Soundtrack To My Life

Hedwig’s Theme - John Williams

How do I even begin to describe how much I adore this song? It’s the theme for my entire childhood, starting from the first time I saw a Harry Potter film up to this moment in time. Every time I hear the first five notes of the song I instantly recognize it, and it never fails to cheer me up. At the same time it makes me feel a little nostalgic and sad, because this is my childhood embodied within a song. That childhood is rapidly coming to a close with both my departure from high school and the last Harry Potter film being released this summer. So this will always be number one for me, if for no other reason than it reminds me of what a great childhood I really had.

Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas

Probably one of the most inspirational songs that I know of to date. I mean, come on, just listen to the lyrics:

Carry on my wayward son

There'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more

This song is basically a reminder that things in life are going to get tough. It isn’t going to be easy or even happy at all times. But you can’t throw in the towel and accept that everything sucks. You’ve got to keep your chin up and push on. Bad times aren’t everlasting.

There is another reason why this is my number two song. It’s the unofficial theme song for my favorite show of all time, Supernatural. Every single diehard lover of the show never fails to get ridiculously excited and sing along with this song when it comes on the radio or their iPod. It just keeps my hope alive that someday I'll find a guy who drives a '67 Chevy Impala and wears plaid button-down shirts. For this reason I have included a picture of the Winchester brothers from the show because they are fine and my blog needs something nice on it, hahaha.

 

I’m Not Okay (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance

The song that got me through the toughest time period of my life. I’m not going into detail about it because there are things that have happened in my past which I’m not proud of. posting them on a blog where my classmates can read them doesn’t seem like a good idea. All you need to know is that this song really helped me during a time when I didn’t think anything else could. Having the number three spot on my list should tell you just how important this song is to me.

Stupid Girls - P!nk

Say hello to everything that I aspire to be personified within a song. The entire thing is about girls being who they want to be instead of dumbing themselves down and going along with what society says an attractive girl should be. I’ve never felt like I fit in, even from a very young age. It used to bother me a little bit, and I could have very easily just gone along with the crowd and become one of these “stupid girls”. Thank god I didn’t, because I love being my own person with my own agenda. If that means I never have a big group of friends or I never have guys all over me, then that’s perfectly fine with me. As the song goes:

I’m so glad that I’ll never fit in

That will never be me

Outcasts and girls with ambition

That’s what I wanna see

James Bond Theme Song

Who doesn’t like James Bond movies? Seriously, you have problems if you dislike James Bond. The movies are classic. Bond is a B.A.M.F. if I say so myself. The reason I have the theme song on this list is not because of my undying love for all things related to covert operatives though. When I was growing up, every year around Christmas time Spike TV would run a James Bond movie marathon. Every single year I would sit down with my dad and we would watch the Bond films together. It didn’t matter that we knew how every single one was going to end, or that we knew who the evil guy was or which Bond Girl was going to wind up dead. That quality time with my father is something that’s very special to me, and I always think about it whenever I hear the Bond song.

Non, je ne regrette rien - Edith Piaf

Let me just start by saying that I don’t speak French. Well, I can speak a few words but Je ne sais pas isn’t going to get me very far in conversation with a French person, hah. However, the general message of this song is why it’s on this list. Non, je ne regretted rien means “No, I’m not sorry for anything”, and it talks about essentially having no regrets for anything you’ve done in life, good or bad, because tomorrow is a new day. I think that’s something that a lot of people could benefit from instead of worrying over every single thing that they do.

And you know, the song was also in Inception, and that movie was just bad ass. It’s easily in the top five best films I’ve ever seen. Your argument otherwise is invalid.

O Fortuna - Carmina Burana

So technically this was a poem before Carl Orff put it in to song form, but we can look over that detail. Yet again I have another song in a language, Latin this time, so you’ll have to look up the lyrics to know what it’s saying. It’s all about how things such as luck (or Fortuna, the Roman goddess and personification of luck) and fate control our lives and not always in ways that we desire. To listen to this song being performed is just astounding. It always gives me chills to hear it. This was probably one of the first orchestra style songs I ever heard that really caught my attention and made me realize just how awesome classical music is.

Bye, Bye, Bye - N’sync

This was my jam when I was seven years old, hands down. I lived and breathed N’sync right along with every other girl in the second grade. I remember that was some sort of messed up rivalry between the kind who liked N’sync and the kids who liked The Backstreet Boys. We were all insane when it came to this music. My best friend Shannon and I used to dance around at her house for hours just listening to this song, along with the rest of the album. Now that I’m older I just laugh at the thought of me going absolutely out of my head over this band. Still, this song is associated with many fond memories from my earlier days, and I’ll always cherish it.

