Lilibeth Miranda
December 8, 2012
Professor Doris Cacoilo
Media 384.00
Final Project Summary:
After tons of research starting from within myself, I decided what I believe in most at this time in my life is the pay it forward theme. Feeling truly blessed with the opportunities I have been afforded in life and seeing the kinds of dialogue we were able to open in class was truly inspiring. I decided to start my own website and share my experiences in life that have made me the strong woman that I am today, as well as share some of the awesome things that I have learned in this particular class. Growing up was very difficult for me; I had no role model, no direction and very little support. Trying to figure things out on my own at 5 years old wasn’t easy. I had to rely on conversations that I overheard, television, cartoons and most importantly the mistakes that had been made by my own parents. I was raised in a home where children, especially women, should be seen and not heard. I was taught that it was disrespectful to look at your parents in the eyes, and that your opinion really had no place in the eyes of authority.
I was blessed one day to listen in on a conversation that a counselor was having with a student at school one day, where the counselor said “your feelings… what you feel inside, can never be wrong.” Also, I had a very harsh lesson from a racist, lesbian, nun who surprisingly gave me all the confidence and ambition I have now, when she held a stapler to my face and said “try to take this out of my hand”, she held it to my face several times requesting that I “try” to take it from her hands, each time pulling the stapler away. When I finally grabbed the stapler out of her hand she yelled, “I didn’t tell you to take it asshole, I said try” looking puzzled I said “I don’t understand” and she replied “you see, there is no such thing as trying you either do or you don’t, now get out of my classroom!” She had no idea the sense of drive and determination she ignited in my soul… or maybe she did.
I was the first person from my family to go to college right after high school. As quickly as my dream of becoming someone came, it vanished before my very eyes. I couldn’t afford college. Although my mother made little money, I was refused financial aid because her income was joined with my step-father, who was not going to help me pay for college. I was forced to wait until I was 25 years old to continue my studies. I am fortunate to be able to afford my education now; however, for those that are in similar situations, and those that are not, I have created my website to teach them (without any cost) everything and anything I have learned thus far in life as well as in school.
In my website you will find my personal projects such as interviews and documentaries, inspiring quotes, my top pick movies, eye opening clips discussing politics, as well as blogs and interactive topics for discussion. I held my first event on December 2nd and had 9 people come from the ages of 16 to 24 attend to watch the movie Miss.
2 Miranda continued…
Representation. Surprisingly, after the movie was over, the attendees stuck around for over 2 hours discussing their opinions, thoughts and feelings from everything to life, politics, religion and the media’s influence on sex and relationships. It was inspiring that I was able to open up a dialogue that interest this group of young individuals. I was even more surprised when I was contacted for information on when my next event would be, which without even having a topic or movie picked out (as this was a trial and error situation) I now have 23 individuals waiting for my next event.
Although my website is nowhere near where I wanted it to be, I am excited to continue working on this project and eager to see how far it will go. If I can just inspire a handful of young kids and they then go on to inspire a few more and so on and so forth it will be a great achievement for me. The flame that was ignited in the soul of these kids was something out of the ordinary and I will continue to pay it forward for as long as possible, because that makes the opportunities that have been afforded to me worthwhile, as some of these kids didn’t even know they had a voice.
My personal projects consisted of a candid interview of my 5 year old niece – where she proved to be a little feminist, saying things such as: she thinks the only difference between boys and girls are that girls are smarter and better than boys, she sees no difference between “brown” and “white” baby dolls but she prefers the brown ones, she knows women can become President of the Unites States of America if they want to, when she grown up she wants children, however, she wants to have a job and have the “daddy” stay home, take care of the children, cook and clean, and lastly you are born pretty and no matter how different you look you are just pretty.
For my second project, I put together a compilation of my niece dancing ballet with a very powerful voice over of several politicians’ (from the U.S. of A) opinions about women issues in their own words.
Blow you will find the resources I used:
Webs.com (designed my website) www.thewayitshouldb.com
imovie (created my short ballet film)
movie maker live
music from T.L.C. “unpretty”
music from Pink Martini “Clementine”
You Tube Videos:
What are Human Rights?
The Evolution of Beauty
Rush Limbaugh
Republicans and the War against Women
John Stewart – interview with Mike Huckabee
Jay Leno - interview with Newt Gingrich
3 Miranda continued…
Preacher Phil Snider’s congressional Counsel Speech
Movies:
Miss. Representation
Revolutionary Road
America the Beautiful
Solar Mamas
Killing Us Softly
Crash
Pay It Forward
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.