“ Who Shaped Me”
Welcome to my website. This is a personal blog so do not spread hate. If you do and I happen to hear about it you will be sued so brace yourself.
Agent One: Family
For agent one, family, I chose a saree as my artifact. This represents me because it shows how important my culture is to me and it has shaped the way I think, in general. Sarees symbolize grown women in my culture and have been a part of my life ever since I was born because of my mom. In my culture, we wear this on special occasions and are appreciated a lot. Me wearing a saree made me realize how important this is to my family and how much I should appreciate it. There were only a few occasions when my sister and mom have worn sarees with me but it made me feel really happy when we did. I also enjoyed my family helping me to get ready in a saree. When people helped me get ready and hired people to do my makeup while wearing the saree made me realize how much my family loved and cared for me. When I first wore a saree it was during my saree ceremony and all of my family, which includes my extended family, came to celebrate with me and I felt special. This has shaped me because I have made big decisions like how I act around my friends all because of my culture which can be represented as a saree.
Three positive impacts that this artifact has on me are making me love my culture more, making new friends because of my culture, and making me feel like I belong to a community. This artifact has really helped me love my culture more because I have learned more about it and helped me understand what it means to be a part of my culture. It has also helped me make new friends. When coming to this school I had no friends because this was not my home high school. Even though the first friend I made wasn’t a part of my culture, I have made more friends who are a part of my culture throughout the 3 years of high school than I had in elementary school. Also since a lot of my friends and all of my family share the same culture as me, it makes me feel like I belong and can enjoy the same things people around me do.
Agent Two: Media
My second artifact is the story of Sleeping Beauty. This artifact is significant because it represents my childhood. When I was young I was always associated with Sleeping Beauty and my sister was associated with Cinderella. Also because these were our favourite Disney princesses our parents would always buy pink for me and blue for my sister. One positive impact that this story had on me was that my parents always knew what I wanted. When I had gifts given to me, all of my family members knew that I liked Sleeping Beauty so I got gifts that I liked. Another positive impact on me that this story had was I made new friends. This is because in kindergarten on my first day of school, I remember having made friends with other kids who had the same favourite Disney princess as me. The last positive impact that this story had on me was making me more creative. This has shaped who I am today because it became something that I could look back and enjoy.
However, this artifact of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty did lead to negative impacts on my life. Since Sleeping Beauty was not a person of colour and I was, around the age of 7, I started to believe that I could never become a princess because I wasn’t like her. It also made me believe at the start that a “Prince Phillip” will come when I was in trouble and then later on I realized that this was not the case and I need to help myself. Also when I learned the actual story of Sleeping Beauty it made me dislike it especially because of the age gap (I learned this around grade 5). Then about 4 years ago, I realized that Prince Phillip sexually assaulted Sleeping Beauty. In the Disney movie, Prince Philip kisses Sleeping Beauty without her consent. That already is disgusting but then I learned in the true story Sleeping Beauty gets pregnant because of Prince Phillip and gives birth to his kids. After the kids are born (still while Sleeping Beauty is unconscious), they suck her fingers and took the poison out and she wakes up. After I learned this it changed the way that I viewed the world by making me doubt everything I learn which has shaped my identity.
Agent Three: Peers
For my third and last artifact, I chose BTS which my friends introduced me to. This artifact has probably impacted me and my life the most because I became a fan in 2016 when I was in grade 6. Ever since then I have done many activities which include making friends (this includes the first friend I made in high school). Their music not only helped me but them and their funny moments has made me laugh to the point where I never had before. I have become more of an extrovert because of them and I felt comfortable talking with others which has been a big part of my identity. I spend my free time watching Korean content which has also been influenced by BTS. Overall this artifact has helped me change in a lot of ways and helped me shape my identity.
One positive impact that this artifact had in my life was that I got to feel like I was a part of something more specifically a community. A lot of people are now fans of K-pop and more categorically BTS. This was one of the first feelings of me belonging to a group outside of my family. My elementary school was predominantly European so I didn’t have a lot of friends that I can share my concerns with. So I feel like BTS helped me take my mind off of those concerns which made me really happy. This was another positive impact I had in my life. The last positive impact is their message for one of their albums “LOVE YOURSELF”. This was an ongoing album series when I felt not the greatest with myself. With this album series it helped me reach where I am today and learned more about myself. I also learned how to love myself which made me really get their message through the album. It also helped me get through points of my life where I was really stressed and it helped me calm down by making me focus on other things.
References
Clark, L., Geronimi, C., Reitherman, W., & Luske, H. (1959). Sleeping Beauty. Buena Vista Film Distribution Company.
Hiskey, D. (2013, October 10). Sleeping beauty is based on a story where a married king finds a girl asleep and can’t wake her, so rapes her instead. Today I Found Out. Retrieved May 7, 2022, from http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/10/sleeping-beauty-is-based-on-a-story where-a-married-king-finds-a-girl-asleep-and-cant-wake-her-so-rapes-her-instead/#:~:txt=Entertainment-,Sleeping%20Beauty%20is%20Based%20on%20a%20Story%20Whee%20a%20Married,Her%2C%20So%20Rapes%20Her%20Instead&text=Today%20I%0found%20out%20Sleeping,her%2C%20so%20rapes%20her%20instead
News18. (2021, December 21). BTS set the pace for 2022, Armys Drool over sizzling photos of RM, Jin, jimin, Suga, J-hope, V, Jungkook. News18. Retrieved May 7, 2022, from https://www.news18.com/photogallery/movies/bts-set-the-pace-for-2022-armys-drool-oer-sizzling-photos-of-rm-jin-jimin-suga-j-hope-v-jungkook-4578017.html
Sleeping beauty. Disney Princess Wiki. (n.d.). Retrieved May 7, 2022, from https://disneyprincess.fandom.com/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty