Thoughts Of Jessy

  What is your personal credo?  “Just Do It,” yes, the quote by Nike,  but one quote that held me through moments of fear, laziness, and overthinking. Personally, I consider myself an ambitious person with a lot of ideas and goals for myself, but the only thing that holds me back is procrastination. Procrastination is my worst enemy; it knows my weaknesses, my fears, and my distractions. Looking back, there are a lot of things that I wish I could have done differently.  This mindset that I built for myself all began during my sophomore year of High School. Sitting in the back of Dr. Wilson’s class, staring endlessly at a blank Google Doc that was supposed to become my ten-page history essay on the relationship between Anime and Western cartoons. I didn’t know where to start; instead of trying, I froze and did other things. I think many of us have experienced this moment–knowing something is important, yet feeling unable to do it.  After wasting my minutes of liv...

Between my ears       Many things could tell the story of my life, but nothing speaks louder than the ones I place on my head every day. On its own, it’s just a pair of headphones. To me, it represents my way of energy, emotion, and sense of life. Music has been important to me for as long as I can remember, shaping each season of my life and capturing emotions I never knew how to express.  I always take a pair of headphones, earbuds, or anything that provides melody between my ears. It understands what I’m feeling even when I don’t. You can ask my peers, and they would agree that they always see me with headphones. If I don’t have them, just know that I am having the worst day ever. That’s just how special they are to my character.  My parents gave me my first pair of headphones; they were definitely cheap and flimsy. Although they barely worked half the time,  they were the light of my world. I would put them on, and they would always give me joy as ...

Have you ever been embarrassed by the things you used to like? Anime was one of my favorite things to watch growing up, and it remains so now. As a young child, I was very fond of cartoons and animation. Loving the different art styles, fight scenes, and dynamic storytelling. It all melded together well, and anime became the bread-and-butter of that masterpiece. Reflecting, I remember always being excited to pull up my favorite illegal websites to watch shows like Naruto and Dragon Ball Z because I didn’t appreciate all the ads back then. Don’t judge me, we've all been there. Anime was really enjoyable to me, but it wasn’t as enjoyable to everyone else.  Back then, anime wasn’t a mainstream thing to watch before the COVID-19 lockdown era. It was seen as “weird” or “childish.” People weren’t allowed to express what they watched, whether it was talking about it, dressing like the characters, or even acting like different characters. A vast majority of people who watched anime wer...

  Don DeLillo’s Libra doesn’t just retell the assassination of President JFK; it really dives into the murky world of conspiracies surrounding one of the most shocking events in American history. However, we didn’t get to really see all the insane theories and conspiracies that people created and continued to argue about. The assassination of the President remains one of the most heavily debated events in American history. Even though the government's conclusion claims Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, many people have found it unsatisfying or thought that there is probably more behind it. A wide range of conspiracy theories has emerged, fueled by inconsistent evidence, mysterious circumstances, and the public’s growing distrust of authority during the Cold War era.  One of the most popular conspiracy theories suggests that the CIA or other government agencies were also involved in Kennedy’s death, which is spoken about within Libra . Supporters of this theory argue that Kenned...

  As we know, Octavia Butler’s Kindred is one of the most powerful literary explorations of slave narratives ever written. Through Dana’s sudden travels from 1976 California to an early 19th-century Maryland plantation, Butler forces readers to confront the brutal realities that enslaved people faced. To actually feel the emotions and fears as if they were there in that moment. While Dana begins with a modern understanding of history, living through it firsthand changes her completely. This shows how many Americans today learn about slavery only through textbooks and educators, which are often only surface-level. Never fully understanding the fear, violence, and loss that defined everyday life for enslaved people. Thankfully, at Uni, Mr Leff taught us beyond surface level.  Many of the events in Kindred directly reflect real historical practices of slavery. For example, Dana witnesses slaves being whipped, families being separated, and enslaved people being denied education. A...

     Jes Grew represents a powerful cultural force that spreads like an uncontrollable epidemic, embodying freedom, creativity, and African diasporic expression. In Mumbo Jumbo, it is expressed as a “plague” that infects people with dance, rhythm, and joy, standing in direct opposition to rigid Western structures that try to suppress individuality and Black culture. Obviously, now we know that Jes Grew is not a literal disease, but a metaphor for cultural awakening—a rebellion against conformity and the erasure of African identity. Ishmael Reed celebrates how culture, especially music and art, cannot be contained or silenced by systems of control. During the novel, the Atonist Order symbolizes the forces that seek to suppress Jes Grew: institutions of power, colonialism, and cultural dominance. Fearing that the spread of cultural challenges hierarchy and celebrates expressions outside the normal “American” norms. In a sense, Jes Grew becomes more of a fight for authentici...