What Would 6 Billion Others Say?
Jan. 17th, 2013 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
venusundaeI'm currently taking Human Geography (online aaah punches) for which our required text is 6 Billion Others, a project of interviews by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and GoodPlanet. Our first assignment was to answer the same questions that were asked to people all over the world, and reflect upon in in our weekly ~discussion board~. The questions are ones that are easy to understand but hard to answer immediately if you let yourself think about them. My teacher suggested it should take at lest an hour to finish the survey, which for me has definitely taken longer!
I put the survey here, with my answers, because I am supposed to keep it for use throughout the semester, but also because I think it'd be interesting to run across this in a years time or more, and see what answers have changed, what I have a clearer vision of and what has become murkier over time. As well, I think it'd be nice if somebody came across this and decided to answer these questions for themselves. Some of your own answers can really surprise you.
What is your job? Do you like it?
I guess I would say that my job right now is a student. I am not sure I love it, but I understand where it will get me eventually in life, and I don’t have another option for myself right now. If one came up, I would probably grab it in a heartbeat. Especially if I knew it was something I could spend my life at. I think about what it means to go to school nowadays, and it makes me unhappy most of the time. I use school as a means to motivate myself to do something because otherwise I would be stuck. I push myself to do well in all endeavors I take on, I know that about myself. But I also know that if I didn’t have something – like school – telling me what to do, I would be all over the place, or nowhere. I hate to think about how expensive school is for such little output most of the time. I hate that school is used more, today, to prove one’s ritualistic “learning” rather than to celebrate knowledge and creativity. I say “today” because it is all I am familiar with, of course, but I don’t know if things have really gotten worse. I’d say that in a lot of ways, it is always getting better. So I don’t necessarily love my “job” because I am unhappy with the bigger picture of what I am a part of. But I try to learn something in whatever I do, so in that way, I am satisfied.
What does family mean to you?
Family is stupidly important to me. I rely on them because society has taught me to expect that they will always be around, even when particular track record have proven, and when all foreshadowing would suggest, otherwise. I love them simply knowing that our blood cells split from ones that split from ones that split from one another. So far a number ago that it should be insignificant. But our skin tans the same and our noses all have the same bump, so the feeling is easier to convince oneself to embrace. I guess it is sweet to think that these people that I don’t know were in the lives of the of those that I do know, and those that I’ve come to care for past just our shared DNA.
I let my family influence me a lot throughout my life, in ways that were not always smart but that I never felt I shouldn’t have done. See, I don’t even want to use the word “regret” in that sentence, even if it’d be grammatically correct and less wordy. They all love me, too, as adults who lived through the conception and pregnancies and birth of all the children’s children. It must be sweet to watch the young ones grow up and have young ones of their own. How special that must be, though I can’t intimately understand it just yet. I am still a child in most ways, especially to them. Mostly because I always will be. And so they love me because the entire process of my birth, my walking through life and my growing into my own, was a gift nurtured by their own hands. And I love them because I know that about them.
What would you like to hand on to your children?
What an intimidating question! I guess I would want them to be healthy, happy and loved. So whatever it takes to make them that way. I feel like, as a child, I can theorize about this all day long. But until I have a child in my hands, whether from my own cells or granted to me by fortune and luck, that only then could I really understand. Only once I accept the knowledge that an entire being’s first many years on earth will be in my hands, would I be able to decide the direction I want to put myself in order to better them. And I feel like along the way, living it first-hand, those things show themselves. What I might think is important in the beginning may tend to fade away. And just as well, things that I never thought of might abruptly gain urgency. I feel like this isn’t a question I can answer, satisfactorily. Not right now.
What did you learn from your parents?
I learned a lot about relationships. Not necessarily romantic, or simply marital relationships; I learned how different the relationships between different people can look, and how they can all be as important, or share as much or as little love, as another that looks to be the polar opposite. I learned how different people treat things, situations, and other people, so uniquely, and how things in these ways are not always what they seem at face value…
What subject is difficult to talk about to one’s children? To one’s family?
