Pearls before Breakfast: Joshua Bell on Subway

The reading piece that I chose to do my blog on was "Pearls before Breakfast." The reason I chose to blog about this reading piece is because as sad as it sounds if I happened to be in that subway station on this day I would have been one of those people that just kept walking and ignored Joshua Bell. I tend to block out things when I'm walking especially if it's something that doesn't interest me. I wouldn't recognize Joshua Bell if he walked past me in the streets, so that is part of the reason that I would have just kept walking. If it was a famous artist that I listen to their music and am a fan of (Taylor Swift) without a doubt I would have stopped, taken pictures, and stood and listened for a while.

I think this experiment was a good idea and proved a good point. It goes to show you that when people are "in the moment" they don't pay any attention to their surroundings. The subway station was the perfect place to try this experiment, especially at rush hour. It's a busy place, with people that are moving fast, rushing to catch the next train, and not caring about what is going on around them. I enjoyed learning about this reading piece because I pictured myself being one of the people that proved the peoples point and just carried on with my day.

Razia Jan! The hour speech that touched my heart!

I just got back to my dorm room from the speech from Razia Jan and I am in a happy but sad mood at the same time. Never in my life have I been so touched by a person that I've only known about for a short time. Razia's speech made me tear up more than once and the stories she told were incredible. Razia told a story about a 4 year old girl that somebody asked what she wanted to be when she grew up the little girl answered, "an engineer" the woman than asked the little girl what she meant by an engineer and if she knew what an engineer did and the little girl responded, "just wait, wait until I grow up and become one then I will come back and tell you what it means." From that moment on, Razia had my attention. She explained how she got the money to start her school, she told different stories about daily things that happen around her school, she explained the trouble that girls go through day to day just to get to school to get an education. Never in my life have I appreciated being born in America and appreciated freedom and being able to get an education. Because of Razia's short speech I will never again at my time here at BSU complain about the walk from my dorm to the other side of campus. Razia explained to us that girls walk miles just to get to and from school every day. And not only are they walking miles they are covered in clothing that only allows them to see straight ahead, nothing else. They are not allowed to be walking the streets without being covered.

 

Although I really enjoyed her presentation my three favorite parts of it were first of all meeting Razia and getting a picture taken with her. Secondly, the story she told when she was building her school and a man told her 3 times to go inside the building and sit down that she wasn't allowed to be out there. And Razia told us she said to that man, "listen brother, this is my project, without me staying out here and building there won't be a school." I couldn’t be happier that Razia stood up for herself and didn't take any nonsense from the man. And finally, my last favorite part was during the Q&A and a young man stood up and explained how he served in the military for a year and 1/2 over in Afghanistan and explained how he helped build a girls school and somebody went and lit the school on fire when they were finished just because it was a school that girls were going to be able to attend. Razia and the man had a moment and saluted each other. My eyes swelled up with tears. I could go on and on about this presentation, I have far passed 250 words, so I’ll stop now.

 

I am so glad I decided to go to this, watching this presentation was so much more than just getting extra credit. I got so much out of it and I couldn't be happier that I went.