My rederick...

           I met with a few friends from my Mediated Cultures class to work on a project regarding the effects personal music choice has on our individual conclusions about the world and ourselves.
I wasn't exactly focusing on the project we were discussing at the moment, but instead, I was off in lala land focusing on one key phrase...
           "We choose."
           I've recently come to the conclusion that at some point in time we have all made the decision to be who we are.  Perhaps we decided to be an activist, an athlete, goth, punk, internal, external... whatever it is... the point is WE chose to be _____.  On a surface level this seems too simple, but I'll do my best and try to complicated it a bit.  We all remember being in middle school and wishing we looked like that other girl, or listened to a certain kind of music because that cute boy across the hall liked it.  We remember that.  Not only did we decide to look a certain way because of these influences, but we decided what kind of a mind we would have because of these experiences.
           Perhaps I'm being blissfully unaware, but it seems that even being a picky eater is a choice.  Food is one of the things that bonds and separates us and yet we don't like the crust on our sandwiches, or the onions they put on our burgers when we eat out.  (side tangent) --> How can we be so picky when others are starving to death, making us Nike shoes and only earning enough to survive while working under abusive power!!!!  My linguistics professor told a rather funny story the other day about working with people of Malawi as she tried to learn their language.  In an attempt to show how much she cared for the people, she ordered spaghetti from those who provided her with things in order to make them dinner.  However the people rejected her gift for they thought she was feeding them worms... Worms are NOT a social norm, no matter where you are. 
           As much as I want to single us out, being hardheaded is to be human.
           (This is why I struggle with wanting to be a vegetarian.  I do not want to deny anyone a sense of connection with me, nor do I want to create a barrier).
           I have so many friends who have decided that they hate country music (which seems to be ignorance or stubborn by choice).  But of the countless amounts of country songs out there, I bet I could find one that they enjoy; thus tearing apart their stubbornness and opening a whole new can of worms...
           "Oh, I listen to everything." is the next top answer when asked what genre is they like.  We don't truly listen to everything, nor do we love everything...  We were created to have opinions, and we were created to be individual beings.  This does not mean that we must hate everything, nor does this mean that we are to love everything as well.  Something in our "Everything" is a lie... and we are distancing ourselves from the person who asked us that question.  You learn nothing by knowing they like everything.
           I'm almost dissecting both parts of my arguments.  On the one side I can't believe how disgustingly hard headed with are, but on the other hand we are so apathetic about the music we listen to, anything and nothing can define us, and then again define nothing at all.
         
          I have this memory from my childhood... more vivid than most of my memories.  I was about the age of 7 and decided that from that day on, I would sit cross-legged, because to me... that was what I thought made you a 'hippie.'  I made that decision at a young age, and to this day I still react to it.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I decide the music that I will listen to, in order to define myself, I dress the way I do in order to reflect what I want to see myself as, and more importantly what others will see me as.  This all goes back to being 7... and wanting to be that hippie.
          Not everyone makes that decision so young (remember we can't use infinitives (unless the word is everything), it's anti human nature), and this decision didn't impact my entire life, but I can see how It influences some of the choices I make.  Part of me will always want to hold on to that image.  And now, when I look back, I realize that my friends made these exact same decisions too.

I'm a little lost so far with this project I've been working on, but more and more I'm learning about who I am, and how my beliefs were formed.  A lot of this rampage came from my Mtv readings and simply trying to digest where we are right now instead of perhaps dissecting what has happened..
*Why are we the way we are?
Choices.
*Where did those choices come from?
The role models.
My one request is that we do not focus on the fact that 'indie' is the holy of all holies in the music industry.  Every artist has money, and every artist has problems... It's what makes them human.