What we are suposed to be

It is obvious that social media has won an essential role in everyday life. Today, almost every one has an account on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp…, and we usually spend at least one hour looking for things that may interest us, watching others profile, or maybe just trying to know if our crush has a new bae😉.

Apart from that, and all the funny and entertaining side of social networking, there is a very big problem (in my opinion) with the impact that social media has sometimes on people. I mean, it is common and understandable to try to look like the people we like, or to try to have more attention and be a little bit more “influencer”, we all do that ! But when it comes to self-confidence, sometimes, it is like a pill of stereotypes which make people feel accomplished.

We all have to look good, wear similar clothes, listen to trending music, be fit… But that’s imposible, because if we were all the same, life would be the most boring thing in the World !

I don’t mean I am against the people who have succeed on social media or people who admire them. I am just trying to say that, sometimes, instead of imagine who would we want to be, we should try to focus on ourselves. We all are humans, we all have two arms and two legs, a nose, two eyes… But we will be always marveously unique, and that’s fantastic !

Why do we have to follow hashtags? We do we have to be obsessed with a like and the other’s approoval? Why can’t we just try to be focused more on real life than on something that isn’t even palpable? Come on, let’s give ourselves a chance !!!!

-Alejandro Sánchez Molina.

A little more than useless

I can´t exactly remember the day when I listened to Relient K for the first time. However, I do remember when a slightly younger Laia, 4 years ago, started listening to their music. I think that coming across “Lost Boy” from their album “Collapsible lung” changed my life. I immediately fell in love with this Ohio based band and their songs.

I kept listening to their various albums, but never actually researched the history or background of the band. It wasn’t until last year when I decided to investigate and learn a bit more about the members of what had become my favourite ensemble.  

It all started back in 1998 when Matt Thiessen, Matt Hoopes and Brian Pittman (who ended up leaving) set up this group while they were still at “uni”. They named their alternative rock band after the car Plymouth Reliant K car, however due to copyright reasons they ended up calling it Relient K- which they then wrote a song about. Up until now they’ve released 11 albums and several EP´s and singles. But after listening to almost all their songs my favourites are, without doubt, “The lining is silver” and “Look on up”. I´ll leave the link down below so make sure you check them out!!

This is the cover of their latest album (2016)

I find really interesting how their songs are full of meaning and metaphors. The band has an added depth in terms of symbolism in their music (this is my favourite bit): They are classified as a Christian rock band. However, most of their songs don´t mention religion as such but the values they talk about can be both interpreted by “religious views” and “non-religious” ones. Often, the fact that a band is classified as religious makes us back out a bit and choose not to listen to them. However, I´d like to invite you to not “judge a book by its cover” or in this case, “don´t judge a band by its genre”.

Whether it´s because of their Christian background, or their sense of ethical and environmental responsibility, they have taken part in several projects fighting against climate change. Furthermore, they´ve starred an educational drug prevention film called “Natural high 4” in order to provide advice and motivate young adults to be the best they can be. They also get involved in their local community projects.

Overall, I find their music really motivating when I’m feeling low. They somehow express exactly how I’m feeling and they encourage me to get over my problems and move on because nothing is permanent. They are a constant reminder that we are not alone, that life goes on and that we must have a positive attitude towards it. They’ve helped me a lot throughout the years and I think that even if they´re not very famous, everyone should give this small group a chance (I personally think they are amazing)

That´s all for today, please let me know in the comments what you think about them- I hope you lovely people enjoy these guys as much as I do!!

And remember, spread positivity!!!

Laia Castella 

The lining is silver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSCl0g1psTM

Look on up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLfcJlJuDdg

Also here you have the link to the other songs I’ve mentioned throughout;

Lost boy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-44a4kcNcj0

More than useless (as the title of today´s entry): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdDNBQ9bJU

Finally here you have the link to their film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRW_-dDKnkU

My experience with fashion and style.

I, as many other teenagers and people around the world, love clothes. But this hasn't always been like this and I used to be very shy about them a while ago.

My mom used to buy my clothes and dress me when I was little, I suppose that it is the same for many other people, and I really liked the way in which she did and the style I had, thanks to her. However, it was in high school when I started looking not just into clothes and complements, but more into style and fashion. Of course this things had been around me all my life, I just wasn't conscious about it until then. I think the whole changing my style idea was started by a mix of factors such as, entering the social media life, seeing how older students dressed and how my own friends did. It wasn't an easy thing to do, from one day to another I literally wanted to change all my closet because I didn't feel comfortable with almost anything in there, it didn't feel like me, which is what style is about. My mom was in a "you are my baby" phase, and couldn't understand anything. It also made her really sad that I didn't like the clothes she proposed anymore. Little by little every piece started fitting into its place, I gave away the clothes I didn't like, I bought new things and my mom accepted that my style had change.

Almost 3 years have passed since then and I have changed a lot. My vision for fashion has evolved with me and my personality. I enjoy deciding what to wear and trying to find different combinations with the garments I have. I push myself to mix new colors and textures to find the perfect outfit for each time. But it's not only just a puzzle clothes game, it is also a way in which I have fun, I express myself and I seek inside me my deepest creative feelings. And, one of the most important thing I've learned in my trip around life and clothes is that many people is not going to like your style and they might even tell you that you dress like rubbish or that what you are wearing is just horrible, but their opinion shouldn't be important for you. Not at all. The good thing thing about fashion is that there isn't an okay or not okay outfit, there is no wright or wrong, and you are free to mix the most weird and lavish clothes or accessories. So have fun and go experience fashion!!

