We Are... Family

Although there are various aspects of each article and movie that I agree with, the one particular article called Notes from Inside a Burst Bubble: On the ground in State College, PA by David Housely, shared a lot of similar ideas I had about the resent Penn State scandal.  Things like keeping with the Penn State family and continuing to make a change.  Here I will share some of these similar ideas, but in my own words.

While watching, reading, listening and talking to others, there is one thought that I stick to; all the people who were involved or kept quiet about the sexual abuse at Penn State are guilty of letting our school down.

Football is not my life, even if it was, it is most definitely not a reason to ignore something as serious as sexual abuse.  I know, people tell me that I could never understand the situation unless I was in the shoes of someone like JoePa, but I still find it as no excuse. How could one human being ignore the mistreatment of another, especially a child?  Maybe its just me, but all this does not sound right, no matter what excuse any person could come up with.  

Here at Penn State we are known as a family.  From what had happened, it did not seem like one the past couple of weeks. A family is supposed to be supportive and help each other. Isn’t it a responsibility to take care of your family members and protect them from harm too? 

I feel like those in authority, lost what Penn State really is about, not the football but rater the family aspect.  Like the little boy Ben from the Barrelhouse Bubble article he knew Penn State even at a young age.  This is a University where many people grew up, studied, or more importantly a special place they call home… a person does not need to be here a long time to feel apart of Penn State.  Unfortunately in this family, not only did the sports coach and president disappoint us, so did we, the students.  Some were very angry and knew of no other way than to riot.  From that, Penn State grew even more apart. We, the students, had also hurt the family too.

Everyone who talks about the scandal including myself, other students and writers are all confused about who we are as Penn State, and how this University was hurt by the disguising selfishness of one person. It is hard for me too, to understand but I also believe that with the start of the candle lit vigil everyone came together and became what I believe we were, broke from, but now still are, a family. Like Dave had mentioned from the Penn State alma mature, “may no acts of ours bring shame.” Penn State did have leaders we thought we could trust, but instead they brought shame and disappointed to the school. Paterno and our President, Spanier were removed from their positions but from this, I believe Penn State will try its best to not bring shame anymore, and hopefully become a more aware and stronger University.

Penn State Musical Experience!

Kiss Me Kate was my first performance at Penn State but not the first musical I had ever seen.  Like most other high school students, I attended the typical high school play every year. I always had friends who loved acting, and each fall I enjoyed watching every musical and play they were in. Unlike the high school shows I had seen, this performance was very professional.   It surprised me how well each person was able to not only act but sing and dance as well! For a college performance, it was even better than I had expected it to be. The costumes were very elaborate, and the set was very detailed. As I read the program I realized that every one in the show was a theatre or acting major of some sort.  I did not even know that we had a major for that! It was neat to read about each actor and the shows that they performed in while studying their major. 

I really enjoyed the genre of the show and while watching the performance, I laughed a lot. I felt like the genre was under the category of humor and romance, mostly humor though. I thought the jokes were great and not too crummy at all. The dancing and effects entertained me as well. I would most defiantly include this musical on my list of favorites, along with Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, and Phantom of the Opera. All these musicals are very different from Kiss Me Kate, and I think they are hard to compare with each other. But, if someone were to take me to this musical without knowing, I would have guessed it was equivalent to something from Broadway. After watching Kiss me Kate I will be on the look out for more musicals throughout the year. I’m looking forward to seeing other great performances!

I had never read Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, but I had heard about it in one of my English classes in high school. Even though I do not know what it is about, I think I could make a good guess about the plot. The time period was obviously different for Shakespeare, but I know that the story is a play within a play… or at least something like that.

My favorite part of the experience was watching the parts when there was a lot of dancing. At the beginning I did not expect the guys to know ballet as well as they did! I was amazed at how coordinated and well synchronized the dancers were. It was obvious that they spent a lot of time not only learning the choreography but also memorizing songs and words while dancing! I think that the actors here at Penn State are very talented. I only wish there more students watching the show than elderly people… everyone else is missing out!

Arboretum Trip

Before the field trip,I had only heard a few things about the Arboretum. I was not really sure about what to expect, but I was excited to go somewhere different on campus that morning.  The walk there was long. For the first time this semester, I had to walk out further than I had been used to; especially, that early in the morning. Despite the distance, going to the Arboretum was worth it.  When I saw it from a distance, I thought that we were going to be on some sort of tree farm, but really, it was more of a garden.  Fall is my favorite time of the year, I really enjoyed the weather, colors of the plants and pumpkins around me.  It was a nice walk, and we had a lot of places to venture out to, I loved it!

Personally, I would consider the whole garden to be art.  The plants, rocks, and pumpkins were all pieces of nature that were placed by someone.  Even though they were not alive, someone had a vision about what the place would look like... I feel like this garden inspires its art through nature.  It is a place on campus where people can visit any time of the year and admire nature itself.

I honestly will go back several times to see what it looks like during each season.  I feel like a lot of people do not know about places like these on campus, (at least I did not) but I really think they make the campus more than a place for football and school.  Its a nice place to get away from all that. We all get overwhelmed visiting buildings and sitting in class all day. Places like the arboretum could help me to escape from all that, without even having to leave the campus!