Two of the Most Important Things Teachers Have Ever Said to Me

1. "Do you feel oppressed?"
2. "Question the media and the propaganda around you."

1. "Do you feel oppressed?"  This question was asked to me by a band director at my high school, Mr. Benford, after school one day around three months into my senior year.  At the time I wasn't sure what he meant.  I didn't feel oppressed.  The main thing I was interested in was receiving good grades and finding a date to prom.  Now, six years later that I have been in a steady relationship with my boyfriend (who was my prom date), I have come to realize how unjust society has defined gender norms.  I have realized this now, while my mind is no longer distracted by societal pressure to find a significant other.  Society is trying to distract us from becoming too progressive, to keep us in line.  Which leads into:

2. "Question the media and the propaganda around you."  This was said to me by my English professor during my freshman year of college, Dr. Dryden.  At the time I had just believed everything that was in the news.  I mean, they know everything, right?  During that year we had studied how bent the truth can become in the favor of one point of view while completely omitting the other.  I still walked away skeptical but I began to notice how different news stations will focus on different elements of a story.  I began to question other things that weren't said and why they were not stated.  I noticed how the propaganda we are surrounded by also structuralists and supports these created societal and gender norms.  We have become brainwashed and distracted so the powers of the world can easily keep control of it.  

Question what is posted around you.

Be the rebel they don't want you to be.