Express Yourself!

Self-expression is art.
Self-expression is dance.

Self-expression is music.

Self-expression is literature.

Self-expression is your own creation.

Self- expression is about telling your story in words, music, painting anything that brings out your inner thoughts and feelings. Whether through graceful, sinuous steps to soulful tunes or canvases splayed with fiery colors, self-expression is indulging, openly, in what you love and what defines you as human.

As teenagers growing up in a restrictive and contradictory society, where people speak rarely about what is in their hearts, the arts are possibly the only refuge for the mind. Self-expression can be little acts of dyeing your hair pink and blue, or larger commitments like the arts. Self-expression comes from within. Self-expression is also affected by the morals you take on, instinctive choices you make and the experiences you have absorbed.

Put simply, self-expression shows who you are.

Art is where you feel at home. Dance is where you run free, emancipated. Literature is where the mind reflects. Music is where emotions explode. If you express yourself honestly, self-expression is where the inner self bursts forth, bold and brave, blatantly telling the world, “This is me.”

Quoting from the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King,Jr., “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

The arts are said to be a reflection of society. With the progression of society comes maturity in art. Without art, society would be a vast, bland and uncreative space. Art has changed the world into a more beautiful and wonderful place.

The well-known writer Oscar Wilde once said, “Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.”

Art replenishes us with vigor and drive for perfection and self-fulfillment. It is our pursuit of perfection and yearning for happiness that adds color to our lives.

I am a pianist. Music allows me the chance to express myself and brings me enjoyment. Music has been my friend and teacher since the very day I embarked on this grand adventure. From the humble moments of starting a new piece to the pride of mastering it and the sheer joy of hearing it played beautifully, the entire process is a form of self-expression. Music strengthens my individuality, allows for a few hours of precious solitude and develops my own unique identity.

Both the French playwright, novelist and poet Victor Hugo and the classical composer Ludwig Van Beethoven are credited with saying, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”

In a rapidly modernizing world with an increasingly faster pace of life, how often do you get the chance to sit down, reminisce and reflect? Art offers the unexplainable joy of immersing yourself, for just a few hours, in your own identity. Art is the truest form of self-expression. Those few hours are when you can entirely be yourself, not be conscious of perhaps critical onlookers and where you can speak, unbound.

Anger. Brazen, dissonant music. A clash of colors. Fast, striking movements. Peace. Tranquil, soothing harmony. A perfect blend of hues. A graceful leap. Anxiety. Fast, intertwining scales. Speeding, jittery scratches. Agitated spirals. Sorrow. Melancholy tunes. Faded shades. Passionate involvement. Joy. Lively, merry melodies. Bright, radiant colors. Exhilarating jumps.

Art divulges our innermost thoughts. Art illustrates our feelings. Art discloses our selves

Gladys Lim

Nanyang Girls' High School Singapore

source : http://www.thejakartapost.com/youthspeak/4/8/express-yourself.html

Yes or No?

Sometimes I feel everything that I have done is vain. Why? This is one example of my feeling. Sometimes I hope that my action will bring good influence for me.

Like this. Sometimes I help my friends to do their job. I do it because I sincerely want to help them, and I really want to help them. I often to do it. But it all turned out to be a boomerang for me.

More frequent I help people, so longer I am being stupid and weak. Because, when I used to help people, some of them were always asking for help from me, they don’t even think about my situation. For example, when I was working on my own job, I should spend my time to help my friend. But in the end, I didn’t do my job with the maximum results. It will only bring harm to me.

I have a problem. When I have the task of art, I knew that I had to do it at home.Because, I would not have had time to do at school. I sure, I will use my power to do their job. Once I was doing my half-owned art class. Approximately 15 people.

Actually I'm tired, I feel myself is only used by them. They became good to me because there is something they want from me. They don’t understand how I felt. They should know, not every time I can help. I am not a maid who can be ordered at any time. In fact, I can help them if the time is right.

This is my problem, I am very weak. I can not deny what I don’t like. I can not resist, I can not reject it, I can not say "no." I don’t know if I'll stay like this forever.

The Shadow and The Beetle

My point of view has changed. I don't know why, but maybe this is a very sad moment for me, and it pushed me into the deep disappointment. I really want to change that view.

They're not looking straight at me, but with the meandering view. Even though I acted as usual, it doesn’t change everything. 

I'm no longer as a people who like a firefly, but I look like a beetle.

Why?

At first I thought everyone was coming from me who can’t manage the pace and the way I look at the other people. Yes, perhaps this could be one reason why I look like a beetle. But apparently not entirely come from me.

All of that came from its, my virtual image. It is an opaque shadow and sometimes it lost when the sun doesn’t exist. It is very friendly with the sun. It was not sun’s fault, though sun is the one who led the presence of shadows. But the shadow still haunts me, and not become a good shadow. He became a shadow that can move and don’t follow my movements.
The shadow is exactly that made me look like a beetle.

I have been told the second person, that my life is not completely surrounded by a bunch of seagulls. I know, they are not a bunch of seagulls. They are merely living organisms that have been unconsciously become my bliss former. They used to do that.

But the shadow did not think so. It considers us as a bunch of seagulls. In fact he participated include myself in that group.

I don’t want to be like that. Because all of that just make me lose it all. Therefore, please don’t be my virtual image. You can be like a butterfly that is free to fly, and it makes you show the real you. You have to show yourself, because that is your life.