Only listening to one song for the rest of my life sounds like my personal hell. I enjoy listening to random weird music to the extent that my quality of life would suffer should this be taken away from me... So, this week I skated right on by to topic 2.
I can confidently say that I would stop to help someone being assaulted in the street, because I have before. When I was in my early 20's I went to a nightclub, it would end up being the only time I have done so until this day. I didn't like it much. Expensive drinks, music at a volume that you had to scream to talk, and some dude would not stop following me around.
The night continued to be a bummer as I left with my gal pals. We'd taken the bus downtown and now were waiting for the bus back out. Nearby a man was screaming at a woman, getting progressively more aggressive. When I saw him hit her I was off the bus bench and rushing over before I had time to think over what a poor idea this was.
Luckily the two gals I was with followed suit, falling in behind me right as I shoved the dude away from the sobbing lady. What did I think I was going to do, fight him? Well... yeah. I have this delusion that I can fight a man, and back in my 20's it was particularly strong. Luckily he scampered off when he saw that three women were ready to kick his ass if he thought hitting girls was the thing to do.
I've wondered a few times if she went on to escape her situation permanently. I've experienced some guilt wondering if what we did made things worse later for her. I've wondered.
I was raised to act when I see something wrong happening, and I believe I would do that anytime, anywhere. Thank goodness that mostly involves helping old people and not fighting men at bus stops at 3am.
Coasting into prompt three, I considered if I'd like to be an expert cook, play an instrument, learn first aid, or learn a language and the answer to that was easy for me.
I'm no expert in the kitchen, but I cook quite well from what I've been told. I enjoy learning new things and experimenting. With that being said, I'm happy with what I have there. Similarly with first aid knowledge.
I know how to stop bleeding with a variety of things, I can stitch a wound correctly, I know how to ease a variety of aliments with plants... I'm not a bad person to be stranded in the woods with, I think I'm very likely to survive.
Although knowing how to play an instrument appeals to me, I've never quite got the hang of any that I've attempted to learn, I'm definitely going to go for the language. I'm not sure if the intention of the prompt was to say we'd just know which ever we picked, but that's how I took it. I would make my choice and immediately know how to speak Arabic perfectly!
I've been trying to learn for... quite some time. After being in the Mid East and only hearing Arabic for a long time, I did learn quite a lot. Mostly I comprehend, speaking Arabic is much harder for me though. That's what makes it so worth it to me to pick the language instead of continuing to study- I assume I'd be able to pronounce things correctly right away, which would be INCREDIBLE!
There are quite a lot of sounds in Arabic that my body does not know how to make. To me, it feels like a language spoken from the stomach, throat, and nose. Half of my struggle in learning has just been trying to correctly make these sounds. I'm afraid to speak Arabic to anyone but my husband because often the difference between saying what you mean vs. something vulgar is a singular sound that I can barely distinguish. Nerve wracking.
Aside from my struggles with pronunciation, picking the language is an easy choice because I'd love to be able to speak to the man I love in his native language. To understand some more nuances of the culture he comes from. To have more substantial conversations with the people in his family.
As for the other prompts, I don't think anyone can answer number 4 honestly. The idea of talking about such things is beyond my comfort zone, so I'll scoot on to 5... I wasn't alive in the 80's but I think the worst part of it was Def Leopard. Sorry if you're a fan, but I'd legit walk across a floor of Legos to never hear "pour some sugar on me" again.
Sure, it's impressive that they have a one-armed drummer and I'm sure not all of their music is so annoying... but they are my pick for the worst part of the 80's. With a similar lack of understanding of what the 80's were like, I'd pick leather as the best part of the 80's.
I have no idea if this has any basis in reality, but to me it feels like leather became more important in the 80's and that was a great benefit to humanity. I love leather coats, boots, accessories. I imagine the 80's being full of big haired leather wearing party animals who have switch blades. What a blast! No matter how cool anyone could be though, my answer for #6 would stay the same.
If it were up to me, I'd leave the city and never live in one again for the rest of my life. I hate society. I hate the suburbs. I hate the inner city. I hate the lives that people lead here. I hate the things that people find valuable (like a nice lawn). To me it feels like everyone is already dead.
Sure, I'm into a live and let live mentality, and all of these things will happen regardless of my feelings on them... but I don't have to be a part of it. It is one of my greatest desires to live far enough from big cities that I can imagine the world is still more natural.
I want to trade vegetables with my neighbor, raise animals, dig a moat around my land and fill it with crocodiles. I know, very basic girl dreams, but I am who I am. I want to do cute stuff like shoot guns and fletch arrows. I want to be feral but domestic, with no one around to talk to me about IRAs or gender politics. I want to just be a human, like generations before me were.
All photos are my own. Divider made for me by Yaziris.
