What the world is going through…

People judge books by their covers. You. Me. Don’t go shaking your head, thinking ” NAH! I don’t judge.’ Yes, you judge people by the way they look. You would be lying to yourself if you say you don’t judge. You judge people by what they look like, what they wear, what they say, the way the behave and what you hear about them. I do it too. I am admitting it . . . on the world wide web. Judging is wrong but natural. If you judge people, you know you are human.

Yes, judging is perfectly natural. However (and please take my advice on this one), keep your judgements to yourself. People don’t want to know your opinions about them. The moment you say something, you are just giving them more reasons to judge you.

But people still judged all over the world. People in America judge people of different races than them and if you watch the Tyra’s show Focus on Race, you’ll know what im talking about. People judge others in Australia, Europe, Asia and even in Singapore. All over the world, people judge.

Today, I am going to talk about judgements based on races. In Singapore, judgements are not to the extreme that everyone avoids one particular race. It is nothing like the Black-White conflict America struggled through for so many years. We are all pretty cool with everyone. I have friends of all races and we are all a very big happy group. Enough side tracking. I am going to touch on a few topics such as; different races living in the community, inter-racial dating/marriage, people disliking different races, people disliking their own races and what some races call beautiful and others call ugly. ( You would have noticed, I followed what Tyra did).

Singapore is a multi-racial country. In America and other parts of the world, different races live together in a community. Like I said earlier, Singapore does not have a lot of people discriminating others. After September 11, in America, the muslims and arabs are currently having a tough time. They can’t walk out their doors without being called a terrorist. It isn’t a good feeling being called  terrorist. The moment you turn a corner “TERRORIST”. You enter a resturant, “TERRORIST”. To shopping in a mall, “TERRORIST”. Everywhere you hear the word terrorist and you begin to wonder if that is the only word in everyone’s vocabulary. After a while, people don’even know your name any more. They just say “Hey you. Terrorist! Come here. ” But seriously, being called a terrorist isn’t nice. It is hurt full and depressing. Terrorist is someone that has done something dangerous and harmful to a large group of people. Now, just because of one person you are going to stick a ‘BEWARE OF ME’ sign of every person from that race. I won’t do that. Oh, but (I hate using this term) White people have. They have done it to the african-american community and now they are doing it to the muslim community. However, in the white community, if an individual commites a crime, we blame the individual, not the race. Would anyone like to know my opinion why? Well, because majority of the American goverment is made of white people.

Sorry, I am going overboarded.

Moving on, what is so wrong with inter-racial dating? I don’t understand. If it weren’t for people marrying inter-racially, I wouldn’t be born. I know people who have inter-racially married or are getting married or are inter-racially dating. Let me break this down for you. Two people love each other. These two people are from different races. They don’t care about their races but the people around them do. Seriously, LEAVE THE HAPPY COUPLE ALONE. They love each other. That is all it counts. Open your eyes please.

Next, what is with people disliking other people of different races? Because of religion? What did the other race do to insult your religion so bad. Some religions don’t even allow people to touch holy books of other religions or enter other religionsholy grounds. People are just using religion as another excuse to pick a fight. Thinking about it logically, they are using the something which promotes peace and harmony and kindness as an excuse to pick a fight with others. Humans are really funny creatures. So religion is out. I feel the main reason for people disliking others of a different race is because of ill-treatment. Yes, ill-treatment begins everything, wars, conflicts and even kids throwing rocks at other kids. People aren’t treated equally. I do not have any words of wisdom here. I can’t tell you to treat everyone equally. That seriously isn’t my responsibility to tell the whole world to treat everyone equally. That is the world leaders responsibility. Now, with the American election with Obama (YAY!) and some other guy ( I don’t follow the election that closely but I still say Obama should win), there will, hopefully, be a positive change to the goverment system in America and that will have a positive change for everyone living there.

So we have talked about people disliking people of different races. How about people disliking their own race? I didn’t believe it myself until I watched it on Tyra’s show. This black man didn’t like being black and rather be white. I think it is because he feels that the black community has been blamed for so much and he didn’t want to be part of the blamed. I wonder if he knows that if he is a white man he would be part of the blaming community and that to me is a lot worse.

Lastly, what is beautiful to different races. Honestly, the media controls everything that we consider beautiful and since the media is controlled by a whole lot of white people or way of viewing beautiful is very distorted. So I’m not going to touch on this one.

