To be?or not to be original, by Raluca Theodora Stefanescu
Night is only lit by a couple of shy stars,led by their fierce commandant,the Moon.But in the dark,the human mind changes,it suffers a metamorphosis comparable to the one of a caterpillar turning into a majestic butterfly.Darkness sharpens our senses to the maximum,and gives us the rarer and rarer opportunity to think for ourselves.
Thinking?.during the day,it became impossible.Only a few do it.The rest of us?.we are controlled by someone else; our thoughts, our actions?They are no longer ours?.We are just puppets in the hands of powerful masters,who tell us how and why we are supposed to do apparently senseless things.This way, we all become the same.From unique creatures, we simply become cheap,worthless,forged copies of anyone else.And the worst part is that we never even bother to know who ‘the original’ was.
Most of us see ourselves as original beings,as ‘creators’ of our own style,our representative landmark features,but we don’t see that the only thing done by us is to modify what someone else had previously done.In a desperate attempt to free ourselves from the ‘strings’ of modern society,we take what we think would make a good ingredient for the recipe of success,and end up with a mix that is far from being original .It is just like reading the etiquette of a bottle of carbonated orange juice just to discover only four percent of it is ‘real orange juice’.
‘Non-conformist’ is a wrong term simply because there is no such thing as not conforming to some standards.Take the Mohawk haircut,initially a hit that surprised the world,now a symbol of the punk culture.Let’s admit it: it’s hard to be ‘believed’ a punk unless you have such a haircut! (or,at least, something similar!).Same goes for ?rockers? ‘ long hair (especially boys!) or ?hip-hoppers? ‘ baggy clothes and ‘bling-blings’. A new culture,being it musical or artistic, brings new standards,and new ?puppets? that are eager to release themselves from the strings of the respective culture.
?It is hard not to observe that people are attracted to unusual: something that helps them break the pattern at, let’s say, their workplace , such as really short hair or bright-colored clothes. They do a terrible mistake. By trying not to be ‘just a face in the crowd’, they actually change the entire concept and in a short period,the crowd changes.In an unnoticeable amount of time,what uses to be cool becomes dull and un-interesting.This is actually the process Fashion Industry bases on.New collections are released periodically.Despite the often extremely high price,they are very successful among both stars and every-day people just because of this.
It is difficult to be original when you have thousands of other people eager to ‘write down’ your every move,in an attempt to copy it later,but with a bit of hard work and determination,everything is possible.Even though non-conformism is nowadays nothing more than a slightly modified conformism,and it only lasts a short while,attempting to ‘break the pattern’ is always a good thing.
Acest eseu este castigatorul mentiunii in cadrul?2012 Shakespeare School Essay Competition, grupa de varsta 15-19 ani.?Premiul a constat?intr-un?MP 3 PLAYER de la Vitastal Consulting,?voucher de reducere in valoare de 300 RON pentru un curs de vara de limba engleza la Shakespeare School, carti de la Fischer International si de la Carturesti si materiale promotionale de la Vitastal Consulting.?O?felicitam pe Raluca pentru ?eseul ei care s-a evidentiat din mii de eseuri trimise la concursul national de creatie in limba engleza organizat de Shakespeare School si ii uram mult succes in continuare!
