially me? Well, I’ve tried but not everyone is like me, hating loneliness and fearing the fact of being lonely.

I asked him one time, “Why do you always sit by yourself at lunch? Or never talk to anybody?” And he answered, “I just like being alone.”

And that was all I needed. My naive 7th grade, 12 year old self didn’t realize that not everyone needs friends and popularity to be happy. I thought that other people were the only means of my happiness and that it would always be that way. That was before I truly started to invest myself into music.

Music is the reason that I never feel lonely. Being in all three music programs at my school, chorus, orchestra, and band, has given me three families. Three families that love each other unconditionally, three families that fight sometimes like siblings, but most importantly three families that make music together. These people will always brighten my day with their funny comments and silly faces. But they make me feel important and wanted; their faces light up when I walk in the room, they tell me that I’m the reason why they stick with music. They tell me that they want to be like me some day... they keep me from being lonely.

Now all of that goes back to when I said that people are the reason for my happiness since they make me less lonely. Now let’s step away from the people side for a second and really focus on music. Many people would say that the opposite of lonely would be popular but this might just change their minds.

Everyone listens to music. Everyone hears it on the radio or in the store or from their phone, music is in everyone’s lives. Sometimes, when we’re sad, we listen to sad songs. When we’re happy, we listen to songs that hype us up. And when we’re lonely, we might listen to songs about heartbreak or sadness. But imagine that void of music filling something inside of you. Now imagine the feeling of playing that music.

When I play music, I get into my own little bubble, where no one else exists but my instrument and myself. Now, you might be thinking, “If you’re alone in a bubble, how are you not lonely?” And my answer to that is I have music to fill the void of loneliness. The melodies that come from my hands are the only thing in my mind at that moment. No friends, no phone, just the music.

Without music, I would probably be one of the most lonely people on this planet. As high school has gone on so far, I’ve lost a lot of people that I used to depend on for happiness. It just so happens, though, that music makes up for it.

Something that worries me is that I’m going to graduate from high school. Meaning that I will have to leave all three of my music families and choose only one once I go to college. It worries me that I might be lonely after having to leave two groups that make me just as happy as the one that I decide on. But I guess that rollercoaster will have to wait until my senior year.

Hope

Hope is not possible without vision of the future. Hope is the desire for something to happen in later times, like how an Olympic swimmer would hope that they get the gold medal. A lot of the time, hope is the reason why we do things. For example, if a person hopes to go to college in the future, they will do what they need to do in high school in order for that to happen.

Many people associate hopes and dreams, which is actually great to do because they are linked and they do play into each other in everyday life. If there was no hope, there would be no drive to do anything. Why would someone work towards something if they didn’t have any hope or expectation that they were going to succeed? If a person were to go for drum major in their band, but didn’t think they had any qualifications to be in that position, they wouldn’t work towards getting that position because there’s no hope for it. 

The opposite of hope is pessimism because it is the thought that the complete worse will happen in the future. Pessimism is very unhealthy because it holds people back from what they could do if they just had a bit of hope. Back to the drum major concept, a pessimistic person wouldn’t even try-out for the position because they would just think that they won’t get it no matter how hard they try. Hope is like looking at all of the positive things that could come out of a situation, while pessimism is the exact opposite, viewing the negative outcomes of every situation that is put into perspective.

When I think of hope, I definitely think about the fact of me as a musician. Since auditions can be very scary, it’s important to view every audition by its positive outcomes rather than just saying, “oh, I won’t get it, I’m not good enough,” etc. It’s important to have hope that you will do well in the audition and that you will get into whatever you are auditioning for, whether it’s All-State or college or anything else. Every musician has this concept of hope that they will progress and be successful in what they do, just as everybody in their everyday lives should think about their future.

Justice

Justice has many different meanings and understandings. Just like many other things, justice could be viewed as a perceptualized concept. Let’s say, in a court room, the jury decides that a person is guilty and that they have done justice to the case, but some people in the audience may believe that their decision was unjust. 

The first thing I think about when I hear the word justice is (of course) the Justice League. Now, while I might not know much about the Justice League, or even any superhero for that matter, I know the concept and that’s all that matters. The Justice League is the epitome of justice. They use their judgement and punish the bad guys that need to be stopped from causing chaos to the city. They live to bring justice to the people of whatever town they live in. Wonder Woman, for example, in the new Wonder Woman movie fought to bring justice to the people that were going to be harmed by Ares.

The opposite of justice is injustice. The act of unjust acts and unfairness. During a court trial, if a person is clearly not guilty of a crime and the jury decides that they are guilty, that would be extremely unjust and unfair to the innocent party. 

There is also social justice, which is justice in terms of distribution of privileges and wealth in society. It makes sure that people get what they earned from their duties and fulfilled their roles. It’s like a form of egalitarianism in a way. Many governments monitor income equality in people with common citizenship to see if social justice is in place. Justice is very important in society because it keeps everything equal and tranquil.

Beauty

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is different in different countries and even in different states. In Asia, women are considered beautiful if they have pale skin and a stick figure body. However, in America, we value tan skin and “thick” body frames. Beauty is very important in the eyes of societies because of beauty standards. However, in my eyes, everyone has their own beauty in their own way through their flaws and experiences.