Oh well, that’s the end for me ladies and gentlemen.

I have nothing more to say.

Expect that all my judgements about people and racial discrimination are all in this post. I have had my say.

What is yours?

You don’t know me!

Recently, I found a clip from America’s Next Top Model form one of the previous seasons. Tyra was screaming at one of the girls and they were having this disagreement ( I guess you can call it that) about their backgrounds.

I caught myself thinking ‘Everyone goes through very difficult situations and that affects them. They sometimes have difficulty bring a point across because the other person has not experience that situation’. I am not very sure how to explain it. This is very deep thinking but still, I am going to try to explain it.

I grew up very differently from my friends and the people closest to me. You grew up very differently from the people closest to you too. We went through many situations. Situations we want to forget and situations that remain close to our heart. We grew up in different atmospheres, places, cultures and countries. Our parents taught us different values and we all have different ways of viewing the world. That is what makes us different and the one and only in this world.

I have watched some clips of the Tyra Banks show and other talk shows. On one episode, Tyra brought in an adult movie star and talked to her. To summarise it up, this adult movie star, Sasha Grey, age 18, said that she enjoys what she does. She says she wants to be in that business. It is something she wants to pursue.  Then you have Brittney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and other girls in what ever situation or points of their life. Girls in good situations. Girls in bad situations. Girls having fun right now and girls that feel that they are completely screwed.

Girls who have witness their parents getting a divorce or a separation. Girls who expose themselves to dangerous situations. Girls who are born into rich families and get everything they want. Girls who always hung out with the boys. Girls who were always shy. Girls who thought they were ugly. Girls who knew they were pretty. Girls with abusive boyfriends or family members. Girls who feel that they are unable to reach family expectations. You have so many girls that do through so many experiences, good and bad. What do they all have in common? They are all different from their friends or other girls around them.

Please note that I am not being sexist by saying that girls/ females are only ones that go through this. It is just that I am a girl and it is  easier for me to relate.

Have you ever looked at someone in school or on the street and think to yourself ‘Man, she has things easy’? You know. That one person you look at and say they have a perfect life. If you talk to that person and have a decent conversation, you will realise how wrong you were. No one has life easy. Everyone may look like they do but there is always something  in the back of their mind that will haunt them no matter what time of day it is. No one is perfect. No one has it easy. Everyone needs a listening ear. No one understands any one. See how complicated this is getting?

I grew up telling myself to always live up to family expectations. I would never accept anything less. I’d cry if I felt that I failed to uphold my family name or if I knew I failed my father. I am not the prettiest or the brightest or the most talented. I always fight for the spot light and attention, resulting in my competitive nature. I always compared myself to others and found faults in myself, perphas lowering my self esteem.  The continuous struggle for my father’s attention was what always got me back on my feet and to try again.y I’d look at my other cousins and tell them, ‘you have life easy’. They would disagree. Sometimes we have an arguement. Sometimes we just talk it out. But most times, we would all end up not understanding.

I don’t know what lesson there is here. It was just a random thought.

Paths to self discovery

I know I might be a bit young to be saying this but I believe that everyone in this world is on the path of self-discovery. You. Me. The president of the United states. Everyone. There is no destination. There is just a journey. No. Sorry. There is a destination. You will reach your destination when you are lying on your death bed and looking back on everything. That is another story altogether.

It is very easy to see your path of self discovery. All you need is some photos, a diary (if you have one), some old video tapes. Anything that can show you when you were younger or a couple of months ago. I find that writing letters to myself and keeping a diary or a personal blog is the best way to see yourself progress in life and see the way you change.

I have noticed alot of change in me. i have kept a diary since I was about 10 and most of my thoughts about me and the world and everything that has happened to me if all in those books. Sometimes I flip back to read them and it is almost like reading a story book. I compare my current self to my 12 or 13 year old self and I see alot of change. It is very easy to notice that change.

People are on the road of self-discovery for one reason and one reason alone. To find themselves. Let me tell you something. If you want to go find yourself, go look in a mirror! There you are. You found yourself. You don’t walk on the path of self-discovery to find your self! You walk on the path of self-discovery to create yourself. Think about it. You aren’t missing. If you aren’t missing, don’t go finding yourself!