Enter Sandman - Metallica

Say hello to the first song from the 80s that I have conscious memory of hearing. My dad introduced me to all of his music, which was thankfully what I took after rather than my mother’s taste in country. I remember sitting on the tailgate of our truck and listening to this on tape while my dad looked around in our garage for his fishing tackle. I really blame this song for my taste in music now, but I can’t say I’m complaining too much. This opened up a door to an entire decade of amazing music that it seems like a lot of people have forgotten about.

Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

I will be the first person to tell you that I think high school relationships where the couple think they’re absolutely in love and are going to be together for the rest of their lives are a bunch of crap. Maybe that’s just me being bitter because the only relationship I’ve had drove me absolutely crazy in all of the wrong ways and I’ve refused to date since then. But really, I see kids my age who act like they need to be these perfect beings to impress the person they’re dating or the person that they want to date.

Dude, seriously? You’re in high school! Stop acting like you’re going to be alone forever if that guy or that girl doesn’t think you’re the greatest thing they’ve ever seen. There’s no reason for you to try and turn yourself into something that you aren’t just to impress someone.

In the song, Gaga says:

I want your ugly

I want your disease

I want your everything

As long as it’s free

Personally I take those lyrics to heart. That’s the kind of relationship that I’m waiting for; one where I’m going to be accepted for me. Not some façade of myself that I put out there for people to see. You should be accepted for you, including all of your faults and all of the bad things that you think no one else wants. I don’t want one of these perfect romances because those are lies. There’s no such thing as a perfect relationship. I’d rather have a Bad Romance.

Film vs. Novel

It was pretty obvious that the movie adaptation of Frankenstein was vastly different from the novel. There were some aspects that stayed the same, but many more were changed around into something far more theatric than what actually happened. These changes were somewhat ridiculous and also changed how someone who has never read the story perceived certain characters.

The most interesting change that was made as far as a character went was Elizabeth. In the novel she was more of a passive person who never tried to improve her own situation. Victor went off and did whatever he felt like and although she would write him letters and tell him to come home, Elizabeth never tried harder than that to make Victor listen to her and consider her feelings.

However, in the film Elizabeth is a much more strong willed woman. When Victor becomes obsessed with his project and never tries to contact her, Elizabeth doesn’t just let it go. She travels to the city where Victor is living and speaks to him in person in attempts to get him back. After he comes home and refuses to tell her what’s going on, she attempts to leave him. This really changed how I viewed Elizabeth. Beforehand I thought she was just another useless side character, but in the film I respected her a lot more.

Another change was the manner in which the monster behaved towards Victor. In the novel the creature hated his master and wanted to cause him as much suffering as possible. He didn’t hold any feelings of affection for Frankenstein once he’d decided to get back at him.

In the film the creature still had a lot of animosity towards Victor, but he seemed much more mellow. At the end of the movie he called Victor his father and seemed to be extremely bereft that he was dead. Rather than going off on his own to die as he said he would in the novel, he killed himself with the fire intended to cremate his creator.

Finally we have how strong willed and brave the movie made Victor seem. He went off on his own to face off with the monster in the mountains and chased him all over the place. The film made him appear valiant in the face of adversity, and the type of character that you should admire.

This was obviously not so in the book. Victor was whiny and cowardly, and never made a move to help anyone but himself. People were dying all over the place because of him, and the whole time he sat by and just complained about his own misfortunes. Victor was a much less likeable person in the story than in the movie.

While the films was decent in it’s own right, it didn’t do the book justice in my opinion. It changed the true story around way too much for the sake of Hollywood theatrics.

Nature vs. Nurture

I believe that the majority of how a person develops and how they act is a product of nurture. Nature does have some place in it, but not nearly as much.

When Frankenstein created the monster, in a sense it was like someone having his or her own child. He was supposed to be responsible and teach the monster how to function and behave to fit in with the rest of society. The creature was brand new to life so he really didn’t understand how to act or have any preconceived notions of how he should behave. He hadn’t yet been taught how to hate someone or how to become violent to the point of killing innocent people. He was essentially a massive child who needed a caretaker to make sure that he took the right path in life. Obviously, Victor failed quite miserably with this task.

While I do believe that Nurture has more of an affect on how someone turns out, Nature has its own role. People who have parents and grandparents who have suffered from alcoholism are more likely to become alcoholics themselves. Genetics do ingrain certain habits and personality traits within an individual. However, I also think that it’s possible to avoid falling victim to these more dangerous habits that you receive from your relatives.

The monster was not an inherently evil creature. There were moments within the book, such as when he gathered firewood for the cottagers and saved the girl who fell into the river, where he displays the characteristics of a truly good person. But as the story progressed and more bad things happened to him such as being rejected from society and in one case being shot for simply doing a good deed, he became bitter. Nurture took precedence over how the monster viewed the world around him and it turned him into an angry, murderous individual with little control over his emotions and no concept on how to properly deal with things that upset him.

Victor's Responsibility.

