Maya Angelou

In Maya Angelou's first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she said that the caged bird sings of freedom. What she means is that the bird doesn’t sing for our amusement. When he sings he’s trying to communicate with us, and he’s trying to tell us he wants out. No one understands because he sounds so beautiful, but all he wants is to be free. He doesn’t like being kept in the small cage, he wants out, and wants the chance to spread his wings. I completely understand that.

 

Angelou says she doesn’t talk about her bad dreams because it “gives them too much power.” I completely agree. If you keep feeding something negativity, and if you keep dwelling on it, it’s only going to get worse. Especially any form of drama- well, besides the class. During the musical last year, there was a fairly significant amount of drama. When people keep talking about what’s going on, they tend to add in their own two sense. That’s when it started to get out of hand. Things started to snowball, people started bickering, and we didn’t work as well together as we normally did. It started with a couple people and a small disagreement, and then half of the theatre had a say in what was happening.

 

After going through a major trauma at age seven, Maya stopped talking for five years. I don’t think I could ever do that- I can hardly keep my mouth shut for a few hours. Well, when I’m in school. At school I tend to be a jabberbox- I’m fairly certain that annoys quite a few people- but when I’m at home my family sometimes forgets I’m there. Maybe that’s because I stay locked in my room with a book, and dislike any form of social interaction with them unless food is involved. Or trips to the bookstore. Either way, I would probably learn a lot more about those around me if I talked a lot less, and I may actually get a say in things if I actually spoke up to my family.

 

Maya said she’s comfortable in using six or seven languages. I find that super cool. I really wish I was fluent in French- it is such a beautiful language- and sign language. When I was growing up, I had a few deaf friends, and picked up some sign language from them. Speaking just English is not good enough, even though we live in America. It would be okay if we were living in England. Just because this is America doesn’t me we can do whatever we want. We took this land from Native Americans- we were savages that came in and took the land that already belonged to someone else. America is full of a bunch of idiotic bigots that think way too much of themselves, and I find it fairly appalling.

 

I think writing is a lot of work. Depending on the genre you write will determine the amount of work you do, but putting your thoughts into words is hard. You may understand what’s being said, but getting others to understand is a lot harder. That won’t stop me from trying though.