People walk down the road of ’self-discovery’ to ‘find’ themselves. They want to know who they are. The road of self discovery bring opportunities and gives you choices. When you make a choice, you are creating yourself, you are further moulding yourself. You aren’t finding your self. It is called the path of self discovery; not the self discovery game of hide and seek. You mould yourself. You build who you are. 

I love stopping on my path and looking back. I see change. That is all life has to offer. Change.Life without change isn’t life at all. Change allows us to grow. Growth can be physical, emotional and mental growth. This growth is our path to self discovery. Create your self and growth. Look back and learn.

You are on your path of self discovery.

Making your presence known.

Hello world. Yesterday, my family had a BBQ celebrating all the August babies in the family. It was a wet BBQ and all my other cousins, Von and Nicole’s friends were helping with the barbecue while it was raining. It was our very first BBQ in the rain. Nicole introduced me to her new boyfriend and everyone was pretty much having a good time. I love my family. I learnt something yesterday but first I feel I need to explain a few things.

The entire night, everyone kept asking where my mum was. I explained the situation about my grandmother to my uncles, aunts and other cousins but when the younger ones asked, I decided to change the topic.  I didn’t really want to hang out with Kim last night. She would be a complete loner with another one of our cousins or friends and just talk. Not a very nice way to spend my evening. She would be completely be anti-social. My dad even asked me where she was because she hadn’t seen her since she came. She told me that Greg ( a family friend) was anti social but every one knew where he was. Half way through, Nicole’s boyfriend went to serve food to my dad and uncles and everyone was wondering who he was. I told them Nicole’s boyfriend.

Basically, whatever I have stated above is about being noticed and known, making known to everyone your presence. For example, my mum wasn’t ther last night, yet everyone was talking about her. People notice that others are missing if they are of great importance to the person company. If you have the executive of a major company missing in action, you will notice the person isn’t there because they are of great importance.

You also have to try and stand out to make yourself and your company known. By hiding in a corner or keeping with a small community, people won’t know who you are, just like Kim and Nicole’s boyfriend. Let evryone know who you are. Step out of your comfort zone. The only way to move foward and grow in business or relationships is to make yourself known to the others in a bigger commuity.

Good luck.

Words; suffering and benifits

The other day my malay teacher was showing the class something scientific ( yes, it is malay class but this was really interesting).

She showed us two cups of rice white were sealed in rip-lock bags. One looked really dirty and mouldy while the other look considerably clean. She told us another teacher did this. This was her little science experiment. Everyday, she said nice things to one cup of rice(cup A) and horrid things to the other cup of rice(cup B). She did this for about a month. Both cups of rice turned mouldy. However, the rice in cup A looked a lot nicer and cleaner than the rice in cup B, which had turned all green.

According to my teacher, this experiment has already been scientifically proven ( by a University I do not recall). Imagine this not on rice but on humans. Call someone ugly, they will be ugly. Call someone beautiful and they would probably turn out really beautiful. That kinda makes you think about what comes out of your mouth doesn’t it?

Well, it certainly has made me think.

Thank you all you beautiful people out there for reading.

Congrates Portia and Ellen

CONGRADULATIONS ELLEN AND PORTIA ON YOUR MARRIAGE. I WISH YOU BOTH A HAPPY LIFE TOGETHER!!!

( I know this post is about a month late but I totally forgot about it).

channeling your energy helps

Hey World,

I know. I haven’t written to you in a long time. For that, I apologise. I’ve been very busy with school and all. However, I decided to come on today to tell you about something I learnt- from myself.

Today, after school, there was some events that took place which lead to my ’self discovery’, events that I wish not repeat. There was this one conversation with a friend, however, that made me look deeper to who I was.

In front of many of my friends, I am dramatic. No. I am over dramatic and I over react. Trust me. You don’t know the meaning of over dramatic until to meet me in person. I can take the smallest thing and make it a really big thing. I am very loud and I can be scary. I just never saw how scary I was until I had this talk with my friend. I have become so scary that there are secrets that even my closest friends don’t trust me with. That hurts.

There are always excuses I made. ” I am attention seeking”. “I am really dramatic”. ” I am just being me”.”My past has caused me to be this way. I can’t change it”. In the eyes ( or this case ears) of all my friends, all they hear is “blah, blah, blah”. I am going to give the real reason.