Fuck silence, shout sex

The other day, I was talking with a friend about pornography and its macho connotations; and when we were debating I felt strange, I was in an unusual situation: Two people talking about sex. Nowadays, in this society, the sex is a taboo topic, but, Why? According to a study by StatisticBrain, on average, the domestic couples (between 18 and 39 ages) have 126 sexual relationships per year and more than half of population masturbate with a daily period.  So, on the basis of the data, Why do the people avoid this kind of topics in the conversations?

First of all, we need to go to the origin, religion. Before the expansion of the main religions around the world, the sex was a natural topic, without connotations. But, with the growth of the religions, they expanded, at the same time, two ideas: Sex is only for reproduction and masturbate is a sin. After that, the people felt embarrassed by talk about this topic, and this attitude has survived to the present.

That was mingled with the macho`s thought of the purity of the women (her virginity), the sexual problems, and the different sexual preferences. And more recently with the sexual diseases and the state of sexual repression. Theses facts are the set of causes of the actual situation and are so introduced in the social thoughts, that now it´s very difficult to change them.

Also, in the present, we support this situation. The parents don´t speak openly about sex; the children haven´t got enough sexual education and their model to follow are the actual macho pornography. What causes lot of actual problem: Rapes, sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy, guilt after masturbation,…

Who would have thought that the sexual repression could originate many problems? Because of that, I think talking openly about sex is one of the best things that we can do to eliminate theses problems. Now, play your part in this and talk about sex like you talk about football, politic or friends.

As a postscript, I recommend you this website: https://casualsexproject.com/. I don´t say anymore.😉

- Manuel García.

SOCIAL MEDIA

How many people do we know who when they lose, or forget, their mobile phone can cost them a real trauma? And, how many people do we know who find difficult to be 5 minutes apart from their mobile phone?

Technology is very important nowadays, and is a field that is in continuous and unstoppable evolution. But, as all things in this life, it should be used in its right terms, if we don´t want us to transform in technology slaves. The problem comes when our real life is turning over our virtual life, and this last one is becoming more important than that.

Social networks are becoming a substitution of real life. Many teens are replacing their social life for the virtual one. But, an Instagram friend is not a real friend. The friendship is a human experience that can happen only in real life. And this is the problem.

Many teens nowadays stay at home looking for the last post of her/his crush or “virtual friend”, or playing videogames with the last PlayStation in the market, instead of going out with friends for dinner or just to talk about life. They just preferred this way.

In fact, social networks can only represent an aspect of our life, but not our complete life. A message in Instagram or WhatsApp mustn’t substitute a conversation with your best friend in a bench of the park.

This, anyway, doesn´t have an easy solution. We are the ones who must control ourselves to do a correct and non-abusive use of this technologies.  

What do you think?

Marta Peña 

Music is much more.

I still remember my first flute lesson with Ursula, my flute teacher. At the time she was in her mid twenties and seem nice, but what really caught my attention was that she was not like the other teachers I had had. On the first day she started talking about how music is a way to express yourself, and how when you play you must transmit what you are feeling. She told me that even if we were starting with the basics I had to concentrate on the message I had to tell.

As time passed by I was starting to get better in the technical aspect, but she told me that was only a tool for what was next, make people feel what you want them to feel. At the time I did not fully understood what she was trying to say, but now that I look back I understand it all.

Music is much more than just playing some notes in the right order and with the right rhythm. Music is a way of communicating with other people, to show them what you feel. Since then we always start flute lessons warming up and deciding what I want to say with the piece of music I am going to play and I enjoy every part of it.

Everyone should be able to experience music the way I have just described it. And everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy music, even if you are not the one playing or singing. So remember music is much more and you have yet a lot to experience.  

-Alexandra Chvedine😊

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This Christmas days I had nothing to do, no homework neither studying at all, a friend of mine presented me her cousin, a 22 year old boy. Nothing notorious about him. Brown hair, brown eyes, he wasn´t tall nor short... We were hanging out in a mall buying Christmas presents, and we spent the money left in a hot chocolate and a coffee. The conversation drove us throughout the most typical topics: school grades, family situation, platonic loves and no so platonic ones…

Suddenly, an alarm started ringing. It came out from the boy´s phone. His face betrayed surprise, as if he had forgotten whatever the alarm was reminding. “Excuse me, I have to leave a second” he said.

My friend and I continued talking normally until he came back from the toilet. He was a little bit pale, and from that moment he didn´t touch his chocolate cup again. I couldn´t avoid to ask: “Are you okay?” “Yes, it is just the medication”, he said. “I understand you. Christmas is the best time of the year to pick up a cold or flu”, I said.

My friend kicked me under the table. He was very serious. There was a moment of a very uncomfortable silence.

“I´m sorry if I have screwed it up".

“No, don´t worry, it´s okay. But the medication isn´t for that kind of illnesses. I´m actually seropositive”.

Such a pity that nobody took a picture of my face in that precise moment. A mixture of surprise, guilt and compassion.

“Don´t feel sorry for me. I´m actually very lucky. I´m not going to die of my illness, as thousands of people in the eighties did. But I will die with it. What people with HIV nowadays need is the normalization of the illness and the awareness of the population to prevent new infections. The last thing we want is creating a bigger stigma on it.

This has also been a way for me to mature. My common sense when I got the disease, at 17 years old, was inexistent. I never thought something like this could happen to me. Why me? Why now, with all the life ahead, waiting for me? The laws of chance are mysterious and infinite.

Don´t be afraid of us. We are all humans. We have a complete normal life. The only thing we want is to educate people”.

That was a day to remember. We continued talking about the virus and how society needs to change.

Sometimes meeting new people makes you wiser. 



Lucía Montero Celeiro