Author Archives: Elizabeth Riley

If You Knew the Future, Would You Try to Change It?

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Last Friday night, I attended Rose’s screening of the sci-fi drama Arrival. This intriguing film focused upon Louise Banks, a linguistics professor tasked with deciphering the language of extraterrestrials who have peacefully landed on Earth. In the process of learning this extraterrestrial language, Louise gains the ability to see the future. She foresees that she will conceive and birth a daughter who will die as a young adult from illness. Despite envisioning such a future, Louise decides to conceive the baby anyway. Once the daughter is born, Louise’s husband separates from her upon discovering that Louise knew the child’s fate prior to conception.

I initially had a hard time understanding Louise’s decision to conceive despite knowing the baby’s eventual tragic fate. It is difficult to imagine putting a child through such a sad, stressful, and fatal ordeal knowing it could have been prevented. Additionally, I struggled with the fact that Louise kept such a secret from her husband, who also had to go through the unfathomable tragedy of losing a child.

However, I had an interesting discussion about Louise’s dilemma with a friend who had a different perspective on the situation. Despite dying early, the child likely brought joy to Louise and her husband’s lives, and, it was also highly possible that the daughter lived a fulfilling life she wouldn’t regret, despite it being cut short. Therefore, is it so bad that Louise conceived the child knowing it would die? The issue is further complicated by Louise’s foresight, as, in visualizing her future experiences and interactions with the child, Louise may have already felt she had developed a real relationship with the child. Thus, it would make it hard to decide not to conceive a child whom she already “knew.”

Louise’s decision is more complicated than it initially appears to be. Although I can’t find it in myself to say what she did was right, I will admit that I do understand her reasoning.

I Love Running… But Would I Run the Barkley Marathons?

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Last Friday night, I attended Rose’s screening of the documentary The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young. I had never heard of the Barkley Marathons before viewing this film, and I was shocked that such an unbelievably strenuous, taxing, and exhausting race exists — and that people actually want to participate in it! In case you are unfamiliar with The Barkley Marathons, this trail race is composed of 5 20 mile loops (100 miles overall) in Frozen Head State Park of Tennessee. 40 runners are chosen to participate via an undisclosed application process, and each loop of the race must be completed in 12 hours for the participant to continue competing. Only 15 runners have ever completed the 100 mile race in its 32-year history.

I was obsessed with running in high school – I was on the cross country, winter track, and spring track teams for all 4 years. I loved the challenge that running presented, the competition that pushed me to excellence, and the exposure to nature on long runs through the woods. But even I can’t imagine ever desiring to compete in the Barkley Marathons. It just doesn’t seem healthy, in my opinion. To complete the 100 mile race in 60 hours, competitors essentially have to pull 2 all-nighters, while exerting themselves to extreme extents. I can barely function after pulling 1 all-nighter here at Cornell, and that’s without having to run the next day! But then again, I remember that in high school my peers who didn’t run would always question me as to why I ran and how I could put myself through such “torture,” as they couldn’t fathom ever finding a 5-mile run enjoyable. Therefore, I do question the validity of my opinions about the Barkley Marathons – maybe if I did begin running even longer distances I would find them to be fun, and would be persuaded to apply for the Barkley Marathons. I think when we haven’t tried something and thus lack any familiarity to an experience, we are immediately averse to it and unfortunately that can prevent us from challenging ourselves and finding new interests/talents.

So, maybe someday I’ll train myself to run an 100-mile race in the woods.

Writing A Resume – Essential but Frustrating

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Last Thursday, I attended GRF Seema’s talk entitled “Mini-Seminar Series: Writing an Effective Resume.” A resume is such a difficult document to compose, as it is essentially a compilation of the events of your entire life limited to a sheet of paper. For this reason, I have trouble being concise on my resume. I’m a junior, but I still have some high school activities and awards listed on the document. It’s difficult for me to eliminate this part of my life from the document, as it was such a significant and important 4 years for me. Plus, I’m always afraid I’ll delete something from my resume that may have potentially made an employer choose me for a job had I included it.

I also find writing a resume to be frustrating because, while the document reveals the experiences that you have had, it doesn’t directly showcase who you are as a person – good-humored, determined, motivated, witty, and/or intelligent. A resume can only indirectly imply that you are these things, but it is difficult to interpret what a person is like based on a written list of what they have accomplished and experienced.

More People, Less Resources: How Can We Sustain the Planet for Future Generations?

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This past Friday, I attended Rose’s screening of the film What Happened to Monday? Although the movie was poorly written and directed, I do think that the overarching concept was intriguing. In a futuristic society in which resources have become limited due to overpopulation, a one-child policy takes hold, calling for siblings to be put into cryo-sleep, during which they remain alive but dormant until resources become more abundant.

The film is quite thought-provoking. As the world population is growing to previously unseen levels, our society will need to find ways to sustain the Earth for future generations and to limit the hunger, thirst, disease, and expenses that come along with the reduced availability of resources. I think the primary ways to limit population growth are reproductive education and accessibility to birth control. We also simply need to be more conservative in our use of resources.

If a one-child policy were ever to take hold in the United States, it would probably be somewhat similar to China’s one-child policy, in that a fine would be imposed upon families who have more than one child. However, this policy would certainly be controversial for many reasons. Those  bearing the heaviest financial burdens would be residents, often with less money, lacking access to birth control, to reproductive education, and/or to information about potential penalties for having more than one child. How is this fair? Additionally, the main question is: does the government really have the right to control how many kids we have? How much control is too much control? It’s an interesting question to ponder.

 

 

Jenny and Forrest: The Effect of Childhood on One’s Future

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Last Friday, I attended Rose’s screening of the heavily praised but heartbreaking film Forrest Gump. Although I did like the titular character, I was more intrigued and interested in Gump’s love interest, Jenny. Jenny and Forrest served as foils to one another. While Forrest grew up with a great support system facilitated by his unconditionally loving and proud mother, Jenny’s childhood was burdened by a sexually abusive, malevolent father. Forrest grew up to be the classical version of a stand-up guy – he saw his mother very often and did not take part in sexual activity or drug use. Meanwhile, Jenny grew up to be a promiscuous, hallucinogenic drug-using, depressed, and, at times, suicidal character. Forrest becomes unbelievably successful, getting a football scholarship to the University of Alabama, being awarded the Medal of Honor for selfless service in the Vietnam War, becoming a Ping-Pong celebrity, and becoming very wealthy from shrimping and successful investments. In sharp contrast, Jenny suffers and eventually dies after contracting an unnamed virus, presumably HIV.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why Forrest and Jenny had such different lives, but it can be inferred that their childhoods made them who they were. Forrest’s support system allowed him to become confident enough to succeed, while Jenny’s depressing childhood may have lead her to a lifestyle in which she used drugs to forget such a horrible past, and in which she didn’t feel she deserved to be happy or successful. It’s unfortunate that Forrest Gump’s screenwriters took this plot direction. I think it would have been much more interesting to have Jenny rise above the tragedies that she suffered and the odds she was against. It would have been nice for the movie to not imply that our childhoods and upbringings determine how successful we are in life.

A Controversial Olympics: Should Athletes Be Punished for Their Country’s Wrongdoings?

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This past Friday in the Rose Dining Hall, I watched the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Olympic Games. My favorite part of the broadcast has always been the introduction of all the different countries’ athletes. It’s especially fun to view the smaller, lesser known countries that are so often overlooked. It is important that we be reminded that the world is not simply composed of the US, China, Russia and other big powerhouses. There is a diverse multitude of peoples spanning the globe, and we need to be more aware of their existence and contributions to our society.

In the ceremony, one of the most conspicuous moments occurred when a group called the “Olympics Athletes from Russia” was introduced. This abnormal title was the result of Russia being found guilty of a long history of state-sponsored doping of many of its athletes. Although many were banned, the Russian athletes present at the Olympics were permitted to compete, unaffiliated with their homeland, as they had no history of doping despite being tested often. Although this decision was controversial, I support the allowance of these athletes to compete.

Because the Olympics is considered a competition between nations rather than between individual athletes, many have argued that Russian athletes, whether guilty or not of doping, should be banned from competition due to violations by their nation. This is often the protocol in college athletics — if rules are broken by a college, the students are not allowed to compete, independent of whether they actually, individually, defied certain restrictions. Many argue that this policy should be applied to Russian athletes in the Olympics.

However, as an athlete myself, it is difficult to agree with this argument. Athletes have to mentally and physically push themselves to unbelievable limits all in pursuit of a specific goal. Therefore, I, and any other athlete, would be absolutely gutted to be prevented from competing on the biggest athletic stage there is just because my country violated a rule that I never once defied. Although the Olympics are certainly a competition between nations, in reality, individuals are competing, gaining notoriety and prestige for themselves. It simply isn’t fair, nor is it just, to have to sit on the sidelines, despite doing nothing wrong. All that hard work would be for nothing.

Therefore, I agree with the decision to allow Russian athletes who have not been found guilty of doping to pursue their dreams at the Olympics.

The Ugly Truth of Sports: Hard Work Does Not Always Mean Success

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This past Friday, I attended Rose House’s screening of the classic sports film Friday Night Lights. As a lifelong athlete, I respected and appreciated this movie’s attempt to realistically represent an ugly truth of sport: success is never guaranteed, no matter how deserving you are of it.

The majority of sports-centric films I’ve viewed have ended with the main character or team rising above all odds, past failures, and personal struggles to emerge victorious in the final competition. Therefore, overall, I feel that athletic films tend to focus on success stories. But, as someone who has been playing sports her whole life, whether it be softball, basketball, cross country, or track, I can say that failure, disappointment, and heartbreak make up a large portion of competition. My dream throughout my high school track career was to beat my school’s 1500m record. Despite grueling hard work and an intense determination, I graduated from high school being just ONE second off of the record. I never accomplished my big athletic goal. Although I did beat other records and had many other accomplishments and successes as a runner, the point is that a lot of my races were tainted by thoughts that  “I should’ve run faster!” or “I should’ve beaten that girl!”

Therefore, I appreciated the fact that Friday Night Lights had the main team, the Permian Panthers, lose the State Championships at the end, despite grappling with personal conflicts and injuries throughout the film. We all felt that the Panthers were so deserving of that win. All those kids had worked so hard and dealt with so many hardships – their star running back, Boobie Miles, was terribly injured and consequently prevented from competing in the State Championships. The fullback, Don, dealt with a disappointed, abusive, and alcoholic father at home. The coach had to deal with the extreme pressure of a small Texas town completely focused on their football team emerging victorious. However, despite all their uphill battles, intense practice, and deep drive, the Permian Panthers lost in a devastating manner. This is a common story of sports that we often don’t see portrayed in film or on television — sometimes, the team that loses is your team. It doesn’t mean that you didn’t try hard enough, want it enough, or deserve it. In the end, only one team can win, and it may simply just not be your day to succeed. Sports is a beautiful, ugly amalgamation of pride, joy, conflict, struggle, despair, regret, and distress.

I love it.