Super Finished!

This week was my last week of homework and laborious research.  It paid off fantastically.  I delivered a power-house of a presentation and have never been so proud of any academic project.  I did my project on hip hop and its relationship with imperialism.  Sounds interesting eh? Eh?!  It was!  My main argument was to compare hip hop and the American inner-city ghetto to extractive industry and the ravaging  and exploitation of the 3rd world it engages in.  Hip hop in this framework becomes a cultural resource that music corporations extract and make millions off of while the cultivators of this resource, the people of the “American inner-city 3rd world”, never see any of the benefits.  I had trouble concentrating on my homework as while doing research I became extremely entertained and distracted watching music videos of obscure egalitarian hip hop artists I had never heard of.  It was actually difficult to stop researching and focus on the writing of what turned out to be a 30 page paper! I’ve never written that much before!

My classmates thoroughly enjoyed my presentation and I even had a few peers standing up and clapping at the end.  It was a magnificent moment of triumph, a great way to end a quarter dabbling in some of the most dark and depressing histories and contemporary issues around the world. I had classmates congratulating me on my presentation afterwards and felt accomplished and proud.  This is an important feeling to get from education as it shows how much we can learn from each other and encourages positive reinforcement that promotes more academic growth.  It also shows how much harder and enthusiastic one becomes when exploring a topic of personal interest that still can be directly tied back to the ideas and concepts one has been following in class.

And now I am super finished!  I now have time to devote to many art-projects that have only been getting incremental attention most of the quarter.  I have been stockpiling much inspiration and am currently trying to wrap up the first zine I’ll have ever created. It will be glorious!