A new semester has begun, and with that semester comes a new class: English- literary focus. Compared to the Comprehensive focus course, it is more about interpretation and reading than about the structure of language. So, one of the first days, we were doing a worksheet that was something about preparing us to read Macbeth (the Shakespeare play) and all the questions were things like 'does everyone have the ability to kill in order to get what they want?" "are all leaders ambitious?" and "do people have the ability to alter their destiny"? Stuff like that. We filled out our answers and then went through it as a class, having mini debates on each answer. By the way, if you have not read Macbeth, it's really not important to the understanding of this post. Anyway, as we were doing the questions, I was finding that in order to answer every question, I was mentally referring to Harry Potter. Examples...

In the first question, "Does everyone have the ability to kill in order to get what they want?", all I could think about was when the spell reflected off Harry and he didn't do the actual killing, so his soul remained in tact. That, and the fact that he couldn't perform unforgivable curses unless his heart was really in it, which it wasn't. He's just not a killer!

The next question, "Are all leaders ambitious?", I found myself pondering on when... Dumbledore? said [referring to Harry] that not some people work to be leaders, and some people have leadership thrust upon them, basically meaning that Harry didn't choose to have people rally around him, he just happened to the the Boy Who Lived and took the title on well.

The last one, "Do people have the ability to alter their destiny". This brought me two things to think about. First, there is a commercial on currently. I don't quite remember what brand, but it's something like Nike, a sports brand. The ads feature people talking about destiny like "Destiny doesn't do a 5 mile run every morning", "Destiny has never driven two hours to practice", "Destiny can't do this [followed by some sort of hockey trick". The point of the ad is, of course, that it is not destiny that decides things, it is your own hard work. Which brought me to the idea that maybe Destiny is just a word made up to explain bad situations. Which kind of works in with my ideas on religion. But that's beside the point. The Harry Potter reference here was when Dumbledore told Harry that Voldemort could have walked away, never tried to hear the prophecy, and have been fine. But it was the fact that he set everything in store with this prophecy that was his downfall in the end. Also, when Harry understands the difference between being dragged into the arena to fight, and walking in with his head held high... so I don't know about that last question. Maybe destiny is real, but I think the path you choose to get there makes the real difference.

That was heavy. The point is, Harry Potter has taught me way too much, and now all my ideas are based around it. Good thing I've read them so many times!

Maybe Voldemort is a tragic hero in the end...
Teagan

Maybe it's because I am newly licensed and freshly trained, maybe it's because I have a respect for myself and others' well being, and maybe it's because I have a brain. But I can not stand bad drivers!

I mean, I don't expect everyone in this tiny little town to be doing curb-to-curb and proper lane placement all the time, especially when the lanes are covered in snow and impossible to see. But when you're at a traffic light and you're turning, yeah, it's probably a good idea to use a signal light. Even throwing on the signal light during a turn makes more sense than just plain not signaling. That's ridiculous! And dangerous. When I'm in the middle of an intersection establishing my turn, waiting for you to go through, and you turn, that's absurd. You know, turning signals are not optional, or unnecessary, or trivial. THEY ARE VERY IMPORTANT. Particularly in busy areas.

Do whatever you want to when you are in the country with nobody around, or alone in your driveway, or in your magic fenced off area created to act like an idiot in. But do not endanger my life with your careless shitty driving. Because that's just uncool.