9 - 10
9. Animals: Choose an animal. Write about it! (02/24/2023)
I did random animal generator and Lion was the first result. Lions are just big cats that can chase you down and eat you. If I had a household black cat, and it became the size of a human, would it eat us? A regular cat scratch will leave some marks and make you bleed a little. A giant cat scratch might cut deep enough to rip your organs out.
People say lions are the kings of the jungle because they have no predator. Now, we have humans who hunt them down with rifles so does that make us the new kings and queens of the jungle. What kind of king would be jailed in a giant metal cage only to serve as entertainment for the rest of his life? I remember watching Madagascar Two, and Alex is titled “the King of New York City” because he is the most popular thing in NYC due to his fame and wild performance. In the jungle, the king is determined by who is the strongest/popular leader. In the world, who is the king/queen. In terms of military power, Joe Biden is the king because he is the commander in chief of the country with the strongest military. If we are talking in terms of popularity, it might either be Xi Jinping, China’s President, or Droupadi Murmu, India’s President. If we are talking about the leader of the largest country, then it would be Vladimir Putin, President of Russia.
The weird thing is, when we talk about kings, we think about leaders but leaders are powerful because of the influence they have over people. A king is powerful not because he himself is strong but because he has the strength of the thousands of people who fight for him. A king by himself has little to no power. Using this definition, it doesn’t make sense to make the lion the “king of the jungle” just based on its strength or apex predator status. In one sense, he does have influence over the rest of the jungle because they fear him, but that makes him less of a king and more of a tyrant. They don’t follow his orders but just flee at his presence.
10. Friendship: Write about being friends with someone. (02/24/2023)
What does it mean to be friends with someone? When I was young, I considered almost everyone to be my friend whether it was my classmates that i hung out with everyday, my teachers, my neighbors, my cousins, or some kids that I randomly met at a park. However, as I got older, I started to separate the label “friends” as exclusive to the other labels. Coworkers were coworkers, not my friends. Classmates and people I met often but weren’t close with became associates. People I just met one or a few times became “some random guy or girl”.
What makes someone your friend in contrast to everyone else. Maybe you guys hang out a lot after work/school and enjoy a lot of the same hobbies. That’s what I thought too. I have 4 close friends that I have hung out with for at least 3 years and we are very similar in terms of hobbies and personality. However, as I thought about it, I barely know much about my friends. I have little idea of how they grew up and how they became who they are right now. I don’t know much about their hopes and dreams for future alongside the fears they have. Am I really a friend to them if I don’t know those things?
In the past few months, I have begun to open up slowly to the people around me. I learned to be vulnerable to create trust and better bonds with the people around me. The end result was that I learned a lot about some people in one night than the 3 months I spent hanging out with them. I felt more relaxed and I could lower my social guards and my filter whenever I was around them. I could talk openly about what I was feeling whether I was being a little depressed or feeling jolly all of a sudden. I felt closer to these strangers than to some of my close friends so I am questioning myself, what kind of friend am I to them and what kind of friends are they to me.
On one hand, I do want to open up more to my close friends and I want them to open up more as well but a part of me scared that the close friendship might be destroyed in the process. I feel safer being more vulnerable around strangers than people I have been with for many years. It’s ironic.