Me being over dramatic is my outer armour. Loud. Dramatic. Intimidating. Inside, well, there’s just me. Basically, every time you read a post, you see me. Without the armour. Just so you know, everyone has an armour. Everyone knows that their armour is very brittle and can crumble to the ground time. They keep this armour up because they see everyone else has a seemingly strong armour and feel a need to protect themselves. They feel a need to be strong.

This armour is basically made of energy. I need to be loud and dramatic to be strong. You might need to push people around or gossip to feel strong. This energy that we use to make us strong is actually making us weaker in the eyes of the ones we care for the most. So what do we do?  Well, I am not going to change completely. I just have to channel my energy so that instead of it being a big brittle armour, it is a little less intimidating and may be my friends would trust me more than they do now.

May be you can channel your energy for something more constuctive.

With regards,
Cheyenne

Why ‘you suck’ sucks…

Right now, there is a huge grin on my face. If you want to know why then read my abouts page, I am Cheyenne Phillips. I remember stating there don’t put comments such as ‘You suck’ and there we have it. Someone who actually did it.

I have already contacted the person, asking for a reason for the comment and I have also approved it to prove one thing. People don’t listen to instructions or request.

Really, people don’t like seeing the words ‘you suck’. They don’t know where they went wrong. They don’t know how to make your reading their blogs more enjoyable. Please be specific and let them know.

Please don’t be fooled by the name of the writer of that comment. It certainly wasn’t me. Oh and kids under 18, don’t click on the linked name. This leads to a warning page, explaining that the website shows adult content and a link leading into the real website. Don’t click the link. I didn’t  and even if I tried, I have programmed my laptop to block out any websites with adult content.

Why cant you see?

I try to be a perfectly good friend. I really, really try. Sometimes, there are just some things I can’t control to help people. Like, right now, my best friend wants to drop Additional Math( almost the equivalent to collage math). I told her to drop it too. I might not sound supportive but I have my reasons. One, she is not very good at it and it is slowing her down. She can’t cope and concentrate on the other subjects. Here is where the conflict comes in. Our teacher won’t let her drop it.

I already have an idea that some of the school’s staff reads my blog ( yes! your secret plan isn’t so secret after all). I would just like to say that I say everything out of no disrespect. Now, I believe my teacher is some what unaware about what she is talking about. She won’t let my friend drop the subject because she thinks my friend has a lot of potential. Ok, yes. My friend has alot of potential, but she has the potential to go better at things she is good at and going a subject that she doesn’t perform well in. Honestly, it is a complete waste of time trying and trying and not succeeding. However, my teacher won’t give in.

Why can’t she see it? My friend doesn’t want and can’t continue. She is lacking behind. She told me herself. She would rather concentrate on other subjects. I know she can do well in them. I know she can. I’ve seen her do well in them. If only she could concentrate.

How can I help her when there are things and people I can’t control obstructing my path?

My day at the Art House

Today, we, the drama girls, went to the arts house to perform our piece, The Former Three Little Pigs. Well, technically I helped direct it so my darling drama girls performed the piece. I took a video of it and hopefully I can get it posted up as soon as possible. 

I am very proud of those girls. They did alot of people proud: me, our teachers, our director and instructor and our school. And , although they had one performance, they did a lovely job at it. Our audience was really pleased and I understood how nervous the girls were when our teacher in charge asked me to do an introduction 30 MINUTES BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE. “No problem” I exclaimed. “I know what to say.” I was thinking OH NO!!! Fortunately everything went very well. (YaY!)

After our performance, we went to watch another school’s performance. Since next year most schools around the Island will be competing in Singapore Youth Festival (SYF), we thought we should look at our competition. Boy, were they good! I didn’t like some bits for their performance but still Boy, were they good. No. I’m not scared.

I’m way of topic now. Just so you know why so many schools are participating, it is because this event is entittled Celebrate Drama. It is a place were we can meet fellow actresses from other schools. We can watch their performaces and learn from them. This is where we are given the opportunity to learn from each other. I think we learnt alot. We learned alot and had fun as well. That is what is important.

I think we took away something that we couldn’t learn from other schools. We got alittle bit closer. OK. The words ‘a little bit’ is no where close. We got closer. We had fun. We rocked it out at the arts house. Even until when we were buying donuts from one of the other schools, they kept asking if we would do another performance and we said we just had one performance. They looked really upset because they didn’t get to watch. LoL.

It was a great day.