I don't know about talking with my own children, but I can guess certain things from watching my parents. I'd imagine it's hard to admit when you have done wrong to them. During the few times when my parents have admitted to me that they would have liked to do things differently, that they are sorry for what they've done, or that they know a certain part of my life is their "fault", it is when I have seen them look their most devastated. I am always able to forgive them, and I understand that they are human and make mistakes. People don't have all the answers to anything. And as I grew I begun to take responsibility for my own life into my hands, knowing that while they raised me, a lot of actions and decisions I made myself formed who I am with or without my parent's blessing.
When talking to my family, it's hard to tell them things you know will make them thing differently of you. It's hard to tell them things you know they won't like, especially when your heart tells you that it shouldn't be that way. Even though I knew that, down the line, they really wouldn't care or love me any more or less, it was difficult to tell my sisters and my mother that I'm queer. I knew they would be fine with it, but I guess I was carrying the burden of knowing that once it's out there, it can't be taken back. And that once certain people do know, it will cloud every other part of me so that I am only one singular tainted thing in their eyes, and that was gross and wrong and deceptive. It is hard to hear my grandma talk about the "weird" gays when at the same time she tells me she wants me to be happy. It's is hard to have gotten to a good place with the cousin I spent high school living with while she complains about gays being a "trend" that sways politics in a direction she doesn't approve of. But part of me would rather just sit back and hear it all and not say a word because it would be far more uncomfortable to do otherwise, and that part of me disappoints myself.
What gives you the greatest joy?
I love to see the people I care about living a good life. I like to see them happy, and I like to see them going places that mean a lot to them and are good for them in the face of adversity. I like seeing people smile, especially when they are people who make me smile.
But sometimes I get lonely as a spectator. Most of my happiest memories are simple ones, of laughing with other people over dumb things. I really like company. I like being around people and creating a happy atmosphere. So it's unfortunate that I've yet to find people who want to stay around me. I am okay as a spectator most of the time. I guess that's why I fall for pop stars, right? But I think the happiest times come from mutual shared smiles.
What makes you most angry?
This one is weird for me to answer. I don't really ~own~ anger the way I own sadness, or even happiness, and I don't really get angry for long periods of time anymore.
But I guess the answer would have to be... when people try to tell me what I am, in ways that are dismissive or belittling. Not like when a person tries to get to know you, and builds what they know about you into a whole person, in their mind. Because that is the sweetest thing you can do for a person, I think. Try to understand them. So, haha, I'm having trouble describing it.
It is when, because I am a young girl, or because I am Mexican American, because I am a survivor of this or that, or because I went to this school or didn't go to that school, I must be this way because that person must know more about me that I know about myself.
I don't even know who I am, and so it makes me uncomfortable when another person thinks they can tell me so without even caring.
What did you dream about when you were a child?
I dreamed about running away with the faeries and living in a place where everybody loved everybody for exactly who they were.
What is your greatest dream today?
My greatest dream is to be happy. It is to be surrounded by people who appreciate and love me already. To spend time with people who like me, who want to listen to me, and who will let me smile with them.
What have you renounced in your life?
I don't think I have an answer for this one!
Are you happy? What is happiness for you?
I have a lot of moments where I feel happy, and I am so grateful for all of those times. Having known happiness once is what gets me through sadness a million times, because it's a place I want to go back to.
Happiness is something so beautiful, I can only wish others could experience it for themselves, because I can't describe it for them. Maybe for that reason, I am okay with living a life that is not always happy, because I know how special happiness is. I wouldn't want it to lose it's charm. And I would not want to learn to take happiness for granted.
Happiness, to me, is love. And it is knowing that, after everything, there are good things in the world, and really feeling that with your heart, rather than your mind.
I use my mind too much, and that might also be why happiness is so important to me.
What would you like to change in your life?
I would like to feel certainty. I would like to know what it is I want, so that I can dedicate myself wholly to that.
I would like to not be afraid of my dreams.
What does love mean to you?
At it's peak, to me love means shameless appreciation and selfless sacrifice.
Do you think you give and receive enough love?
I find myself desiring to feel more love, often. And I think part of me is being selfish, but I also think that love is not something one needs to be ashamed of? I am grateful for the love my family gives me, and if I lived my entire life with only them, I could be happy.
But I envy friendship. And I think it helps one grow in different ways than familial relationships do. And I'd like to know that somebody cared, enough, to try to know me and understand me without the burden of blood relations pushing you that way.
And I can only hope I am giving enough love, and that it is being taken.
What was the last belly laugh you enjoyed?
