Icebreaker.

It's an assignment for Challenge & Change in Society. Ingber gave us a bunch of questions and we're supposed to pick three and answer them. Mine were, in order: "What's your ideal dream job? What worries you the most about the world you live in today? If you were an animal, which animal would you be and why?"

At first I thought the assignment was silly (in fact, I still think the assignment is silly) and I thought I would just write a random answer without worrying too much because it's not getting marked. But... during the process, it kind of made me think. Kind of.

And I feel like posting it on here because of that. (Please don't shoot me if you think it's crappy, which it probably is. It's not getting marked, after all.)

The ideal dream job for me would be a published author, which I have thought about pursuing ever since I was young. Even now, when I’m considering other (admittedly more realistic) options, there are still fleeting occasions when I imagine spending my life crafting stories and putting them on paper. Presently, creative writing is a very prominent hobby of mine, and in my free time I love frequenting the Internet and writing with others who have a similar passion for it. I much prefer writing fiction over non-fiction, which is why I do not express the same level of enthusiasm for writing essays and the like in school, but I suppose writing non-fiction still holds some degree of fun for me. Despite my love for it however, becoming an author will probably remain an ideal dream and a dream only; realistically, I feel it would be too difficult to make a decent living for myself and for a possible family on that alone, and I would rather leave writing as a simple hobby than have to struggle with financial troubles.

What worries me the most about the world we live in today is the fighting. It worries me that wars are still ravaging lands and destroying lives. It worries me that there are people who genuinely feel alone and unloved and have nobody to turn to. It worries me to see deep, unwavering hate between husband and wife, brother and sister, parent and child... bonds which are supposed to be the strongest of all. I tend to be a rather peaceful person, someone who dislikes arguing and conflict and serious violence; I am even averse to watching overly violent films, despite knowing they are fictional. A few people have labelled me an idealist in the past, and I myself admit there is truth in that, at least when it comes to alleged impossibilities such as world harmony and peace. But even still, I hold hope that humanity will see that someday, even for a fleeting moment, because the reality — or rather, the brutality — of the world we live in today is quite, quite worrying to me.

If I were an animal, I have a feeling I might be a crane — a red-crowned crane in particular, due to its ties to both Chinese and Japanese culture. The former is my heritage, which I am rather proud of, and the latter is a country I have a special fondness for. Cranes are very large birds; in fact, the tallest flying bird in the world is the Sarus Crane, which can grow as tall as an average human. Similarly, I am taller than most girls my age (and, incidentally, I often feel quite awkward about it). Cranes are omnivorous and generally aren’t picky eaters, and neither am I. There are only two or three foods which I detest enough to refuse to eat, among them ginger and “blood tofu” (which is exactly what the name suggests: blocks of coagulated animal blood). I also see a parallel between cranes’ wide range of specialised calls and my own extensive vocabulary, which is regularly practised through my hobby of writing. Finally, origami cranes have become a symbol of world peace through the story of Sadako Sasaki and her thousand paper cranes, and as a peace-loving person who wants to see the world stop fighting, lay down their arms, and be in unity for once, I feel that represents my personality rather well.

(... why does that last bit sound a tad narcissistic.)

(By the way, I learned to use blockquotes. It looks much prettier. ♥)