Thoreau, yo.

The past two days have basically entirely been spent re-watching the third season of Gilmore Girls and working on my research paper for my literature class, of which a rough draft has to be presented to my professor for discussion and review tomorrow. I've got about 5 pages of material right now, only I'm afraid it's going to be a lot harder to pull it all together than it was getting all these thoughts down. It's really helpful that I love the topic I chose: Analyzing "Walden" by Thoreau and the metaphor of people as minxes and wolves. It's interesting to think about and somehow I have a lot to say. The thing is, re-reading my topic proposal I really, really like it. I'm actually a little concerned my paper won't be as good as my proposal. BUT, since I managed to let my mom read my proposal in front of me without physically cringing at all, and I'm busy working on this paper, I figured I could just cheat a little tonight and post from my proposal:

Obviously, scientifically, a minx can never turn into a wolf. It's physically impossible. A minx is a minx and a wolf is a wolf. A minx can, however, act unlike most minxes. A minx can get bit by something rabid, develop rabies itself, and suddenly feel the urge to bite the face off of everything that crosses its path. It could happen; It could become feral. To carry this metaphor on, perhaps it's not infected with disease, perhaps it's infected with knowledge or curiosity. Obviously, most animals, like minxes I assume, do not have the ability to think and feel the way humans do (they lack our emotions and level of consciousness). It would be a lot weirder for an animal to think and decide what to do seeing as they are controlled purely by instinct. Carrying this over to people, let's look at a poor person born into a poor family, generation upon generation living their lives without much hope to change. Perhaps not even much desire to change their status. They get by and they accept that and live their lives so that they feel fulfilled on their terms. But then comes the curiosity, what COULD life be like? What would happen if someone challenged everything in their life to the point where they found themselves to be a completely different person with completely new opportunities? 

There's a lot of privilege that needs to be checked with this idea; not everyone has the comfort or luxury of thinking outside of the box they live in. It could be argued, however, that this day in age, whether you're starving on the street or starving for attention in your own reality TV show, everyone is trying to survive at the base of it all. Everyone wants to be happy. 

While I think it's brave to accept being a minx, that this "cage" is your life, and find ways to be happy and enjoy all of life's fruits on your own terms. Whether by working all day, going to bed at night, and getting up to do it again the next day, by questioning everything, or being happy with the simple life accepting the things you believe to be true. There is also courage to be found in the decision to break down those cage walls you've been born into, the walls they say you'll never be able to breach. A minx cannot become a wolf, they say. But a minx can think like a wolf.

Keep in mind it is just a proposal, so don't be too hard on me if it's not all great ;)

Days of high school: 24