Aw, I belly laugh~ all the time! For all my faults, one nice thing I can say about myself is that I never keep myself from laughing if I want to.
Probably hanging out with Sophia or Sonya and laughing at something dumb :')
When was the last time you cried? Why?
Ah, I cry all the time, too. At everything, though it's not always sad!
I'm an emotional kid haha, what else can I say.
What was the most difficult ordeal you have had to face in your life?
Something disgusting that I think of every day of my life.
What did you learn from it?
I guess in a way. I learned about human nature, and I learned about myself.
Do you have enemies? Why?
I don't. There is nobody in the entire world whom I wish to see harmed or wronged or negatively affected in any way. I don't know what else an enemy would be. But I seen none in anybody.
For what reason would you be ready to kill someone?
I'm scared that I won't know this answer until I am in a situation I could never imagine. But I wonder what it would speak about me as a person, about us all as sentient beings, about the situation and our will to live versus create. I have no clue.
For what reason would you be ready to give your life?
Love. The greater good. Don't give me a reason because I might go too easily~
Do you forgive others easily? What would you not be able to forgive?
To easily. I don't know if there's anything I wouldn't forgive on some level.
Do you feel free?
Yes. I can do virtually anything I want to, because those are the sorts of wants I have. I inhibit myself more than my peers or government ever does.
What could you not do without in your everyday life?
Uh, internet?
Do you love your country?
I appreciate it, certainly! I don't idealize it or think we are anywhere near perfect. But I'm so grateful for all I have here.
Have you ever wanted to leave your country? Why?
Yes, and I have before. I think it's good to let yourself understand the lives of people who live different lives than you, and to realize that your "way" is not the only way. Of course, one doesn't always have to leave the country to do so!
What does nature represent to you?
Have you seen nature change since your childhood?
What do you do to preserve it?
Do you live better than your parents? Why?
What does money mean to you? Why?
What is progress for you, and what do you expect from it?
What is man's greatest enemy? What is man's greatest friend?
Why do people make war?
What can we do to lessen the incidence of war?
Do you give an account of your thoughts and actions to God every day?
What do you think happens after death?
Do you know a prayer? Can you say it for me?
What do you think is the meaning of life?
What would you like to say to or what questions would you like to ask the people who will watch you?
What is your favorite song? Can you sing it for us?
What do you think of this interview? This exchange?
What do you think is its purpose?
Would you like to add something to finish?
I put the survey here, with my answers, because I am supposed to keep it for use throughout the semester, but also because I think it'd be interesting to run across this in a years time or more, and see what answers have changed, what I have a clearer vision of and what has become murkier over time. As well, I think it'd be nice if somebody came across this and decided to answer these questions for themselves. Some of your own answers can really surprise you.
What is your job? Do you like it?
I guess I would say that my job right now is a student. I am not sure I love it, but I understand where it will get me eventually in life, and I don’t have another option for myself right now. If one came up, I would probably grab it in a heartbeat. Especially if I knew it was something I could spend my life at. I think about what it means to go to school nowadays, and it makes me unhappy most of the time. I use school as a means to motivate myself to do something because otherwise I would be stuck. I push myself to do well in all endeavors I take on, I know that about myself. But I also know that if I didn’t have something – like school – telling me what to do, I would be all over the place, or nowhere. I hate to think about how expensive school is for such little output most of the time. I hate that school is used more, today, to prove one’s ritualistic “learning” rather than to celebrate knowledge and creativity. I say “today” because it is all I am familiar with, of course, but I don’t know if things have really gotten worse. I’d say that in a lot of ways, it is always getting better. So I don’t necessarily love my “job” because I am unhappy with the bigger picture of what I am a part of. But I try to learn something in whatever I do, so in that way, I am satisfied.
What does family mean to you?
Family is stupidly important to me. I rely on them because society has taught me to expect that they will always be around, even when particular track record have proven, and when all foreshadowing would suggest, otherwise. I love them simply knowing that our blood cells split from ones that split from ones that split from one another. So far a number ago that it should be insignificant. But our skin tans the same and our noses all have the same bump, so the feeling is easier to convince oneself to embrace. I guess it is sweet to think that these people that I don’t know were in the lives of the of those that I do know, and those that I’ve come to care for past just our shared DNA.
