CNF final essay outline
public service announcements:
How I used to believe and take in those messages, though not necessarily FROM PSAs--did they exist when I was little? Probably. Captain Planet had them I think.
And how I interpret those lessons now.
"mememememe"
The parody of this PSA was great because it showed a kid lost at a fair. He starts talking to a GI Joe, who will only say, "Me-me-me-me-me-me-me," over and over. My friend Charlie used to do this to me whenever I was whining to him. He was one of the first people to successfully stop me in the middle of complaining.
The real PSA gives this message "It's not scary being lost if you don't lose your head!"
- I used to be so afraid of getting lost. I would hold onto the cart at the grocery store, I would hold my parent's hands forever. When I was six, I was at my sister's first middle school choir concert. Old building. Scary. A million people in the little hallway. I reached up to grab my dad's hand out of his jacket pocket, but he wouldn't let me. I kept tugging and nothing was happening. Finally I looked up and saw I had mistaken a stranger in a Midwest Thermal Spray jacket for my father. It was terrifying. I couldn't see above the crowd; no one in my family is tall. I panicked, caught in the current of the crowd. Luckily, it pushed me right into my family, but it was terrifying, nonetheless.
-Now, I get lost on purpose. At my best friend's birthday party, after arriving late, and sober, and seeing all of my old friends (ones recently abandoned for a boyfriend) far too drunk, I freaked out. I didn't WANT to be with these people I knew. Maybe it was because they felt like strangers. Or maybe because they felt too familiar. Either way, I tried to edge out, dragging my boyfriend along, avoiding as many goodbyes as possible. I don't want to be around this company because I'm too afraid of having to consciously lose them.
"A stranger can mean danger!"
-I remember the first time my mom told me about how a kidnapper might tell me that she is in the hospital and I need to go with them. It was before Sarah Brown's 5th birthday party at Major Magic's. The whole time, I was trying to figure out what I would do if a stranger told me my mom was hurt. More than being afraid of strangers (thought I was definitely terrified of kidnapping), I was afraid of my mom being hurt. What if I ignored the strangers and my mom died? I hated the party. I peed my pants in Katie Hughes' mom's van on the way home.
-I'm not really afraid of being abducted my strangers anymore, but the idea that my mom could get injured or die has never really failed to terrify me. It's always during those little times, too, when I'm driving along stretches of unserviced highways, or gone for a weekend without my phone charger, that the attacks come. la da da make something up about this? [instilling some fear of death, reinforcing my dependence on my family]
"Taking other people's medicine is a prescription for danger!"
-with a nurse mother, this was always something I was taught. This idea was reinforced by DARE. Medicine scared me. But then, freshman year of college, I got a UTI [tell story] and took bactrum? from Kelly Smith. Got in trouble.
-Last year, we'd take all sorts of prescription drugs for fun.
we learn lessons to break them. but the idea of the lessons stay with us forever?
How I used to believe and take in those messages, though not necessarily FROM PSAs--did they exist when I was little? Probably. Captain Planet had them I think.
And how I interpret those lessons now.
"mememememe"
The parody of this PSA was great because it showed a kid lost at a fair. He starts talking to a GI Joe, who will only say, "Me-me-me-me-me-me-me," over and over. My friend Charlie used to do this to me whenever I was whining to him. He was one of the first people to successfully stop me in the middle of complaining.
The real PSA gives this message "It's not scary being lost if you don't lose your head!"
- I used to be so afraid of getting lost. I would hold onto the cart at the grocery store, I would hold my parent's hands forever. When I was six, I was at my sister's first middle school choir concert. Old building. Scary. A million people in the little hallway. I reached up to grab my dad's hand out of his jacket pocket, but he wouldn't let me. I kept tugging and nothing was happening. Finally I looked up and saw I had mistaken a stranger in a Midwest Thermal Spray jacket for my father. It was terrifying. I couldn't see above the crowd; no one in my family is tall. I panicked, caught in the current of the crowd. Luckily, it pushed me right into my family, but it was terrifying, nonetheless.
-Now, I get lost on purpose. At my best friend's birthday party, after arriving late, and sober, and seeing all of my old friends (ones recently abandoned for a boyfriend) far too drunk, I freaked out. I didn't WANT to be with these people I knew. Maybe it was because they felt like strangers. Or maybe because they felt too familiar. Either way, I tried to edge out, dragging my boyfriend along, avoiding as many goodbyes as possible. I don't want to be around this company because I'm too afraid of having to consciously lose them.
"A stranger can mean danger!"
-I remember the first time my mom told me about how a kidnapper might tell me that she is in the hospital and I need to go with them. It was before Sarah Brown's 5th birthday party at Major Magic's. The whole time, I was trying to figure out what I would do if a stranger told me my mom was hurt. More than being afraid of strangers (thought I was definitely terrified of kidnapping), I was afraid of my mom being hurt. What if I ignored the strangers and my mom died? I hated the party. I peed my pants in Katie Hughes' mom's van on the way home.
-I'm not really afraid of being abducted my strangers anymore, but the idea that my mom could get injured or die has never really failed to terrify me. It's always during those little times, too, when I'm driving along stretches of unserviced highways, or gone for a weekend without my phone charger, that the attacks come. la da da make something up about this? [instilling some fear of death, reinforcing my dependence on my family]
"Taking other people's medicine is a prescription for danger!"
-with a nurse mother, this was always something I was taught. This idea was reinforced by DARE. Medicine scared me. But then, freshman year of college, I got a UTI [tell story] and took bactrum? from Kelly Smith. Got in trouble.
-Last year, we'd take all sorts of prescription drugs for fun.
we learn lessons to break them. but the idea of the lessons stay with us forever?