Semi-Essay 3

   

     If flaws had emotions and physical capabilities, would they be called human beings? The NBC TV

show, Community, certainly thinks so and I do too. This comedy explores this dynamic of faults with

the characters and how it affects their lives and close friendships. The community demonstrates how

being flawed is a universal experience for everyone and can be a good thing for them. This also shows

real life for people to relate to daily by giving them episodes that could put them into the characters’

shoes and to be able to empathize with the characters and essentially, empathize with themselves. Not

only does it demonstrate the characters with flaws, but Community also gives fans a community, like

the characters, to share with the people who created it and the fans who enjoy the show.

 On September 17th, 2009, a TV show was created and aired called Community. It was created by a man named Dan Harmon. The premise of the show is that seven characteristically different people join a study group for Spanish in a fictional community college in Colorado but end up sticking together for more than they bargained for. The show ran until April 2015 and aired 6 seasons. The main stars of the show are Jole McHale (Jeff Winger), Alison Brie (Annie Edison), Donald Glover (Troy Barnes), Danny Pudi (Abed Nadir), Gillian Jacobs (Britta Perry), Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley Bennett), and Chevy Chase (Pierce Hawthorne). There were always speculations for a movie after the show ended, but it never came to fruition. The comedy has been significantly identified by its heavy use of pop culture references and its ability to give its characters an identity and character development throughout the air. 

Throughout the running of the show, there are a lot of episodes that are memorable to fans, but there are three that stood out to me the most. The episodes, “Comparative Religion, Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps, and Geography of Global Conflict,” each show us how the characters work in the group dynamic, individually and as a group, to release their flaws to each other and show how they can help each other in differences. The relatability of the characters is also something that may not have much thought put into it but was cared for during the show. Through these relationships and experiences, we get an authentic understanding of humans and, in response, understand ourselves. After Dan Harmon was fired, people began to think that the show might lose its authenticity. Some even thought the authenticity may not last as long as people would like. Don't you think so? Hampton Stevens thinks so, especially when he warns the reader about how ‘the danger, for people, and for this remarkable TV show, is in no longer trying to connect authentically.’ (The Atlantic). 

Annie's Schoolgirl Meltdown | Community - YouTube

Who's The Sane One In The Group? | Community - YouTube

Community - The Study Group's Fight - YouTube

Saeed Jones Talk Write-Back

         Being Black can get you killed,

        Being Gay can get you killed,

But being a Black, Gay Boy is a death wish.

-Saeed Jones

When I ended the sentence, I came up with a sentence instead of a wish. It is the same thing, but what is getting me is that I could finish his sentence, even though, I have never experienced what Saeed went through. That is what’s sticking to me, even though the weekend after the talk. I don’t know how, but I just knew what he was going to say next because, in some way or another, I knew it was true for him. 

When asked by Dr. Ragland about ‘How he coped with knowing that knowledge,’ he first talked about suppression and how boys were taught to ‘lie’ about who they are and that it makes it stressful, repulsive, and even painful to suppress the feelings they had. He also mentioned how knowing this had made him hyperaware of others who are not. He had given some solutions as to how he coped with this, like how acknowledging these feelings can help but putting them in the productive, creative way you want. Saeed put those feelings into writing, but anyone else can put them into singing, painting, acting, cooking, etc. 

I only stayed at the talk for 30 minutes, but that talk gave me more to think about and more to write about. The reading he did first was really intriguing. He gave it more emotion than just reading it in my head or having someone else read it. I guess he gave it more character. I definitely align more with the prologue of the reading, about Prince, because my mom is a huge fan of Prince and I think she would’ve felt the same with his mother’s feelings about Prince. The talk was good. 

Community: A Universally Flawed Show.

 

If flaws had emotions and physical capabilities, would they be called human beings? The NBC t.v show, Community, certainly thinks so and I do too. This comedy explores this dynamic of faults with the characters and how it affects their lives and close friendships. Community demonstrates how being flawed is a universal experience for everyone and can be a good thing for them. This also demonstrates real life for people can relate to on a day-to-day basis by giving them episodes that could potentially put them into the characters’ shoes and have a good experience with the show. 