I let my family influence me a lot throughout my life, in ways that were not always smart but that I never felt I shouldn’t have done. See, I don’t even want to use the word “regret” in that sentence, even if it’d be grammatically correct and less wordy. They all love me, too, as adults who lived through the conception and pregnancies and birth of all the children’s children. It must be sweet to watch the young ones grow up and have young ones of their own. How special that must be, though I can’t intimately understand it just yet. I am still a child in most ways, especially to them. Mostly because I always will be. And so they love me because the entire process of my birth, my walking through life and my growing into my own, was a gift nurtured by their own hands. And I love them because I know that about them.
What would you like to hand on to your children?
What an intimidating question! I guess I would want them to be healthy, happy and loved. So whatever it takes to make them that way. I feel like, as a child, I can theorize about this all day long. But until I have a child in my hands, whether from my own cells or granted to me by fortune and luck, that only then could I really understand. Only once I accept the knowledge that an entire being’s first many years on earth will be in my hands, would I be able to decide the direction I want to put myself in order to better them. And I feel like along the way, living it first-hand, those things show themselves. What I might think is important in the beginning may tend to fade away. And just as well, things that I never thought of might abruptly gain urgency. I feel like this isn’t a question I can answer, satisfactorily. Not right now.
What did you learn from your parents?
I learned a lot about relationships. Not necessarily romantic, or simply marital relationships; I learned how different the relationships between different people can look, and how they can all be as important, or share as much or as little love, as another that looks to be the polar opposite. I learned how different people treat things, situations, and other people, so uniquely, and how things in these ways are not always what they seem at face value…
What subject is difficult to talk about to one’s children? To one’s family?
I don't know about talking with my own children, but I can guess certain things from watching my parents. I'd imagine it's hard to admit when you have done wrong to them. During the few times when my parents have admitted to me that they would have liked to do things differently, that they are sorry for what they've done, or that they know a certain part of my life is their "fault", it is when I have seen them look their most devastated. I am always able to forgive them, and I understand that they are human and make mistakes. People don't have all the answers to anything. And as I grew I begun to take responsibility for my own life into my hands, knowing that while they raised me, a lot of actions and decisions I made myself formed who I am with or without my parent's blessing.
When talking to my family, it's hard to tell them things you know will make them thing differently of you. It's hard to tell them things you know they won't like, especially when your heart tells you that it shouldn't be that way. Even though I knew that, down the line, they really wouldn't care or love me any more or less, it was difficult to tell my sisters and my mother that I'm queer. I knew they would be fine with it, but I guess I was carrying the burden of knowing that once it's out there, it can't be taken back. And that once certain people do know, it will cloud every other part of me so that I am only one singular tainted thing in their eyes, and that was gross and wrong and deceptive. It is hard to hear my grandma talk about the "weird" gays when at the same time she tells me she wants me to be happy. It's is hard to have gotten to a good place with the cousin I spent high school living with while she complains about gays being a "trend" that sways politics in a direction she doesn't approve of. But part of me would rather just sit back and hear it all and not say a word because it would be far more uncomfortable to do otherwise, and that part of me disappoints myself.
What gives you the greatest joy?
I love to see the people I care about living a good life. I like to see them happy, and I like to see them going places that mean a lot to them and are good for them in the face of adversity. I like seeing people smile, especially when they are people who make me smile.
But sometimes I get lonely as a spectator. Most of my happiest memories are simple ones, of laughing with other people over dumb things. I really like company. I like being around people and creating a happy atmosphere. So it's unfortunate that I've yet to find people who want to stay around me. I am okay as a spectator most of the time. I guess that's why I fall for pop stars, right? But I think the happiest times come from mutual shared smiles.
What makes you most angry?
This one is weird for me to answer. I don't really ~own~ anger the way I own sadness, or even happiness, and I don't really get angry for long periods of time anymore.
But I guess the answer would have to be... when people try to tell me what I am, in ways that are dismissive or belittling. Not like when a person tries to get to know you, and builds what they know about you into a whole person, in their mind. Because that is the sweetest thing you can do for a person, I think. Try to understand them. So, haha, I'm having trouble describing it.
It is when, because I am a young girl, or because I am Mexican American, because I am a survivor of this or that, or because I went to this school or didn't go to that school, I must be this way because that person must know more about me that I know about myself.
