Drunk Chronicles

11:32pm. I’m in my bed. My roommate is in bed. With PJ’s on and make up off we were settled in for a a good night’s rest after a day of what seemed like impossible tasks. Her phone rings.

“Hello?”

I can’t hear the other end of the conversation, but I had a pretty good idea who it was.

“Yeah, we’ll be there in a second.”

The infamous late night, drunk call from the square by our two favorites: Avery and Alex.

“They need a ride, you going?”

We jump out of bed, which I mean quite literally since neither of our 5 foot selves can reach the floor while from the bed. PJs off, shoes on, we head out. The CA’s at the front desk give us questioning looks as we exit the building, but we dodge their fire and begin the five minute journey to the square. We arrive at our usual meeting spot, the parking space right in front of Rooster’s and wait for the boys to stumble, literally stumble, into the car. Backing out of the parking spot may be the hardest part as every one feels they have more important places to be than you. We eventually find ourselves on the path to take our friends home. We see flashlights in the distance. We approach men in uniform. They knock on the window.

“License, please”

I pull out my license out and allow him to speculate if it’s valid or not. I’m sure he’s used to fakes. He asked a few questions and allowed me drive away, slowly and carefully of course. The boys were hungry. We pulled up to Cook Out and laughed as the drunken boys tried to spill their orders out. Fed and happy, we drove them to their apartment and watched them attempt to get up the stairs to their second floor oasis.

“Never a dull moment with them, huh?” said Mary Catherine.

“I don’t think drinking is for me.”

One Story, A Million Authors

In “Flight Patterns”, after 9/11 people had one story of “little, brown people”. All people believed the little brown people were ones to watch out for, even the little brown people themselves. The attacks on the World Trade Center erased every good story ever heard or told about brown people and this one horrific story replaced it, becoming the only story people knew. Adichie talks about how harmful this one sided story can be to our community and world we live in. Africans are perhaps the biggest victim of this “one story” theory, and Adichie knew this and was directly hurt by it, but she found herself judging Mexicans off of the one “illegal immigrant” story that she knew. Likewise, William found himself starring at little brown people on his flight, even though he knew everyone was also starring at him. As much as we hear the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”, it would much better for us to judge a million books by their covers instead of only reading one.

Sink, But Don’t Drown

Remember watching Titanic? When the ship is sinking, all the life boats have been taken, and everyone stands helplessly watching their lives flash before their eyes, except it doesn’t flash, it is a slow and painful process of the waiting game as you feel the ship sink further and further into the abyss. That’s how my first week of college felt. I’ve studied more in this so called “syllabus” week than I did my entire senior year in high school and I am still behind. Textbooks are like the life boats…there seem to be so many, but here I am: lifeboat (textbook) less. The complex relationship between Jack and Rose resembles the way I feel about being away from home; one second I love it and I am “never letting go”, the next I am calling my mom begging her not to let me go. Finally I think of the cold water, literally freezing people alive and I see my clock, that just won’t freeze no matter what. I can feel myself drowning and I am in search of a whistle.

Kernel – Lawyer’s League and Notes of a Native Speaker

 

In “Lawyer’s League” by Sherman Alexie and “Notes of a Native Speaker” by Eric Liu, both authors bring to the table their opinions on being a different race and ethnicity in modern America.  Alexie is an African American/Indian trying to make a name for himself in the world of politics. Liu is an Asian American tackling the challenge of being a “banana” head on. Although these men are of different skin tones and heritage and have a different way of coping with the pressures of living in the United States while their ancestors were born elsewhere, I think they could both agree that sometimes, for those without “white privilege”, the American Dream isn’t all that it cracked up to be.

Sherman Alexie introduces his character as a “graceful monster.” He was the product of a football player and a ballerina which led to a “biracial revolutionary leftist magician with a twenty-foot jumper encoded in [his] DNA.” Alexie describes a character that strives to be the first politician who is truly trusted by the Indian tribes, but it is clear in this story the insecurities that exist being a mixed man in white America. In story format, the author takes us through a series of events letting us into the thoughts of the politician such as his inability to ever be with a white woman even if he loved her because of what people might think. It becomes apparent after the character punches a racist man in the nose during a basketball game that Alexie’s character still hasn’t fully figured out how to an Indian man in a white society. Unlike in Liu’s text, Sherman writes of a man that is aggressive, forceful, and, in my opinion, less effective in his tactics to get other people to see his worth despite his darkened skin tone.

“Notes of a Native Speaker” began as a list and then transitioned into Liu’s characters specific thoughts instead of fast forwarding through time while telling a story. The Asian American man in the text discusses what the process of assimilating into a white man is like. The character reveals that at first this “whitening” development was almost his guilty pleasure as he felt himself lose touch with his long life of Chinese heritage. However, in a confident tone he discloses that he no longer feels ashamed and he is proud of where is in life and pleased with the white family he just recently married into. In contrary to “Lawyer’s League”, Liu creates a character who is conformable enough in his own skin to allow whites to call him an “honorary white” and Asians to call him a “banana” and simply say that he has “moved away from the periphery and toward the center of American life.”

Both works of literature share with the reader the ins and outs of being a man of color in America’s white society. One text shows a point of view where the man is angry about racism and takes a hawkish approach against the white man who belittles him. The second text depicts a colored man embracing the opportunities the United States has for him. Both themes can relate back to one common parable: life gets hard, but it’s what you do with it that matters.

Three White Walls, One Black

A perfect daughter, who makes good grades and does the dishes, an athlete, who would rather be at the batting cage than the movie premiere, a girlfriend, who is fearless about being in a long distance relationship and is picking out wedding dresses as we speak, these are things people in life claim I am “supposed” to be. Alas, the dishes aren’t done, I went out last night instead of studying, Hunger Games part 2 was worth the wait, and I think the boy in my calculus class is cute. I love my parents, and I love softball, and hell, I would even say I love Isaiah, and I hate to disappoint any one of them, but I also love myself, or I’m starting to at least, and as it’s turning out, loving myself for who I am comes with some hard decisions and someone is going to lose. So how do I balance what they want and what I want? When will who I’m supposed to be become who I am?

Kernel – Shitty First Drafts and Perfectionism

In “Shitty First Drafts” and “Perfectionism”, Anne Lamott discusses the importance and inevitability of one of the most important parts of the writing process. Lamott does, however, take two different approaches in her attempt to convey this idea. In one essay Lamott presents the guideline of first drafts to be the absence of perfection while the other essay highlights the presence of “shittiness” that should be in every rough draft. I think both works allow the reader to see that no matter what you call it, your first draft is essential to the writing process and isn’t supposed to be “How to Kill a Mockingbird” quality just yet.

Lamott seems to write “Shitty First Drafts” to a somewhat less formal audience. She discusses strategies like letting characters say ‘”Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants?”’ as well as treating the voices in your head like helpless mice and trapping them into jars. Lamott stresses the importance of just getting your “shitty first draft” down, no matter how silly, or shitty. She opens up about writers not having a naturally occurring flow of words streaming out of them as some may think. She paints the picture of Herman Melville having the same trouble getting started as that poor tenth grader whose mom made him take AP Lang. In fact, Anne Lamott assures us of this: “We all often feel like we are pulling teeth, even those writers whose prose ends up being the most natural and fluid.”

“Perfectionism” was written in a way that encompasses all parts of life, instead of just writing. Lamott approaches this piece of writing as a general rule of thumb, instead of simply a rule of literature. She says perfectionism “will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.” Lamott challenges the reader to take a step back from unrealistic expectations of perfectionism in all aspects, including first drafts. Instead of puerile technics mentioned in “Shitty First Drafts”, the author suggests turning to your God in order to break free from the unflawed point of view, in writing as well as life.

Both works highlight the need of a rough draft, in the rawest sense of the term. “Shitty First Drafts” focusses for the most part on writing within itself, while “Perfectionism” breaks that mold and allows the reader to apply the text to every facet of their life. When broken down, both themes can be related back to taking a step away from the voices in your head telling you everything has to be untarnished and just letting the words flow.

Why Are You Here ?

“Roll Tide” were my first words as a baby. My parents met and married at the University of Alabama and 30 years later my sister and brother in law met and married at the University of Alabama. I come from a long line of UA grads, but I find myself sitting in Burns Hall with “Hotty Toddy” written on my walls. Approaching senior year in high school I decided that college was the path I wanted to take, but for some reason UA didn’t seem like my calling. I love SEC sports and that was my biggest priority when picking a school. However, orange is my least favorite color, remember I grew up an Alabama fan, so any orange schools were out of the question. Eventually I was left with three choices: LSU, which didn’t have my major, South Carolina, which is a little too big for my liking, and Ole Miss, which was just right.