A Quick Reflection Before Bed

Dear Reader,

My summer is winding to a close. Tomorrow, I have my written final. Friday, I have my oral exam. Friday night, I board a 25-hour train to Hong Kong, where I have 10 days of intensive TOEFL training and Yale-China orientation, after which I move to Yali Middle School, Changsha, for the next two years of my life.

It's all happening so fast, it seems, but I suppose that's how life works, for better or for worse.

Speaking of the better, I want to reflect on the worse. I recently went back and watched the first (and this far, only) music video that I've made, "Part of That World," a parody of "The Little Mermaid" song of nearly the same name. In the video, I chose to use a couple images (one of female Chinese soldiers marching in formation, one of a Lego rendering of the famous Tian'anmen Square photograph from June 1989) that I would not use if I made the video today. The first photograph grossly mischaracterizes my future students, and the latter now seems totally insensitive to the lives lost at Tian'anmen that summer, as well as to the movement for which they were lost. I think that I crossed the line, although I didn't realize it at the time. However, I have decided not to remove or edit the video, because it represents who I was at the time it was posted, and now I can look back and really see how much I've grown.

There are also other little things about me that have changed: I try not to use the word "retarded" anymore (this is largely because I've learned a great deal more about autism this summer, and I simply don't feel right throwing out that word casually), and I've become much more sensitive to jokes involving children, even if in complete jest.

Anywho, these are just a couple quick observations that I wanted to throw out. Now, about that final...

-cy