Beyond the Palette

    Everytime I put my airpods in, open spotify, and play my favorite song at fully volume, the world around me disappears. The melodic symphony of notes, combined to emphasize different emotions and stories, immerses me into a world where all my worries seem to fade. When I listen to music, I'm reminded that music isn't just about individualistic pleasure -- it's a common ground for people to share grievances and experiences.      As in Sherman Alexie's " Because My Father Always Said... ", music not only serves for personal enjoyment, but it also shows how songs like ' The   Star Spangled Banner' c arries cultural and personal memory. Within the story, Alexie describes his father's obsession for a specific cover of the Star Spangled Banner -- by Jimi Hendrix -- and the impacts that  the song had on their relationship. Even though it is not explicitly stated, we can assume that Alexie's father's fondness to the song is due to a sense of co...

Finally coming back home from school, you drag your feet down the same old, cracked sidewalk. The houses and trees blur into the background, the sky seems gray, and the wet puddles from the rain this morning feel as though they reflect images devoid of any color. The sounds around you start to fade, and the only thing you hear is the rhythmic beat of your footsteps. You just walk, waiting to arrive in the safety of your home.  For many people, this is what life feels like -- maybe even you. From walking home from school like in the story, or even taking a quick detour to the pantry for a little midnight snack, our society has forgotten to just sit and observe our environment.  This week in AP Language, we read and analyzed the short speech " This is Water" by David Foster Wallace. In doing so, I had come to a momentous realization: the scenario described in the beginning had been how I was living for the past few years. This is Water underscores the idea that by observing ty...

Art isn't just lead on paper, or paint on canvas, but art is art because of the thought and meaning put behind those drawings and paintings. In fact, art can be many things, even stone statues and marble objects meant to commemorate someone or something. In the same way, memorials are also art, not because of how majestic they look or how beautiful they are, but because of the meaning and emotion being put into the process of building them.  This past first week in AP Language, we learned about memorials and the aspects that make them so significant. Specifically, we learned more in depth on the small details that the sculptors and architects intentionally add, the geographical importance of the monuments, and the placements of these monuments.  The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, for example, is sunken into the ground, instead of towering above visitors like traditional memorials. This choice in architecture was actually intended: to make visitors feel as though they are look...