Crystallized rain stormed down the earth.
White icing clothed around the branches
Of naked trees.
The powdery glaze crushed against my feet.
I would never forget
This seasonal realm.
I took this photo when I was on my way from the campus building to the bus stop. It was the second day of winter in Vancouver and everywhere was just white! I was so mesmerized by the beauty of this season that I had to Snapchat some of the perfect scenery. I'd also came up with this poetic caption. I write such captions for some of my Instagram posts not only for my followers to read what I want to say, but also for my followers to visualize what I describe about these posts. It's like reading a book. I like to invent imagery, metaphors, personification and any other poetic and descriptive phrases as a way to express myself.
So, as you can tell, I want to share what I think about self-expression. I was inspired by one of the vlogs from Amber Liu's online series called Ranting Monkey . Amber is from a K-pop girl group called f(x) (not the mathematical formula for functions XD). I recently play her Beautiful album on repeat; her songs are incredible! I've also watched every single episode of her "Ranting Monkey" show which is about her filming about her life as a K-pop star and as a normal American-born Chinese.
One of her vlogs (as posted above) is about self-expression. I was blown away by her definition and opinion on this topic. In fact,I think everyone should at least relate to Amber's point of view on this topic because she represents us. She speaks for the sake of our values on human life.
One thing Amber discussed in her video that struck me the most was when she told a story of her past experience of being judged. She once argued with her friend, who had gone through plastic surgery, that it was wrong to change her facial features. However, she didn't say anything when her friend said, "Amber, if you can't have tattoos, then who do you say I can't have plastic surgery?"(KSTYLE TV, 2016). She realized that she was being "insensitive". Even myself as a viewer can totally see that her friend had made a really good point. It reminds me of a conversation I had with one of my good friends back in Malaysia. She said in our group chat whether we want to know what the thesis of her scientific experiment was. I abruptly said "no" because I wasn't interested in science. And then, she left the group chat which took me by surprise. I immediately asked her personally on what I did wrong. She told me that I have to at least hear what she wanted to say and support what she was doing. That made me realize that I was a terrible supporter...and a friend. We've been friends for so long, and that was how I treated her. I learned that I shouldn't be selfish. I guess that the more I grow apart from my friends, the more my heart will turn cold towards them. And the more I'm away from the people who support me and inspire me, the more I've changed into someone they don't even remember. We get to express ourselves in new ways as we grow older; therefore, we need to give strength to each other.
And don't worry. My friend and I are in good terms again. ;D So are the rest of my wonderful friends.
I've jotted this quote from her vlog down on my life list, which is "something meaningless to you can mean something to somebody else". Each one of us has different beliefs, definitions, preferences, and opinions on things. If we judge or criticize on something valuable to a person, it's like you're stabbing his heart. That person finds joy and comfort in something, and if he's not supported or praised, his passion of that particular interest will drain down. Reacting negatively on someone is like killing a life. You could wreck his motivation, emotions, and even his physical health.
Amber has tattoos that represents her themes of interests, such as "design of silicon chips" (2016). I love when she said, "If I were to have my own silicon chips, this is how I would be programmed" because "silicon chips" are like the metaphor (or should I say symbolism) of a person's life. Whatever you are now is what God has made you into. Whatever you've become is who you are. And "silicon chips" are made up of tiny little contents that help a machine to operate, just like us humans depending on our physical body to live and our soul to express our emotions and thoughts.
So when it comes to expressing yourselves, you can do so with just anything. You can dress up all in black. You can paint your nails in every colour of the rainbow. You can turn the volume of your new favourite music full blast and dance in your room. You can write the cheesiest poem ever and attach it on the cover of your file. You can decorate your room with unicorn portraits. You can customize or create anything you want to let your creative juices flow. And no matter what you have in you or what you do, you're just being yourself. There is no one else in this world who is an exact copy of you, because you are one of a kind.
Even when you hold two packets of coffee with your mouth and pretend to be a walrus, you're expressing yourself. XD
And when you express yourself, people will either respect you or badmouth you. Let's face it. We all have positive people and negative people in our lives. Positive people will encourage us and support us in whatever we're doing and whatever we're aiming for. Negative people, on the other hand, will attack you with words that will break your spirits and your heart. You have the option to choose whether to be happy or to be depressed. Because if you choose to be happy of who you are, you have to be surrounded by positive people. In this way, you can motivate and inspire them as well. If you're surrounded by negative people, you won't express yourself often. And that's unhealthy.
Love yourself before you love others.
Respect yourself before you respect others. ;)
Like Amber said, "life is a journey of finding yourself" (2016). When you do things that spark your passion and enthusiasm, you'll finding yourself growing and improving. You'll even get to try something new to expand your horizons. Yup! Self-expression also comes with new interests. K-pop has completely changed my music taste; I don't regret it because it defines who I am. It shapes a whole new island of personality (sounds familiar? #Disney). And I don't care if other people malign about me talking or sharing posts about K-pop (including Super Junior, the kings of K-pop yo!), because I know that there's a group of people out there (shout out to my thousands of followers on social media) who will smile and agree with what I really believe in.
Even though I have graduated with a Creative Writing degree, I'm still learning to improve my fiction and poetry writing skills. I still have new ideas formed into a list to be transformed into stories, and I'm finding time to write them one by one. I express myself with words for readers to see what I see. And readers may vary on what they picture in their heads, but the most important thing is that they know what I've put on paper or screen. :)
Express yourself! I promise you it'll be the best feeling ever!
See you in the next post! <3
References
[KSTYLE TV] Ranting Monkey EP 13-Self Expression. Perf. Amber Liu. YouTube.
KSTYLE TV, 3 Nov. 2016. Web. 10 Dec. 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment