Author Archives: mff55

Helping others in Need

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I enjoyed being part of the efforts and contributions of our Rose Scholars student group helping our local Ithaca community by packing meals to avoid hunger among the needy. This was my 3rd year participating in this event and it was fun to work in groups to pack scoops of rice and soy, powder protein and vegetables, as well as non-perishable food items (as surprising as that sounds)!

This event was not only fun but served a greater purpose as all the food that we packed would be given to children in developing nations so that they would not become malnutritioned, which served as a reminder how different people’s circumstances are in the world. Let’s keep our volunteering helping others throughout this Holiday Season, no matter where we go to celebrate it, as we can always reach out to those less privilege than us.

The struggle

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I first saw rent in my high school to support my acting friends and did not fully understand the message of the musical. Upon seeing it again, I realized that beyond its catchy music, there is an important message. The musical follows a group of friends that each struggle with their own personal vice, addition, sexual identity, parental problems, financial problems, or materialism, however they all hope to leave a meaningful legacy. Yet their vices lead to their goal. Through the struggle, they all endure hope, and doubt, and debt, but with it comes their unification and realization that their friends are their family.

Successful Failure

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Other than Apollo 11, where the first humans landed on the moon, Apollo 13 might be the most recognized and important mission of NASA’s lunar landing program. Though the crew failed to achieve their original goal, they were able to strive under pressure and life-threatening circumstances to bring the astronauts home once their oxygen tank exploded and damaged the spacecraft.

This film was able to show the teamwork and innovation necessary to achieve the ‘impossible’. The leadership that the astronauts, scientists, and engineers showed by remaining calm despite the danger and scrutiny from the public helped everyone to focus on how to crew instead of abandoning hope and leaving them out to die. The rapid innovation under pressure enabled the development of breakthrough products that led the astronauts to survive, despite not having enough oxygen in the shuttle to support their journey.

There skills were the basis to having a ‘successful failure’ and reflect some of the skills that are being taught at Cornell so that under adversity, we may also succeed.

Red Pill or Blue Pill

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Choosing to live monotonous yet uncomplicated life or to live in a reality where your worst fears are true but you have a chance to change everything. That is the choice the main protagonist, Neo, had to face in this movie.

Ideally, I believe that we would all choose to face hardships in exchange for a chance to change the world, since we are all the heroes to our own story. However, as seen in the movie, there are also those that choose to conform to societies demands and remain ‘normal’ and complacent. While this decision might be exaggerated in this film, due to its sci-fi elements, I think that it still represents a daily struggle that we face in life. Since we face a multiple of choices each day that vary in consequence, something that we must each decide is whether we will be happy with our decision.

That’s why we choose to root for Neo, despite all of his obstacles and no guarantee that he would succeed, he still chose to learn the horrifying truth of his life and attempt to fix it, which is something that we should strive to do in our lives.

First Time Seeing Studio Ghibli

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Throughout my childhood I was constantly exposed to Disney, Pixar, and Dreamwork studio movies. So when I learned that there was an opportunity to see Spirited Away, a movie from another animated studio (studio Ghibli) and one that was recommended to me by many of my international friends, I went to see it with a lot of high hopes.

After seeing the movie, I was completely shocked as all my expectations were not only met but exceeded.

At its very basic core, the plot of the movie follows a similar theme similarly found in some children’s movies, as we see the development of a little girl who overcome obstacles to find and rescue her parents who got into trouble for not listening to her. However, instead of being unrealistically transformed into a ‘perfect’ character, this movie shows the protagonist growing by adapting to her environment and being open to accomplish the necessary tasks by completing everything as best as she can. By showing that if you try your best at whatever you attempt, you would be able to finish everything you try, this movie reveals the necessary motivation we all need to have in life to accomplish anything.

Similarly, there is no ‘evil’ character in the movie but just ‘normal’ individuals, despite multiple having misplaced motives, such as the main antagonist’s constant desire to make a profit. However, the film is able to show the audience the need to have balance in life: since everyone has the potential to be good, it is only in excess that people lose their way and nothing positive can come from that.

By having a movie that is able to show these important messages, with amazing visuals and a soundtrack to watch, I highly recommend this film to everyone!

Taking a break with Klezmer music

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When I first arrived to the event I was excited as this was my first time being with a small musical group since my days in band in high school. When the group started rehearsing, I was very happy listening, as I had never heard that type of genre before and didn’t know what to expect, but soon really got into the music as it was very energetic!

In the rehearsal I learned that Cornell’s Klezmer ensemble was formed by one of the guest professors practicing, Professor Joel Rubin! I was surprised to learn to learn that he had created the performing group, that included a variety of people from Cornell’s community (students all the way to Professors!), that was successfully able to develop and grow, even after he left the university, to the point of being able to perform concerts. This shows that at Cornell, you are able to create and accomplish near anything you want as long as you are determined and find the right people to help you.