Nov. 6: Take a subject you are familiar with and imagine it as three photos in a sequence. Tackle the subject by describing those three shots.
Frame 1: Green, blue, white and brown. Those are the only colors that you can see. The sky above is such a rich shade of blue it would be jewel-toned if it was any darker. The best part is that it’s completely clear, as it so rarely is in Dubai. When you look down, the green doesn’t blind you despite how bright it is. The brightness of the blue took care of that. The color that blinds you is the white from the tiles. It feels inorganic amongst all the earthy tones. Tiles ring the light blue of the pool, though, so you can’t complain– not when the clear water is framed so well. Take a deep breath, and pull away from the components. The picture looks even better now that you know its separate parts. Have you ever seen a garden so beautiful?
Frame 2: It’s the same frame, but there’s something that’s been added. A blob of black streaking towards the edge of the pristine pool. If you look closely, you can see a bit of pink in the form of a tongue lolling out of an open mouth near the front of the streak. Once you notice the tongue and look back at the black streak, you can see that it’s not just a blob, but a Black Labrador, racing to jump into the pool. He has a handsome face, and if you look close enough, his eyes are honey amber. The lolling tongue and clearly in motion body take away from the regal appearance, but that’s okay. The dog is too cute to complain.
Frame 3: Now the dog is in the pool. There are ripples in the water behind him, and what with the way he’s facing and the direction of the ripples, it’s obvious that the dog is swimming back to the shallow end of the pool. There’s bit of green amongst the black and blue, but it’s just a sliver. If you look closely, you’ll see that it’s a green tennis ball. It’s the type of scene you can spend entire afternoons watching.
Paws was pretty darn tired after all that swimming and playing though. The picture above is what happened after. Paws is pretty old (turned 8 in August), and I’ve spent a lot of afternoons with him over the years, but the times that I’ve just spent with him are never a waste of time. Just the opposite, in fact. I think they enrich me.
Nov. 7: Tell us about something you’ve done that you would advise a friend never to do.
I would say to never, ever let fear of rejection stop you from telling someone your feelings for them. Honestly, apart from one person, I have told every single one of my crushes that I liked them, and I have been rejected by every single person.
That burns. It burns and stings and sometimes when I have had enough of being positive I start thinking things like ‘There’s something wrong with me. I’m a freak. I’m not a likeable person. My feelings for people will never, ever be reciprocated’, but you know what, it was so worth it in the end. At the end of it all, I had a definite answer. The one time I didn’t tell someone that I liked them… well, I regretted it. I still regret it. I think that I would have gotten rejected (again), but at least that way I could have known for sure whether I had a chance or not.
Sometimes I still feel like telling the person ‘Hey, FAD, it’s not a big deal but last year I had a massive crush on you.’, but I know I won’t. Why? For several reasons. The first reason being that FAD is currently in a completely happy, committed, monogamous relationship. The second reason is that right now, we are actually pretty good friends, and even if we weren’t, we would see each other everyday because we are both in Student Government and thus share the same homeroom. Talk about awkward. The last reason… well, it’s the least important, but I’m going to mention it in the name of honesty. The final reason why I never said anything is that FAD is a girl. I still haven’t figured out what my sexuality is, as is discussed here, but let’s just say that I’m pretty sure I’m not exactly a 0 on the Kinsey scale. So things got a little muddled from that end because I wasn’t sure whether it was because I knew she wasn’t straight and I just wanted to try to figure out which was I swung or whether I swung both ways or whether they were real, genuine, teenage feelings.
Now, I don`t like FAD anymore, but I know that back then my feelings were genuine. So, I really regret not saying anything about it to her then or even after. For now though, I’m not going to say anything, or at least if I do need to say anything I’m going to save it until after graduation. I just hope I stop regretting it soon. The only good thing to really come out of this is that we actually know and talk to each other now, and I really enjoy that. I just need to weigh which is more important. My regret, her discomfort, or an awkward ‘we’re-going-to-avoid-each-other-like-the-other-person-has-the-black-plague’ relationship. Sigh. So yeah, moral of the story kids, is that be honest about your feelings when and where you can be. Otherwise you`ll just be hung up on what-if’s and other impossible, annoying things.
Fear of rejection is a pretty strong fear to just walk away from. I am in agreement that expressing your feelings about someone or something should never be feared. People never know what you’re thinking if you do not tell them. I did something in high school that relates: I asked a guy to go to a dance with me. He was really cute and I was hopeful. He said, “no.” and as soft as he was about it, I still felt bad and embarrassed. I got over it.
Exactly! Even though it kind of hurt then, I got over it too. I think I meant to add something about how ‘life goes on’ as we’ll but uh… I forgot. I’m glad you could relate