My Voice

My voice counts. Your voice counts. But it counts less when we don't understand what our voice is and what makes each of our voices unique. Think, for a moment, do you have the same ideas and agreements as the people you interact on a daily basis? Do you truly challenge what they say or they believe?

Take a step back from yourself and look and try and see if you are just floating along with everyone agreeing because it sounds good. (Note: I'm not saying you are wrong or that you need to do something radical, but asking that you pay attention to the details of your life and see if you are able to pinpoint your unique qualities.) Now, if you are just floating along and you don't see anything wrong with what is going on and you truly believe that everything is going as it should you are forfeiting your right to the freedom of speech. You are censoring yourself. Big media corps. activists, and all the other people who want you to think a certain way believe certain things are free to push you any way they want when you do not understand your voice and what makes it yours.

I am still finding my voice but to find it I must first look.

Currently, I believe that a large portion of my education has been wasted. Part of it I must blame on myself. In the past my motivation was nearly nothing which lead to me not participating in the world. The other half I blame on the education system believing it can put students on a metaphorical conveyor belt and push them through an assembly line to build them into members of the working world. No, this is not how it should work. When my capstone class involves me reading a book that requires me having working world experience and the teacher repeatedly asks about our world experiences yet gets nothing from us because we are all students trying to learn how to get the experience I feel ripped off. When that same class involves work that 5th graders can do, I feel ripped off. When I sit in a class and listen to my teacher talk about growing up with computers and watching them evolve, I feel ripped off. When I can read a book and get everything out of it that the class would give me I know I have been ripped off. Teachers should teach. I am literate, I can read and understand a book, I do not need a teacher to make a powerpoint for me highlighting the key parts, I need a teacher who can help me achieve goals by teaching me how to address and solve problems.

I am aggravated when people want to censor the voice of those who are taught and led to believe their voice matters without educating them on what would be an appropriate or acceptable way, regardless if the person chooses to conform. But people want to hide the truth when it hurts them, when its bad for publicity.

It is vital to understand your voice and know that it is important and should not be censored. I do not want to force my ideas into another head. You may not agree with my previous opinion on education but if your disagreement is not marked with your voice then you are censored.