Since beauty is defined as many different characteristics of something that pleases the aesthetic senses, many individual people have different opinions of beauty, most people call it a “type”. One person might think girls with blonde hair and green eyes are beautiful whole another might think girls with black hair and brown eyes are beautiful. My favorite kind of people are the ones that think everyone is beautiful.

Beauty is not only held in the physical appearance of a person. Beauty can be described as the kindness of one’s heart. A person with a kind heart, in my eyes is more beautiful than any supermodel in this world. Many people have ugly souls and pretty faces, but they don’t match to make a beautiful person.

The technical opposite of beauty would be ugly, denotatively meaning having unaestetically pleasing features. For example if a person in Japan had tan skin and curves they would be considered ugly to society, same being the opposite of the standards I mentioned in America.

Makeup in today’s society defines much of what beauty is, sadly. Many people think that girls that wear makeup are insecure and think that they aren’t beautiful. Others know the truth, most girls wear makeup becaude they want to! Not to impress anybody or themselves. If a girl wears lots of makeup, she is considered ugly. If a girl doesn’t wear any makeup she is considered prude.

When I think of beauty, I picture people with kind hearts, that use kind words, that aren’t rude. Every one of these people in this photo are beautiful.

Respect

When I first think about respect, I picture the tribal people and how they respect their elders because they are more knowledgeable and wise than the younger generation. The meaning of respect is showing/having admiration for a person because of their achievements or qualities and acting accordingly. 

There are different types/levels of respect depending on the person that you are interacting with. Usually, a person would talk differently to their parents than their boss, meaning that they have different levels of respect for them. You wouldn’t shake your mom’s hand when you walk through the front door, but you would shake your boss’s hand when you walk through the door. 

Respect is also a perceptual thing, meaning that it depends on how people perceive respect and the important of respect. If parents teach their kids at a young age how to respect people, than respect will be something of more importance to those young people. Some people when asked, “should I call you Mr. or sir,” will reply with: “Oh, no! Just call me by my first name.” These people don’t think that respect is as important to them, while they might still respect others because they still value it. Some people don’t respect others at all because it is not something that is valued to them in their perception of its importance. Very complicated, but very valuable as well. 

The opposite of respect could be described as rudeness or simply put: disrespect. Since the definition of respect has something to do with admiration based on qualities, disrespecting someone would mean that the person has no admiration for the other, leading them to treat them differently. For example, many people think that homeless people are stupid or irresponsible enough to get themselves into the situation that they are in, so they don't treat the homeless people as well as, say, a businessman. They have more admiration for a person that supposedly takes care of himself and is successful because of it.  

Many people say that respect is earned, which is true, but I personally wish that it wasn’t that way. I feel like everybody in this world should respect each other until given a reason not to. I wish that everyone, without a second thought, would treat others how they wish to be treated regardless of their appearance, status, or age. In a perfect world, everyone would be treated with utmost kindness and respect without any questions about why it should be that way.

Fear

Fear: an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous. Whether it be in an intense game of Truth or Dare or a classroom, almost everyone has been asked the question, “what is your biggest fear?” This question is usually answered with things like “spiders” or “the dark” or even “drowning.” Things that make your heart pound or make your palms get sweaty, things that make you uneasy, like standing too close to the edge of a cliff.

I think that fear is extremely pertinent to a person’s life. Without fear, everyone would make irrational decisions that result in serious injury or even death. Imagine if you saw a cliff and you had no fear of anything. You might just think “oh, well let’s go take a look” and stand right on the edge of it. But a person with a fear of heights (or common sense) would be cautious enough to either stay away or approach is very carefully.

But what causes fear? Of course, the thought of something bad happening, but what really, really causes fear? There’s one perfectly clear answer to this question: experience. Whether it’s first-hand or second-hand, we experience things by hearing stories, watching the news, and seeing things on social media. For example, if someone were to see a movie about sharks before going to the beach, they might have a slightly more intensified fear of the water than before seeing the movie. When you read a story about a ghost that appears in mirrors, your fear of mirrors might increase even if just for a short period of time. Fear is conceptualized by what we see and hear and experience in our day to day lives.

There are three mediums to fear, actual fear, neutrality, and comfort. If there was one word to describe the opposite of fear, it would be comfort. While some may be afraid of the dark, others may find comfort in the solitude or the feeling of being in the dark, while others may not care if there’s a night light on or not.

There’s also different types of fear. There are healthy types of fear, about things that could genuinely be dangerous, like heights or bears. Then there’s more unhealthy types of fear. One example, the fear of oneself. Being afraid of failure or disappointment would cause someone to not do their best because they think that no matter how hard they try, they still have the idea of failing or disappointing someone in their mind. This is also a type of fear that causes anxiety.

When fear comes to mind, this picture usually comes to mind because to me, fear is something that traps me as a person. For me personally, my main fear/anxiety is disappointing people that I care about. This stops me from doing a lot of the things that I want to do because I dont want to let down either my mom or my teachers or my friends... but I truly don’t want to disappoint myself. I want to be happy but I’m trapped in this loop of impressing myself and impressing everyone around me.