Fireside Chat

            My fireside chat was a tribute to my parents. I had recently been inspired by the poet, Billy Collins, and his poem “The Lanyard.” This poem is about recalling in his youth that he made a lanyard for his mother as a gift. At the time he thought the gift would make them even for all the things that she had done for him and given to him. Only later in life did he realize that you can’t ever repay your mother. This struck a chord with me, since I have my own young child now, and caring for him has made me realize just all that my parents have done for me. I’ve thought of ways that I could repay them. Actually, getting a degree in Media Arts is one of the ways that I hoped to do it. I often dreamed of making it big in film and becoming wealthy. And when I’d dream of having a lot of money, I thought of few things I’d like to do for myself, but mostly I thought about the things I could do for my parents in an attempt to give thanks and repay them for all that they’ve done for me. But over the past few years I’ve come to realize that this is simply impossible. Nothing you can buy will ever repay the people who gave you your life.  I wanted to let them know that I was aware of this, so I made my project about them, and I used to poem as a jumping off point.

            I used the old photos to go along with my narration so that it would feel like a little trip down memory lane. I felt that using pictures they hadn’t seen in a long time would stir up some good memories and be very powerful. I selected photos that represented the monetary things they had given me and then the things which are beyond value. I did this for contrast and to also set up what I mentioned earlier about no dollar value could be equivalent to them giving me life. I chose to make it mostly serious because it was a serious feeling, but thought that a little bit of humor would be reflective of my personality(they did need to know it was actually me who wrote it).  I also used that poem of Billy Collins’ because I felt it said some things very well that I couldn’t say any better myself. Every time I rehearsed when I got to the end,  I knew I was going to get a little emotional. I always kept it together when I practiced, but when the real thing came, and my parents were there, I was fighting back tears. I feel that was one of the purposes of this assignment – express some very real emotion in real time.