Drunk on Sound

Of course you have—everyone has. I’ve done 3 dumb things the last 3 consecutive days. You know why? Because I’m HUMAN. 

Thursday, I said something dumb out loud at chorus rehearsal. My professor asked what some Italian marking in the music translated to, and instead of saying “legato” or “drawn out slowly”, like I meant to, I blurted, “strung out”. Of course, everyone had a good laugh about that, including myself when I realized my mistake. The kids there are good sports, thank goodness. 

Friday, my mom told me that my cousin’s wedding was August 4th and we’d be leaving for her destination wedding the Wednesday of that week. Confused, I told her that August 4th WAS a Wednesday, and kept arguing my point until I realized that I had looked at the wrong month on our wall calendar—August 4th is indeed a Saturday. 

Today, I told my mom about this cool new app that I found in order to manage the money in my bank account, since our bank doesn’t have its own app. Instead of finally being proud of me for taking responsibility and actually managing my finances (their money), she got scared because it’s a third party app and I shouldn’t trust them with our bank information, and that I shouldn’t find the need to constantly check my remaining card balance on my phone anyway because do I really spend THAT much money at school all the time?

That third incident pissed me off more than anything has recently. The “strung out” thing was funny because college kids have the decency to laugh at people’s mishaps without dwelling on them, and I have the humility to laugh at myself when I say something stupid. The calendar thing, well, does anyone still know how to read a calendar if it’s not on their phones or computers?

Yes, my mom is concerned about other people stealing our bank info, and I am too, rightfully so. It’s a tough economy right now and the last thing anyone needs is for some leech to deplete their meager funds by stealing their identity and other private account info. But it was the WAY she reacted to my thinking that I was finally becoming a responsible adult that nearly sent me spinning towards a mental breakdown. 

“That’s just childish. You breaking down because of some stupid argument over an iPhone app? Get over yourself already!” And this is exactly what she’ll say when I tell her my thoughts. Get over myself? It’s not just this incident that pissed me off—this was simply the breaking point. Let me list the ways you’ve managed to knock me down during the highest points of my life. I should just “get over them”? The decade or so of you begging me to lose weight, JUST so I wouldn’t get teased at school or so my pants wouldn’t be tight on me. The fact that you and Dad are shoving graduate school down my throat and I have no idea where to even begin applying, let alone what master’s degree I would want to pursue, even though I’ll be receiving my bachelor’s next June? The fact that you think I’m the screwup child because I received one C throughout my entire tenure at college (the rest A’s and B’s), even though I still have a 3.5 GPA? And now the thing with the iPhone app. SORRY I’m trying to be a responsible adult and cut my squandering of money like YOU ASKED ME TO. Sorry I’m trying to be more vigilant about where YOUR money goes because we don’t have that much of it right now. I buy food and that’s it. Oh, and I spent $25 at CVS the other day to buy lactose pills and allergy medicine. Was I not allowed to do that? You’re making me feel like you don’t believe I’m ready to grow up, even though I’m almost 21 and so ready to move out of this house, you can’t even comprehend it. 

People screw up. People act like total idiots in public. People get teased for a number of reasons. I act like a ditz, as you’ve seen, on a daily basis. But this doesn’t mean I’m a dumb person. I read a lot, I work tirelessly to advance my career and receive good grades in school. And I care about my family and friends, although they can annoy the hell out of me sometimes. Young adults make mistakes—it’s how they LEARN and advance their way through this twisted maze called life. 

It’s not just the things that people do to make themselves feel stupid; it’s how others react to their mistakes. Don’t blow stupidity way out of proportion the way I just did in this rant. It’s certainly a heroic task to read this entire post, so I appreciate you guys doing so. :)

Tomorrow, the Internet is blacking itself out—personal websites, blogs, and even Wikipedia. If you haven’t done so already, black out your site by copying and pasting this code into your theme’s HTML: 

<script type="text/javascript">var a=new Date,b=a.getHours()+a.getTimezoneOffset()/60;if(18==a.getDate()&&0==a.getMonth()&&2012==a.getFullYear()&&13<=b&&24>=b)window.location="http://sopastrike.com/strike";</script>

Also, visit http://americancensorship.org/ to email our senators and ask them to seriously consider voting against these bills. 

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are extreme threats to our freedom of the Internet. If either of these bills pass, the government will have the power to shut down URLs containing any material that infringes on intellectual property rights, essentially creating a “blacklist” similar to what China and Iran have already imposed. The blacklist can include sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Wikipedia. 

Don’t let Congress pass bills that will lay the foundation for a  Communist regime in America! PROTEST INTERNET CENSORSHIP!