What's Your Community?

        Playing guitar is a community. Guitarists are a community united and bound through the music and melodies in which they weave. They form their own community as individuals when they write and rehearse on their own, BUT, together they form a large community of passionate individuals who wish to share their sounds and spread the joy of music. The most basic interests and values among this group are that they all love music and wish to pursue that above just listening it. To be a guitar player you need to be dedicated, artistic (it is a way of art and life afterall), always striving to improve and most importantly you have to have the HEART to back all of that up. Although there's many needs and qualities shared among these people there is also many differences in this group that works strongly against the cohesion of the group as a whole. For one, musical preferences vary greatly. I for one like post-hardcore-esque music, therefore, that is what I choose to play, but many people also within the same community frown upon that particular genre (especially the "screamo" A.K.A. the screaming vocals). From this, many artists divide up into smaller groups within this whole guitar community, basing themselves on genre, which is a major dividing "line in the sand" in which few dare to cross. So the largest tensions and difficulties the guitar playing community faces is the "genre-separation." Also in case you're wondering, acoustic and electric guitars don't really cause much issue among the community.
        If I had to say how I fit into this particular group, I would easily reply that I play guitar, therefore making me a member of this community I suppose. I've been playing guitar almost 7 years now and from the moment I picked up my first guitar (acoustic) I knew this was the thing for me. I love this community and it's definitely one I will always want to be a part of because it's so freeing and creative and lets you support your fellow musicians while being supported yourself. It's like a kind of kin-ness shared between you and your fellow guitarists, similar to that of being on a football team among teammates knowing you have their backs while they've got yours..

"What's In Your Wallet?"

     A driver's license, a high school student ID card, a handful of various store cards, a couple meaningful pictures. Aside from the several bills tucked neatly away within the confines of a leather prison, an essence lies within, of which MY own identity resides. Now what kind of things do those objects reflect about me and who I am? Well, for one they show my current age (seventeen), that I have a drivers license and the ambition and focus to go out and take the drivers education class and sit through endless hours of agonizing horror, only to pull my way through with a shiny new license. Now that's torture. A high school ID card indicates not just of age, but of a ranking in one's own school-yard hierarchy. As far as the contents of the wallet, the identity of Nick Jones is a self starter (in the sense of getting his own license and being responsible enough to drive), as well an upper-classmen in high school. Various store cards? You wonder what that means? Well, it means that Nick likes to shop and go places to buy things, as anyone can see from the various cards (excluding the credit cards), "things" includes groceries, clothing, music and just about everything in between. What can this say about one's identity? For one, it can say that traveling is an obvious factor, (that's how we humans go to stores now-a-days... go figure), aside from having to travel constantly to buy things it reveals a bit about a particular individuals own habits and tendencies, simply that shopping and buying things is always a part of everyday life, or at least every OTHER day life. Meaningful pictures of friends and family. What a nice thought to be with family and friends, that's something most people cherish, therefore, it obviously shows why it's in almost any given persons' wallet or purse. Not much else to say, other than that all of those objects shine a light on parts of my life and my own identity.

     If there's anything to say, its that a person's wallet (or purse) reveals a lot about someone and their identity, much beyond simply their name. Going off of what was in my wallet, someone might assume that I am a person who likes to be "out-and-about" and someone that is active. My values that one might assume from viewing the contents of my wallet are that I value friends and family (at least enough to keep pictures of them in my wallet), I am very independent and that I also like to keep matches on me because... well you never know when you'll need something like that. Although the contents of a purse or a wallet can tell a lot about one person's identity, there are a lot of things that can't be understood from just viewing the contents. I think that a person's fun spirited-ness, as well as their funny sides, can't really be told through simple little things someone might just carry on them and I think that's also true for me as well. Also, some things that can't really be known about me through my wallet-treasure would be my various sports I play, my hobbies, my middle name, my leadership-type spirit and attitude, the other kinds of things I like to do, my levels of competence and willingness to do work and put effort into things, as well as a few other things. The list could go on and on. In my opinion, in comparison to the amount of things you can learn about someone's identity through their wallet, you don't learn nearly as much as there REALLY is, no matter how much is in that wallet or purse. Just saying...

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