Say What?

so once a quarter for English 2 we have to write an OP or Occasional Paper. and so the criteria is that after something simple happens to you, you go back and reflect on it, on a deeper level than at the moment that it was happening to you. and so a few nights ago i was talking to my mom and then all of a sudden this just RUSHED into my mind and i tired to type it all out before i lost it lol. is it any good?

Say what?

Bailey Brigance

My mother and I were talking about one of my mom’s best friends, Joanie. Now, Joanie is a kind, hilarious woman, who does have respect for authority figures. Unless, of course, she feels they are completely wrong. At her last job, the company continued to do the exact same procedure and each time, it never gave the result desired. So my mother’s friend Joanie suggested, perhaps assertively, a new approach to correcting the problem. The boss over her pulled her to the side and, perhaps very assertively, explained to her that she had no authority to suggest things in a meeting like that. Needless to say she quit.

This got me thinking, deeply. Because you see Joanie and I are a lot alike. I appreciate authority and am often referred to as a teacher’s pet! However… I find it hard to keep my mouth shut when the right answer is so plain before my eyes, but hidden from theirs. I started to think and wonder why it mattered who said the right thing. Isn’t the only real thing that matters is that the right thing gets done? Why do we care about WHO says WHATEVER? Shouldn’t we really care that WHAT IS RIGHT is being said PERIOD?

In society as a whole I believe we focus too much on the “who”. Your parents, your teachers, your co-workers all tell you often to vote, but only when Paris Hilton wears a ‘Vote of Die’ t-shirt, do you say ‘Ahhh, this year, I think I’m going to vote!’ Or here is a maybe more relatable scenario.

Its Monday and you have brand new jeans! You are sitting in Personal Finance and you hear Suzie behind you tell Betty that you look fat in your jeans. You’re hurt, but you and Suzie were never very close anyway so you don’t worry about it. Now imagine its Thursday. You are sitting in Science class and Ms Osborne puts your class into groups of four. Suzie is in your group. Suzie has the greatest idea for what your project should be. If you go with Suzie’s plan you WILL get an A. You know Suzie is right. But you’re angry with her. You tell her her idea is stupid. You tell her to shut up and listen to your idea, which you know is not the better of the two.

Why? Why do we do that? We judge Suzie’s idea on what Suzie said three days ago! We judge Suzie’s idea on who Suzie is, instead of judging her idea on what kind of idea it is!

You should never accept or decline an idea because you like or dislike the person who stated it. You should always accept or decline an idea because you think it is right or because you think it is wrong.

too deep? too long? this are read out loud also so is the little story in the middle too much to follow a long with if you listening to it rather than reading it yourself? heeeelp hehehe

i want to be a hero....

i just read a great little fun book called The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley (who planned to live an usual life) by Martine Murray. its all about this 13 year old girl growing up in a suburb in Australia. and i'm not kidding i adore this book! i want everyone girl and boy to read it and to know that it is ok to think the way Cedar does! she is so alive. she is so creative. she wants nothing more than to an acrobat and that's pretty much what the story is about. but anyway, the reason i loved the story so much was because of the true and simple beauty that is reflected in the way Cedar thinks and speaks. like in this moment, she is hugging her mom who she just had a very special moment with, "It was better to let the feelings just melt through, direct from one body to another, no translations, just a bit, bare sense of us, together." wow. what a beautiful description of a hug, don't you think?! i want to be exactly like this little girl hehehe. and in some ways i hope i already am. but along with being like her, she describes a character and that paragraph jumped off the page! it had me in tears. this is exactly the person i want to be!

"Marge Manoli is an old lady with a hairy mole on her cheek. She works in the Opportunity Shop on Smith Street. She called you 'love' and she talks to you as if she really likes you. I've heard her talking just like that to all the crazies and all the homeless people and drug addicts who go in there. She listens to them, even when what they're saying doesn't make sense. She doesn't get impatient with them for going on and on about the same thing. Marge Manoli is the mother of Smith Street. No one ever says thank you, no one ever pays her for it, and she doesn't expect anyone to, either. I bet there are millions of these kinds of people in the world- kind, caring people disguised as bus drivers or sandwich deliverers or mothers or plumbers."

or maybe even 15 year old blog writers? goodness i hope so. i hope i'll be able to help people someday and love people the way Marge does. the way my mother and father do.

I'm Bailey Marin!

And I am fortified with optimism! (I saw that commercial for SoyJoy and I thought it was a pretty awesome phrase so I’ve been using it to describe myself lately hehehe.) I am a Dreamer. And a Believer. I’m not afraid to stand up for what is right and I always tell the truth, even when it’s hard to do. I believe completely in what I call True Love. That is, I try my hardest everyday to put aside harsh feelings I have for people and love them freely. I try to show people that no matter who they are or what they do or believe I still love them. And I want them to be happy. I want people to feel better about them, after having had an interaction with me. I’m very loud, something I am trying to tone down, and I’m pretty random! I love to make people laugh and make them feel comfortable and happy. I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and my beliefs dictate every aspect of my life. My parents are still together and I have 4 siblings (I’m the middle child), all of which I love very dearly!

I’m a very artistic person. I love music, writing, acting, drawing and sculpting. I plan on taking art all four years of high school and well into college.

My life as a little kid, and still today, was totally experienced with music. It was always on! My dad raised me on the oldies, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s music, and I adore him for it! I love being able to freak older people out by my knowledge of their era of music. J I can handle just about every kind of music; expect rap or hip hop or anything like that. My favorite kind of music is played by bands like Coldplay, music that has real substance. But the greatness of a song, in my opinion, lies in the lyrics. I like clean, inspiring, true lyrics. I also like songs that are simple and acoustic; just a guitar or a piano. I love 70’s music; artists like Jim Croce! But I have to say that my favorite band of all time is Hanson! Hehehe. Yes. MMMBop. The three blonde brothers who hit the scene in ’97 mean the world to me! J They still put out albums and I still go to concerts! I love them!

I also love writing and reading. I read to find out the problems in the world, and I write in an attempt to solve them. (That’s another of my little sayings hehehe) Reading is a really great escape, but also be reading about other people, even fictional, and seeing how they handle problems helps me brainstorm ideas on how to handle mine, y’know? This is going to sound weird, hehehe, but I like learning from other people mistakes. Seeing where they messed up helps me to not repeat that. I want to understand how we all work and why we feel the things we feel, so I read. I love reading to experience more things so I can help others and myself.