I do believe that Victor is responsible for the actions of the monster. It’s true that he isn’t the one directly telling the monster to do terrible things, but he nevertheless created it. By default he’s the one who should have to answer for this newborn creature.

To me it’s the same as if you were the parent of a young child. Someone that’s really young doesn’t understand why his or her actions may be right or wrong. Therefore, until they learn to take responsibility for themselves, it’s the parent who is responsible for them. You are the one who brought the kid into this world so you’re the one who needs to answer for it when they cannot. Until the thing you are taking care of is capable of making responsible decisions and can take care of itself, you are the one who has to watch over it.

Victor spent years of hard work obsessing over bringing the monster to life. It completely consumed him and cut him off from reality to the point of not speaking to his own family and even his beloved Elizabeth for years. You would think that if he were that excited to have his experiment be a success, then he’d be more than ready to take on the role of being the owner of his creature. Obviously that wasn’t the case, as he reacted with horror and shame rather than happiness at his triumph. Now he’s paying the price for flaking out and abandoning this thing that was depending upon him for guidance in the world.

Eventually I think that Victor is going to have to answer for what he’s done. His negligence and fear caused the abomination that he brought into this world to escape, and people are dying because of it. Victor truly is the one who is to blame for all of the troubles that the monster is causing. If he hadn’t been so determined to mess with things that he should have been, the monster never would have come into existence so yes, I think that all of the blame should be placed upon Victor.

Passion vs. Obsession

I would define passion as an intense enjoyment or love of something. It can be applied to a lot of things in life. Some people have passions for sports, hobbies, or learning, and other people apply it to relationships. However, to me a passion is not something that constantly takes up your times and is always in your thoughts throughout your day. You can control how much time you spend on whatever hobby or subject it is.

Obsession is similar to passion in that you really enjoy a particular thing or person. However, it’s more extreme and to the point that you’re unable to stop thinking about that thing or person. People with obsessions tend to care less about everything else in their life that isn’t somehow related to the object of their obsession.

I don’t think that having a passion for something is a very dangerous idea. People can usually control their passions and focus on other things when they need to. I do believe that certain obsessions can end badly for someone who has them. Individuals who have obsessions with learning and traveling, like Robert Walton for example, may end up learning things that they never really wanted to know and end up in places that they never wanted to be. People who have obsessions with other people are technically called stalkers, and that’s just no good at all. So yes, I’d say that obsessions are not always healthy.

I have what’s probably borderline passion and obsession about the television show Supernatural. I really enjoy it, and sometimes I do have a hard time not talking about it with other people who may not necessarily care. Of course I can stop thinking about it in order to focus on schoolwork and other things that I need to get done, but I can go off on it in conversation for a really long time if given the chance. It’s not the worst thing I could be obsessed with, but sometimes people think I’m weird because of it.

Semester Plans.

Out of everything that I did last semester, I am most proud of getting a 3.8 GPA. That’s the best GPA I’ve ever had, and I’m going to try and get a 4.0 before the end of this school year. Having a good grade point average will look excellent on my college applications.

I do wish that I'd been able to get an A in Psychology, and it's my fault that I didn't because I didn't put forth the effort to study as much as I should have for the quizzes. I also wish I’d paid more attention in Government class. Not because it’s a hard class, but because all the things we discuss in there are relevant to life, especially considering I’m going to be out in the real world very soon. 

When I graduate the thing I'm looking forward to the most is just getting out of high school. I'm ready to go on to college and start getting my own life going. I’m excited to finally be independent from my family, even though I appreciate them a lot. Moving out into the world is something that I’m excited for.

I’m not worried about much as far as graduating goes. I suppose having to be financially independent for once in my life is going to be difficult. Achieving a balance between having a job and keeping up with my classes is going to be a challenge.

This semester I’m going to try and really buckle down to get everything done. Not only that, but produce a high quality of work in order to maintain the best GPA that I can. I’ve really got to watch out for classes like Economics and Government, since I tend to slack off a little in those subjects. It’s not that I don’t try; I just pay so much more attention in classes that I enjoy because they interest me.

It may be the final semester in my last year of high school, but I don’t plan on coming down with “Senioritis” any time soon. It’s not over until I have my diploma, after all.

Quote Responses

Quote One: "Frailty, thy name is woman." Hamlet said this in a soliloquy about his mother. He means that women are weak minded and depend upon a man to protect them. I do not think that this quote applies in the modern age. Women nowadays are much more intelligent thanks to being allowed to attend school, and are capable of being independent from men.They can take care of themselves when the need arises.

Quote Two: "Brevity is the soul of wit." Polonius says this to Claudius and Gertrude. It means that being well spoken and having knowledge of how to use words in conversation makes you intelligent. I think that this is very applicable to life today. It's important to be well learned and know how to speak well and with at least an air of intelligence about you.