An Outsider's Perspective
I’ve stumbled on some of Robin’s writing pieces, and I must say, he is quite the character. His writing is very open and honest. Thinking about it, everything he writes tends to be written as if he were just talking in his own voice; and when I say that, I mean it quite literally; he is simply putting his words to paper. It is very clear that Robin is a person would just tell it like it is, no sugar coating involved. At the same time though, not once does he lose his cool. In one of his pieces, he describes an event when a family member of his basically told him that his choice of profession wasn’t good enough, to which he just walked away instead of making a scene. But at the same time, like I said, he has a blunt sense of honesty…but he also seems to know when it’s appropriate.
In a bluntly honest Robin-form, he comes off as a sarcastic smart ass. I’m not saying this is a bad thing…I’m just saying it. No matter what he’s writing, he can’t help but throw in some wit and humor. Even when he’s talking about traumatic events, he’ll throw in a light hearted story about how he told his dad to fuck off (in the most endearing of ways of course). He can’t help it. It is plain to see that Robin is the type of person who would go with the flow so to speak. He’s light hearted, makes the best of shitty situations, and whenever possible, will try to be witty. I think that’s one of things I like about him really. I’m sure that his sarcastic nature can prove to be infuriating at times, but I think it’s a part of his charm, so long as you don’t take everything too seriously and/or personally.
One thing I can give him a little credit for is that there’s never any doubt that he’s being sarcastic; he even italicizes his sarcasm to make sure it’s understood correctly. Of course, it is also plain to see that his being a smart ass can go beyond sarcasm; there are other times that he’ll intentionally mislead the reader into expecting a certain tone, and then take a complete 180 and reveal the metaphoric joke he was building up to. The perfect example of this is his piece on the loss of innocence. The way he sets everything up is just wonderful. It starts off so serious, talking about how Ignorance is Bliss, and Knowledge is Power, and how society seems bent on deceiving it’s people, causing them to lose all of their innocence and such…and then he springs it on us: THERE IS NO EASTER BUNNY! AND SANTA CLAUSE ISN’T REAL EITHER!!! I just about choked on the water I was drinking. I can only imagine the tricks that he pulls in real life. And of course, the fact that he is a thespian would only help him stage his humor.
I’m glad that I have his earlier pieces about his family. Through them, Robin has grown up to be a rather…ummm…eclectic; yeah…we’ll go with that. I guess the first thing we should look at is where he gets his sense of mischievous humor. Hands down, he attributes this to his father. His relationship with his father is very loving, close, and filled with the sort of banter that could drive some people completely crazy. I for one could make the claim that they have a sick sense of humor. In the end though, looking back on the stunts they’ve pulled, I would imagine that I’d appreciate the experiences and have them in my repertoire of good stories to tell. Riddles, puzzles, somewhat sadistic jokes, and a sarcastic sense of humor are all things that I can clearly see painted on the pages before me.
Moving on though, there is so much more to Robin than his sense of humor. The number one influence in his life has been his family. He is truly a collage of his parent’s backgrounds. Robin seems to have a strong sense of who he is and where he acquired his various traits. One thing that is evident here is that he seems to be the type of person that will try to see things from both sides, seeing the good and bad in any situation. I can only imagine that shows him to be a well grounded individual. Anyhow, where was I? Oh yeah…where he acquired his various traits. In his piece on his family history, he opened it up beautifully, saying, it isn’t politically correct to make generalizations about somebody’s culture, race, or ethnicity…unless you’re talking about your own. That being said, I have all the freedom I want to speak about Indians, good, bad, or stereotypical.
And boy, did he. As he does, he laid into the culture, pointing out everything he didn’t like about it. This was very telling actually. Looking at his ranting, it is plain to see that Robin believes in a person having the power and encouragement to find their own passion in life. He found the pressure for Indians to become doctors or engineers to go against everything he believed in. I think his bashing of the Indian culture has a lot to do with The American Dream. He very clearly is of the mindset that a person should go after what they want, and not what their parents or culture would demand of them. His rant here, as well as other stories he shared shows a true commitment to teaching. There is no questioning that he is in the right profession. He went against the pressures on his Indian community, went back to work within days of brain surgery, against doctors orders, and the things he’s done for his students go beyond the simple job description.
What’s even more interesting here is that he attributes many of these positive characteristics to his Indian heritage. Robin is very lucky to have the family that he does. His parents love him and in almost all other aspects, his family supports him. Although the Indian community he describes has it’s flaws, in his eyes, he is able to see the other side and realized that everything they do is out of love, and wishing only the best for their children. As he goes on to explain, I love the way he displays the generosity that he learned from his family’s background. Very nonchalantly, he tells a couple stories of how he has benefited from generosity, and then he goes on to show how he paid it forward in amazing ways. Robin is the type of person to learn from his experiences and affect the world accordingly.
Aside from his family, it is evident that Robin is someone who values the reflection on past events. The piece that most heavily comes to mind is his set of abridged journal entries concerning his brain surgeries. He is in touch with his emotions, there is no questioning that. What’s better though, is that he actively tries to figure out how his traumatic experience has changed him. His journal format for his piece on his growth through his brain surgeries shows a great transition over time, both in emotions and outlooks on life. One thing that I was also able to gather through these entries was that Robin has always been one to live in the moment, going with the mentality that some things are worth staying up for. That being the case, he made claims that he had very few regrets in life, because he refused to say what if? He would rather try and fail than never know. His outlook on life was stated perfectly at the end of his journal entries: Live, Love, Laugh…then let the rest fall into place.
One thing that I’ve noticed is missing from his writing is his friends. He has a lot about his family, but when it comes to his friends, he doesn’t have nearly the same expression of experiences and growth through them. It goes without saying that the person I am today is largely influenced by my friends and experiences in school. That being said, it really surprises me that Robin never brought them up. He never talked about the fact that he was the only Indian in a 90% white community, in which he got picked on for being the skinny Indian kid. He never wrote about how he went by Rob for all of middle school and high school because he got sick of being teased: Batman and Robin, Robin Hood, that’s a girl’s name, Rockin Robin…tweet tweet. The fact that sports and competition were a large part of his life was never discussed, nor his ups and downs in academics. I’m sure he could’ve gone into the relationship with his brother, sibling rivalry and such, or perhaps how during his middle school years, his he and his mother would fight all the time.
I look at his writing and see the things in his life that have proven to be at the forefront of his consciousness. However, I know that he’s been influenced by all the things I’ve just mentioned, but that’s not what comes to his mind when he first identifies himself. I know this because of the writing he produced. He wasn’t told, write about your dad, or, tell me about your most traumatic event, but his mind went there naturally. If I sat down to brainstorm all of my influences, it would have been a list much like the one I just created, and I’m sure I could come up with all sorts of good stories to explain how those things have helped define me, and I’m sure Robin could too…but that’s not what his character was based on.
His character was created by his dad, the Indian culture, video games of all things, the loss of innocence behind Santa being fake, and the trauma of his AVM. Looking at this list, the thing that is missing that most surprises me is his mother. He goes into great detail on how he defines himself through his mother’s culture, but says nothing of her…and I’m sure she has influenced him incredibly, every mother does. There must be dozens of things that he could come up with off the top of his head, and yet, none of them made down on paper. I suppose it’s normal to identify with one parent more than the other, but it’s weird that he had so much to say about how he identified himself so strongly with the culture, but said nothing about the person. That bothers me a bit actually.