Pentathlon Semester 2

During Winter Break, my friends and I watched the film Soul. I had seen a lot on social media about the movie and the display of diversity it portrayed which had made me quite excited to watch the movie. Should definitely delivered on diversity, portraying people of multiple ethnicities and accurately showing various parts of their culture that me and my friends could relate to. From the cookie tin holding not cookies but sewing materials to the poster in the barber shop displaying various hairstyles for black people, it was touching to see these depictions for myself as a Korean-American and my friend as an immigrant from Nigeria. Something my friend would bring up is the palms being a lighter color for black people and how they loved that that was shown in the movie. It is crucial for people of various ethnicities to be accurately portrayed within media and within art for people to feel represented and to feel like they can relate. Soul did that and I am immensely touched. This also makes me think about my own art and reminds me to accurately display BIPOC and make my art inclusive. 

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While I was watching Soul, I also felt hit very hard by the message that I took to be that taking life one step at a time and enjoying it is important. There was a moment in the movie where one of the characters becomes hyperfocused on having a purpose to live and becoming consumed by this need to have a purpose. I have felt this before multiple times and always thought I had no aim in my life and that I was going nowhere. Therefore, when I saw this moment I became greatly emotional and cried a lot. However, seeing this also made me realize that it's okay to not have a purpose and to just enjoy life as it is. I think a lot of people forget to be grateful for life as it is and chase after future things instead of cherishing their current life and living in the moment. I want to take what I have now and enjoy life and pass that same message on to other people like Soul did for me. I think that I can also implement this into how I create, being happy with just creating and aiming to make progress but not overly focusing on having a purpose in making art. 

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Through watching Soul, I have realized the importance of enjoying life in the moment and it has emphasized even further the importance of diversity in Art and media. I hope to take this with me in my art and in my life and apply it in Arts Scholars through making art just to make art and communicating with my peers and fellow Arts Scholars to cherish them in this moment and focus on enjoyment and happiness.