As we go through life, we find out, whether quickly or slowly, that acceptance is a part of being flawed in the potential that we can change. In the episode, “Comparative Religion,” Shirley invites the gang to a Christmas party before they go on break. Upon learning that everyone has a different religion than her–Annie is Jewish, Abed is Muslim, Troy is a Jehovah’s Witness, Britta is an atheist, Jeff is agnostic, and Pierce is a born-again Buddhist–she quickly judges them for it, and intentionally disrespects their religion by ignoring their traditions. Toward the end of the episode, after they have a full-blown battle, they all spend their make-shift party listening to Shirley sing Silent Night with the accompaniment of Pierce’s piano skills on the keyboard together. Shirley comes to accept the other's religions and subconsciously changes for the better. This episode reveals that we as people can come to accept others and also accept ourselves and our flaws. 

Though we may accept our flaws, it still may be nerve-wracking to show them in front of others we consider friends. During the episode, “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps,” the gang gets ready to celebrate Halloween. Britta, a psychology major, anonymously gives them personality tests for her assignment. After grading the results, she misinterprets on the tests that someone in the group is a psychopath. After speaking to Jeff about it, they both decide to have the group take turns in telling a ghost story, with Jeff being calm about it and Britta taking it seriously. When the group realizes that Britta is testing them, they start to fight until Annie realizes that Britta did not grade the tests correctly. Once they retake the tests, the group can’t figure out who it is, and they all unanimously decide that they are psychopaths. The correct results show that Abed is the sane one. By deciding that they are all crazy, they decide that being different is not going to come between them, and more than likely, they are all comfortable with knowing they might be flawed together. This helps the viewers to have the courage and better understanding in that there are others who are just as flawed as they are. 

Going through stages of life where you may be in situations where you are in the wrong can give you an idea of why and how you were wrong. For instance, in the episode, “Geography of Global Conflict,” Annie enters her group to be in a world peace competition, only to be tied with another team she is very hellbent on beating. When an unknown person passes gas, the group reacts harshly, making Annie feel like she is losing control. Since the group couldn’t stop making comments about it, Annie has a full-blown meltdown. While freaking out on the table in front of a bunch of people watching, Jeff makes the comment, “Annie, you are acting like a little schoolgirl and not the hot kind.” Annie stops abruptly, shocked at the words that came out of Jeff’s mouth, and storms off in embarrassment. Jeff realizes, a second later, what he just said and gets embarrassed. Once Jeff finds Annie, he apologizes for what he said, while Annie apologizes for how she acted. They both come to understand how they were wrong, and eventually come up with a solution to win the competition, mainly using an intergalactic peace solution. This episode shows that people can come to an understanding of their wrongs and in return, correct their mistakes, and change.

When enduring many situations like the main characters in Community, goes to show how you can come to terms with your flaws, through situations, how you can share your flaws with others who get you or are on the same page as you. Those flaws eventually come to your side by making you realize how you may be wrong and why you can be wrong, with feeling no shame about being wrong and correcting them. This has also helped me to discover that flaws are not an issue to handle alone. When I first watched the show, I wasn’t expecting myself to rewatch it many times after enjoyment. Throughout rewatching the episodes, I find myself thinking about the memorable moments with the characters and realizing that they had some good lessons to learn from. I knew I may not yet necessarily be able to put my experiences to some of the topics that I’ve talked about in this essay, but I do see people relating to the characters, including myself.

Community - Jeff-Annie Moments - Season 3, Episode 2 - YouTube

Community (2009-2015)

 The scene is an aftermath of a fight between the main characters and one-time secondary characters.  Shirley, a black lady in front of the Christmas tree, singing Amazing Grace with the accompaniment of Pierce, the old man playing the keyboard. The camera is first showing Shirley singing and then pans over each of the other main characters and their torn, messed-up clothes, their bloodied faces, and the snow in their hair, sitting next to one another in peace, to signify to the viewers how even though they fought, and it wasn't the Christmas spirit that Shirley was forced upon them through her own religion, they came together to celebrate their friendship. Beforehand, Shirley had invited all of them to her Christmas party before they leave for break, but upon finding out that everyone has a different religion than her (Annie is Jewish, Abed is Muslim, Troy is a Jehovah's Witness, Britta is an atheist, Jeff is agnostic, and Pierce is a born-again Buddhist), she starts to judge them and intentionally not recognize their religions. The emotional scene is that everyone feels the real spirit of Christmas, which is being together. 