I don't even know who I am, and so it makes me uncomfortable when another person thinks they can tell me so without even caring.
What did you dream about when you were a child?
I dreamed about running away with the faeries and living in a place where everybody loved everybody for exactly who they were.
What is your greatest dream today?
My greatest dream is to be happy. It is to be surrounded by people who appreciate and love me already. To spend time with people who like me, who want to listen to me, and who will let me smile with them.
What have you renounced in your life?
I don't think I have an answer for this one!
Are you happy? What is happiness for you?
I have a lot of moments where I feel happy, and I am so grateful for all of those times. Having known happiness once is what gets me through sadness a million times, because it's a place I want to go back to.
Happiness is something so beautiful, I can only wish others could experience it for themselves, because I can't describe it for them. Maybe for that reason, I am okay with living a life that is not always happy, because I know how special happiness is. I wouldn't want it to lose it's charm. And I would not want to learn to take happiness for granted.
Happiness, to me, is love. And it is knowing that, after everything, there are good things in the world, and really feeling that with your heart, rather than your mind.
I use my mind too much, and that might also be why happiness is so important to me.
What would you like to change in your life?
I would like to feel certainty. I would like to know what it is I want, so that I can dedicate myself wholly to that.
I would like to not be afraid of my dreams.
What does love mean to you?
At it's peak, to me love means shameless appreciation and selfless sacrifice.
Do you think you give and receive enough love?
I find myself desiring to feel more love, often. And I think part of me is being selfish, but I also think that love is not something one needs to be ashamed of? I am grateful for the love my family gives me, and if I lived my entire life with only them, I could be happy.
But I envy friendship. And I think it helps one grow in different ways than familial relationships do. And I'd like to know that somebody cared, enough, to try to know me and understand me without the burden of blood relations pushing you that way.
And I can only hope I am giving enough love, and that it is being taken.
What was the last belly laugh you enjoyed?
Aw, I belly laugh~ all the time! For all my faults, one nice thing I can say about myself is that I never keep myself from laughing if I want to.
Probably hanging out with Sophia or Sonya and laughing at something dumb :')
When was the last time you cried? Why?
Ah, I cry all the time, too. At everything, though it's not always sad!
I'm an emotional kid haha, what else can I say.
What was the most difficult ordeal you have had to face in your life?
Something disgusting that I think of every day of my life.
What did you learn from it?
I guess in a way. I learned about human nature, and I learned about myself.
Do you have enemies? Why?
I don't. There is nobody in the entire world whom I wish to see harmed or wronged or negatively affected in any way. I don't know what else an enemy would be. But I seen none in anybody.
For what reason would you be ready to kill someone?
I'm scared that I won't know this answer until I am in a situation I could never imagine. But I wonder what it would speak about me as a person, about us all as sentient beings, about the situation and our will to live versus create. I have no clue.
For what reason would you be ready to give your life?
Love. The greater good. Don't give me a reason because I might go too easily~
Do you forgive others easily? What would you not be able to forgive?
To easily. I don't know if there's anything I wouldn't forgive on some level.
Do you feel free?
Yes. I can do virtually anything I want to, because those are the sorts of wants I have. I inhibit myself more than my peers or government ever does.
What could you not do without in your everyday life?
Uh, internet?
Do you love your country?
I appreciate it, certainly! I don't idealize it or think we are anywhere near perfect. But I'm so grateful for all I have here.
Have you ever wanted to leave your country? Why?
Yes, and I have before. I think it's good to let yourself understand the lives of people who live different lives than you, and to realize that your "way" is not the only way. Of course, one doesn't always have to leave the country to do so!
What does nature represent to you?
Have you seen nature change since your childhood?
What do you do to preserve it?
Do you live better than your parents? Why?
What does money mean to you? Why?
What is progress for you, and what do you expect from it?
What is man's greatest enemy? What is man's greatest friend?
Why do people make war?
What can we do to lessen the incidence of war?
Do you give an account of your thoughts and actions to God every day?
What do you think happens after death?
Do you know a prayer? Can you say it for me?
What do you think is the meaning of life?
What would you like to say to or what questions would you like to ask the people who will watch you?
What is your favorite song? Can you sing it for us?
What do you think of this interview? This exchange?
What do you think is its purpose?
Would you like to add something to finish?
