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| Name: Ryan Roe Email: prawnrr-rmv@this.com-yahoo.com Position: Movie / Television / Comic Book / Trivia Geek View Ryan's Personal Profile |
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| I realize now that I first felt the pressures of adult responsibility while watching a candlestick sing in a phony French accent. I was in 5th grade when Disney's animated musical Beauty and the Beast was released, and one weekend my dad took my siblings and me to see it. This was near the end of the "third six weeks" period at school (the school year was divided into six six-week sections), which meant that I had a project that was due the following week. I don't remember what the project was exactly -- I think it involved writing a report and making an accompanying poster, possibly about an inventor or a civil rights leader or a brand of bubble gum -- but I do know that it was the most daunting project I had been asked to do in my school career up to that point. Kindergarten through fourth grade? Kid stuff. When it came to assignments like cutting out shapes, memorizing names of states, or even basic multiplication problems, I could earn a passing grade as easily as I could comb my hair. (Although to be honest, at that age I almost never actually combed my hair.) But now, here was an assignment that would require me to spend time and effort doing actual research, and even to analyze my findings. What was going on here? As I sat in that theatre watching cups and plates sing and dance, and a monster ballroom dancing with a cute chick, I was having a good time... but I wasn't able to fully lose myself in the movie. I had less than a week to finish my project, I had a lot of work left to do, and I just couldn't forget about it. That was the first time I ever found that deadlines from the "real world" affected my abillity to be entertained or distracted, but it would not be the last. Throughout high school and college I had numerous weekends where my enjoyment of a new movie, a video game, a theme park visit or what-have-you was hampered by the knowledge that there was work to be done, and a limited amount of time to do it. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Why didn't I do the work before the entertainment? My thoughtful, logical reply: Phooey.) These days I think I strike a pretty good balance. I try not to let worries about work gnaw away at my capacity to enjoy this week's 30 Rock. On the other hand, work has never once required me to make a poster based on information I found in the encyclopedia. What about you? Do you remember the first time that nagging feeling of impeding accountability latched onto your brain like a parasite? Did it happen while you were watching Hercules or Mulan maybe? Tell me about it the comments thingy below! Comments on this post are closed. |
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| Psst. "Passing" grade. Feel free to delete this comment, or let it self-destruct. |
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| In seventh grade I was assigned a report on Superfund sites. (Let it never be said that New Jersey elementary students' science classes lack relevance.) It was a more intensive project than I'd ever faced before, and the notion of potentially faring poorly nearly paralyzed me from getting the project done at all. I definitely lost sleep over the matter. I remember lying awake thinking about how if I failed the project, I wouldn't pass the class, thereby losing my chances of getting accepted into a good high school, and later a reputable college, inevitably leading a wretched and miserable life. All thanks to Superfunds. |
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| I fixed the typing mistake. A report on Superfunds sounds like the worst assignment ever. What's Superfunds? |
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| Well, you know how I was as a kid. I can't remember the first instance exactly, but it was probably some take-home craft in pre-school. Thankfully, like you, I think I've found a much better balance over the years. Here's something a little different: in high school, I tried "cramming" for the region band auditions one year, practicing ad nauseum in the week leading up to auditions. When I went to Logos on Wednesday night we were watching a movie (Left Behind, maybe?) and my right hand was going through the trumpet fingerings subconsciously the whole time. I guess it's good that I had the muscle memory going, but it was a bit difficult to concentrate on the movie when half my brain insisted on playing the air trumpet. |
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| Jason: I'll bet all that time playing air trumpet will pay off when "Trumpet Hero" is released. All I can remember from 1996 is that Superfund sites mean that New Jersey is by far the most hazardous state in the union. They have something to do with disposing of toxic waste, and New Jersey has over 100 of them. My favorite part of the Wikipedia entry, though, is that this environmental policy was enacted "on December 11, 1980 in response to the Love Canal disaster and the environmental contamination at the Valley of the Drums." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund |
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