BEDA #6: Spread The Loooove

OKAY, KIDZZ. So I'm posting twice today, because I said when I started BEDA that I was gonna make up for the days I've missed, and for real, that's what I plan on doing. Plus, I sorta wanted to blog about nonimportant things today, and the blog post I did earlier today on the Day of Silence didn't really leave room for that. So I guess that means it's perfect timing for another BEDA post! 8D

I got my BEDA buddies today too! Their names are Rishem, Patty, and Kristyn, and every single one of us is a Harry Potter is that. How freaking awesome is that?! I'm really really excited, man. And I'm trying to think of something to do for like, group bonding or whatever, but I haven't quite thought of any ideas just yet. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see, eh? For now though, I'm planning on just featuring one of them per day. Partly because this gives me a chance to get more in-detailed for each of them instead of just doing a brief overview of all three of 'em at once. But mainly it's just because Rishem is the only one whose blog I've found thusfar, so it's a bit hard to say anything about the other two. Bahaha.

You can click here to see Rishem's blog! :U

So far, I'm thinkin' she's a pretty rockin' cat, mann. I mean, c'mon. How could someone planning the eventual dictatorship of Canada not be awesome, right? Plus, I'm thinking we have some sorta mojo between us, because she mentioned Slumdog Millionare in her April 15th post, and we juuust rented it. So I think it's kinda awesome that I'm already doing what she's telling to before I even know what the commands are. Ahaha. And she's a freaking NERDFIGHTER. BE DO DO DOOO. I mean, I'm sure a massive amount of kids who know of Maureen Johnson know of her because of John Green and Brotherhood 2.0, but hey, still. A Nerdfighter's a Nerdfighter.

Okay, paragraph format for this is kinda hard, so here's a list of reasons why Rishem's awesome:

1. She's a Nerdfighter
2. She likes Harry Potter
3. We have some sort of telepathic bond
4. She's planning a dictatorship
5. Even with the BEDA days she's missed, she looks like a freaking pro compared to me
6. She had lasagna for dinner on the 15th
7. She lives in another country, even though it's only Canada
8. She's making some really sweet and really awesome points in her blogs. Especially on Day 4: "Something I'm realizing more and more everyday is that nobody ever has to be alone in anything. There will always be someone there for you and if you're really lucky you won't be able to push them away. Whatever your excuse is, you don't want anybody to suffer with you, they don't wanna hear about this, they've got problems of their own, I can do this on my own, etc. Whatever it is, they'll be there. And I'm so glad that I have people like that in my life. They've made everything so much easier for me and I don't know what I would have done if they weren't there. But, what I was getting to before was that everything's a lot harder if you don't let those people in and share what's going on. Sometimes even having someone there that will listen is good enough to ease the burden." One of my biggest things lately is that I've been feeling really, really lonely. Junior year is ridiculously busy, and it just seems like everyone's gotten so sucked up in their own crap that I don't even see the kids I used to spend every single day with anymore, and it just gives me a fuzzy feeling reading some of the things she's written.
9. She's a supporter of To Write Love On Her Arms. 8DDD [Click here for my article on TWLOHA]

But anyways, tomorrow I'm going to this old lady's house from my church and working for eight hours. I'm going on a mission trip to Cabrini Green, the projects in Chicago, this summer with my church, and every year we have a Workathon where kids who need extra money call up parishioners and as them to pledge us money for spending one day working for someone from the church. This year, I think we're doing a bunch of yardwork and rebuilding a retaining wall for her, and part of me's really excited for it.

I remember last year during the Workathon, I had my robot baby for child development. Ohhh man was THAT ever interesting. It was raining outside, and pretty much what we did for the entire day was deconstruct this rotting garage that happened to be at the top of this hill that led right down to a swamp. So I had to keep running back and forth between carrying gigantic chunks of rotten wood and making sure Connor, who was underneath a towel the entire time, wasn't crying. It was so. Hard. I swear though, I loved having Connor so much though. Even if he was a robot baby, he was absolutely endearing, and he still TOTALLY tugged on my motherly instincts. Honestly, I still miss the lil' guy. <333

It's gettin' late though, and like I said, I have to get some work done tomorrow. I have a video planned though, and if it doesn't fall through, I think it's safe to say it'll be up within the week.

Catch you guys tomorrow! <3

BEDA #5: ¡SILENCIO, POR FAVOR!

Sooo, today's GLSEN's Day of Silence. And this year, like I've wanted to do for sooo many years now, I finally participated.



For those of you who don't know. Day of Silence is an annual event where students of all races, ages, locations, and interests go without speaking for one day. For one day, everyone participating makes a point to "stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves", spotlighting lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders who are being bullied, discriminated against, and mistreated in a surprisingly large host of ways. For one day, students put their food down to end the silence that many people in the LGBT community are forced to live in out of fear of being condemned by our society. Each person sports a little tag for the length of the day that reads:

Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence (DOS), a national youth movement bringing attention to the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by anti-LGBT bullying, name-calling, and harrassment. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward building awareness and making a commitment to address these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today.

Actually, a surprising amount of people at my school participated. Which really REALLY was a good feeling. It's wonderful knowing that at the very least, there are so many young people just within my own community who are willing to do so much as publicly state that they support the LGBT community. And I gotta say, I was REALLY into it. I mean, I'm not gonna lie and say that I didn't say a single word all day. but from the time I slid the pass around my neck to the time I walked through the door, I seriously tried my hardest not to speak. Which is really. really. REALLY HARD. There were only two times that I directly abandoned the hope of making it through a certain scenario without words: in AP English class, when we were working on our partner essays (it's a lil' hard to write an essay with someone who has to pause and type out their response every time you say anything to them, I'd imagine) and in Creative Foods when we were planning our appealing meals groupy thingamabob. I knew what was going on 20x more than anyone else in our group, and it would've taken waaay more time than we had for me to write it all out.

I gotta say though, part of me was really upset today. Y'know why? Because I saw numerous people cheerily hosting the tags around their necks describing the message of DOS, but not even putting a fraction of effort into the Silence that composes the entire day after, what, the first hour? And maybe I'm just really really overreacting, but it sorta just added a certain amount of factuality and realism to what my US History teacher always says - that we can say we want to make all the change in the world, but 90% of us will give up on the cause before we even start it. Which is a horrible thing to say, y'know? But it's so much more horrible to see how much of a reality that is.

Still, even just for me, the silence was moving. And it was a lot quieter, even with the people who didn't follow through with the message. For myself alone, it really helped pound in the weight of not being able to convey something you really wanted, and in some cases even needed to say. Sexuality is such a large part of who you are, and I almost wanna say that I feel lucky to be straight. Simply because I honestly don't know if I'd have the strength to deal with some of the torment that's part of the package of homosexuality. We're learning about the Civil Rights Movement in my US History class right now, and participating in the Day of Silence really made me feel like I was part of a whole new little Civil Rights Movement, y'know? And it's so powerful to me, to know that even if there were a few kids around school with "Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve" tags around school, there were hundreds more supporting the cause.