Camp Hamwi

      “Your pee is a little too sweet, so we need to salt you down,” my pediatrician told me as a joke about how I have type 1 diabetes. I laughed a little bit too, but I wasn’t too concerned about the joke, so I thought it was a funny joke. She spoke to my mom about going to the children’s hospital and having them do tests on me, as they had already called about us coming there. The drive to the hospital was a blur, but I do remember getting there. There was a long line to check in and we had waited there for at least an hour, but once we checked in, they took me into the back to do tests. My mom and I ended up in a tiny room that looked like a surgery waiting room, with a semi-working tv, and more tests to be done. All I remember doing is just sitting there and being scared of the IV going into my arm and straight up asking the nurse if, after all of this, I would be able to go to school tomorrow. The nurse responded, “no, you’re going to have to stay at the hospital for a few days.” I guess it didn’t hit me until the nurse said that this was serious.

    Once they were done testing me, a nurse transported me to a room I would stay in for the rest of my time there. My time staying at the hospital was a bit of a blur too. All it consisted of was learning how to count carbs, how to take insulin and which places I can take it, why my pancreas isn’t working, and everything that involves diabetes. I remember I was scared of the needles used, but after a few times of doing it myself, it wasn’t so bad. It was raining when I got discharged and it felt good to get out of the hospital, but now it was even scarier having to figure out all of this by myself, especially with my mom trying to help me. It was nerve-wracking, to say the least. 

The first time I had heard of Camp Hamwi was from the same pediatrician that helped me and my mom figure out I had diabetes. I was about almost two months into living with diabetes and it was at? a yearly check-up. When she spoke about it, I was intrigued because I had never spent the night at camp before. I mean, I went to a day camp, so to me, this was something new that I wanted to do for a long time. My mom worked to arrange for me to go to that camp and all I did was try to get everything that I needed for camp, with the help of my grandma. The day had arrived when I would leave for camp. I was excited to see how I would do at a sleep-away camp. I remember the morning air feeling cool in the morning, but still felt like summer. She dropped me off at a ‘station-infused’ clinic and they had to check everyone’s blood sugars and medical health before going to the campsite. Then before I knew it, I was saying goodbye to my mom, got into a van that was all girls, and we were on our way to camp Hamwi. As I was getting into the van, I felt this feeling in my stomach that was a mix of anticipation and nervousness into one. It was exciting for me. 

It was an hour and a half ride to the camp, but to me, it felt like more than three hours. When we finally arrived, I was excited but confused about what I’m supposed to be doing. I got my bags from the back of the van and wait until my name is called to go to which cabin. “Marra Thompson, G5,” a counselor had called and pointed to the direction of where the cabin was. I grab my stuff and head down a hill-like sidewalk and go all the way to cabin five. I get to the cabin and see one person sitting there. She greets me with her name Jordan and tells me that she will be one of my counselors for the week. I nod my head and try to get a look around the cabin while setting up a place to sleep. The cabin was wooden with a dirty and hard concrete floor. There were about five bunk beds with ‘disposable’ mattresses to sleep on and there were also cubbies for people to keep their luggage in. If you took a cunning look at the room, you would either think it’s claustrophobic or cozy with how small it looked because of all the bunk beds with the cubbies and one small table to keep diabetes stuff on it. After putting my stuff away, I kinda chilled in the cabin until I met all the girls that would be staying in the cabin, and then we all walked over to the amphitheater for a welcome. When I met each of the campers, I felt scared and nervous at the same time because I felt like I wouldn’t be able to connect with them or they might think that I am weird or too quiet. I felt weird because I didn’t know what I was doing. 

The welcome consisted of greetings of the directors, meeting the main counselors, and the counselor in training. This was when I met Nancy, my other counselor. After the welcome, we all went to the mess hall for dinner time. Most campers had to stay off the porch, except for the campers who were checking blood sugar and taking insulin. While waiting, I spoke to the other girls from my cabin that were returning, mostly me listening, and it was a whole bunch of nonsense like what happened when they were there last year. When it was my turn, I sat on the bench and looked at their different needles. I was so scared of the longer ones by just a little bit, but after I had used them, it wasn't as terrible as I thought it was. As I go into the mess hall, it was as noisy as you would expect from a bunch of kids. I went through the lunch line and sat down where some of the girls were sitting at. Throughout the conversations, I look out at the window and see the sky changing colors from blue to orange, which indicated to me that the sun was setting. It was beautiful. After dinner, everyone went to either shower and did the nightly prep like brushing teeth and washing their faces, but also checking blood sugars and eating something if they were low, meaning their blood sugar drops below a normal range and they must get it back up, before bed. I was going to do them in the morning, so I just went to the cabin and started reading my summer book for school. Lights out were at 11:30, but our counselors let us stay up for 15 more minutes. Most of us just read what we brought. 

