have you seen "blood diamond"?

no?

well. i lack taylor's enviable tact, so i will tell you frankly: watch it. there's an eye-opener if there ever was one.

i think i've figured it out. it took me a little while and a whole lot of self-centeredness, but i think it's a little more ironed-out than it was before. i think i definitely will be a journalist. it seems like the only way to get things done, since i'm too cynical and don't have the patience for politics. journalism seems like it would cater a little more to an attitude of impatience.

i dunno, though. we're 17. what do we know about life? all we know is what we see in the movies. and face it: everything's prettier in the perfect light and when captured at the perfect angle with the right lens. everything's a little more clean-cut when accompanied with razor-sharp dialogue and beautiful actors to romanticize everything. it's like reading poetry about something like a suicide. you don't usually read poetry about something like that, right? but it's the only way you'll ever find a connection to it, since you obviously haven't experienced it yourself.


so what're we supposed to do? should we be ashamed that the only experience we have is through the movie screen? are we supposed to just take what we can get where we can get it and run with it? do we question our sources or just overwhelm them with gratitude?

do we question what our parents teach us nearly enough?