Choir, Meet Blogging

So, just thought I'd post this assignment that I wrote for my choir class, of all things. I love our teacher, and every semester he assigns a few "Comfort Zone" assignments, in which we must do something to break from our comfort zone and write a little about it. The first one is due today, and my comfort zone break correlates with the world of blogging and self-portraiture. Enjoy!

Emily Wood

September 30, 2008

University Chorale, Fall 2008

Comfort Zone Assignment 1

I come from a family of documenteurs. The bookshelves in my family room are filled with albums and albums chronicling family birthdays, recitals, holidays, and life. Recently, my Mom, sister, and I have entered the world of blogging; almost daily I read the newest posts on their blogs and those of my two closest cousins. My two cousins are married with families of their own, and I love reading about their lives, and seeing the pictures they take to document everyday life. My blog is often neglected, as is my personal photo documentation. Though my blogging family and friends have no problems snapping shots in public, I feel stupid standing in the middle of a store or other populated location and taking a self-portrait or staging a photo, even though I really want to.

In deciding how to break from my comfort zone, I had a hard time picking something, because so many things that, previous to coming to college, would be way outside my level of comfort came easily in the new environment. Most things I thought of doing turned out to be not so hard. One thing way outside of my comfort came last week however, in the form of the testing center. The testing itself wasn’t bad, and though I had to secretly follow someone I recognized from my class into the building, seeing as I had no idea how to get there, I was okay with the experience itself. My blogger sense however, tingled with the importance of this occasion; with dread, I realized that it required documentation.

For some reason that morning, I packed my camera in my school bag, so I had all the tools I needed to capture this momentous occasion forever. I knew that I would regret passing up this opportunity as I have so many times before because I’ve been afraid of seeming dorky for snapping pictures of things that seem trivial to most people. With that in mind, I pulled out my camera, stood back so as to get the whole building in view and took a picture. The people studying outside probably thought I was a freak, and my actions practically shouted to the world that “ Hey! I’m a freshman!” but I didn’t care. I then proceeded to stand in front of the building and take a self-portrait expressing my terror and apprehension at visiting the testing center.

I am so glad to have those pictures, and can now blog about my experience. I might even make a scrapbook page out of them! This helped me be okay with who I am and what I like to do. Much like in choir, I need to be okay with loving choir and music, even if that makes me do dorky things sometimes. People can think what they want, but, as sung by Jimmy Eat World, “I can’t help it, baby, this is who I am,” and I will stand in the middle of campus and take picture of myself if I want to.