Last day of classes but not the end of the semester yet. Still have exams, papers due and my internship to finish up. UGH! Luckily I only have one exam but I do have a lot of writing to do before I am done. So that is all I have been concentrating on is homework. Not too exciting. I am ready for some relaxation and fun!
I played (with UM-Flint Wind Symphony) for winter graduation yesterday. It was fun but I am glad it is over. It kind of sucks graduating in the winter – there was a big snow storm yesterday and the arena was not as full as graduations past. Of course the graduates and their families that showed up were excited.
I liked the student speaker, Myron Mann (I was in a class with him – you go Myron!); his message was ‘give back to Flint and don’t just attend school in Flint but talk bad about it to people. Don’t take from the community but not give anything back but disrespect. I like that message. I have overheard quite a few people from outlying communities put down Flint while they are going to school here. Not to mention xenophobes in rural areas who put the city down. They don’t know anything about the good things in Flint but speak poorly of it when they are too afraid to find out about the city on or too forgetful of all it has to offer or all the benefits they get from it. I will concede that there are parts of Flint that are dangerous but all places in the U.S. have those areas including rural areas. Lets just say every place has its dangers that range from closed minded attitudes to rampant drug use to barricaded gunmen to bar fights/shootings to murder.
In fact I used to work in a rural community where a lot of people who live there think a little too highly of themselves and less of the rest of the world, especially the ‘big bad city’. Little do they know is that their kids are partiers and drug users (actually I think they know it is just that hypocrisy reigns supreme in that community). I am not talking about marijauna but hard drugs, like coke. I know this because I used to hear all about the partying from my co-workers, who seemed to be innocent high schoolers but were really big time partiers. Just goes to show you that places are not always what they seem and shite happens everywhere.
That is my lesson for the day.
Jacquelyn's Space 