“Alright everyone, it’s time to get up!” said one of the counselors. I woke up groggily and slowly, but surely, to get out of bed. I grab some stuff to get ready for the day. Then I waited for everyone else to get done and headed to the mess hall for breakfast. Standing outside during the morning was worse than other times of the day because it was primarily chilly. After breakfast, they had sign-up sheets on some tables with activities for us to do during the week. I remember signing up for horseback riding, kickball, frisbee, canoeing, arts and crafts, and swimming. I was excited to go horseback riding and canoeing the most, even though I couldn’t swim and was afraid someone might try to purposely tip over the boat. The rest of the day consisted of ‘classes’ that were mostly just some facts about diabetes, lunch, dinner, and getting ready for bed. It was boring. On Tuesday, I went horseback riding. On Wednesday, I played frisbee and kickball, but couldn’t go canoeing because it had rained that night. I was bummed that I wouldn’t go canoeing, but I wasn’t disappointed that it didn’t happen. On Thursday, I went swimming and did arts and crafts. On Friday, We had a camp dance, watched a slideshow that consisted of the whole week, and went to a make-shift bonfire that introduced new Counselors in training. I remember hearing the girls from my cabin crying about leaving the camp and practically having to wait for an entire year for this one week to happen again, but I didn’t cry. I didn’t feel anything really, except for the fact that I did enjoy camp that summer. 

I went back again two years after that first time and it was the same feeling as going there the first time, with anticipation and excitement, but instead, I knew what I was doing. I didn’t realize this until now, but I did learn how to be more decisive with my diabetes and just know in my gut and with some sort of experience, what I can do to keep myself alive and I also learned that you could have normal experiences with being a diabetic. It also really shaped me into thinking that I can still be like any other kid, but have extra steps to take care of myself. I didn’t think about it beforehand, but camp did help me with not having to worry that this illness was going to be severe to where I felt like I may never be able to eat anything or do things that I liked. I was wrong about diabetes. I could still paint or eat my pizza and candy, but with more ‘caution to the wind’ type of being careful.

Write Back 2 (Part 1)

    Some themes that I could write about are about the time when I found out I had type 1 diabetes, or when I went to diabetes camp the next summer. I could write about when I finally met my father for the first time and met the rest of his family. I could also write about when he passed away months after I met him. I think I'll choose to write about my time at a summer camp for kids with diabetes. It was a fun time there and it has some elements of art in the story, so I can figure out what to write about. The people involved with this story are campmates, camp counselors, my mom, and myself. Some artifacts that could be considered in the story are a Queen's song Bohemian Rhapsody, and a keychain type of weave chain that I made in art. There are probably more elements of art included here, but I can't really remember much. I also went back again to the same camp last year and it still has some elements of art to it, so I can include it into the story. I did paint a flowerpot at camp, and it mostly looks like a child made it for their parents and I used it as a pencil holder. I would like to talk about how I was diagnosed with diabetes and my time staying at the hospital. I painted a little bit during my stay there, so that could be something. I might mention some people in my story, and I think those are the people working in the hospital. I don't really remember all of their names, but I know some of them made a difference for me. I don't really know how this story will go through.

Write Back 1

 A memory I can think of is when my mom would either make breakfast or clean on a Sunday. Those days included 80's and 90's R & B music like New Addition, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and mostly Prince. I would smell pancakes and bacon coming down the stairs, and there would be my mom, just singing along, reminiscing about her time before I came along. I remember that sometimes I would get annoyed with her singing or playing music loudly in the morning because I enjoyed silence more than noise. These moments felt normal to me, even though it annoyed me a lot more than it amused me. I don't think me, and my mom have anything in common at all. She is more talkative, loud, and a lot faster to anger, while I am shy, quiet, and patient. It makes me feel very different from her because I feel like she doesn't get me or understand me. Maybe she understands me when I go through what she went through as a teenager growing up, but she doesn't get me anymore than that. I think the only way we could be the same is by our looks. There were a lot of people that said that I looked like my mom when I was younger and sometimes still. Other than that, we are completely different. Even though she really wants to be the person that I go to for everything and talk to her about all of my problems and troubles in this world, I still don't think of her as a go-to person you "can tell". I just don't trust her or myself to just talk about anything with. I never felt comfortable talking about myself with my mom. It isn't just her that I don't trust, it's people in general. I don't trust friends like I used to, I don't really trust my family, I don't trust myself. I just don't. I can't bring myself to talk to anyone like I'm so comfortable with them like that anymore. I used to have someone, but I don't speak to them anymore and quite frankly, it's better that way.