Lulu Cao

All the things I have on me or with me are actually more defined by the society rather than me and shared within same categories by many people in the world.

----------------------------------------------------On me-------------------------------------------------

Jeans and T-shirts are the most common clothes that people wear if they can afford one. They are plain, simple, durable, casual and comfortable enough. However, if the most common wear are not jeans and T-shirts, or if we are in the 19th century's Scottish Highlands for example, I guess what people wear maybe quite different. So are the jeans and t-shirts created by me or I just have the equal (and luxe) chance to choose from the whole world clothes and I pick them? No... they are defined by this time and this society.

I wear a pair of shoes that seems too warm to the weather because of the air conditioner. Thanks to that the whole world can share something together—global warming. That also indicates how America is rich in energy. I would really feel strange if I enter a public building here without air conditioners, although I already got used to no air conditioner back home. This situation of our society decreases my toleration of temperature, and it tends to make "most" people "most comfortable" (that's why I wear warm shoes). When I was doing my summer intern, I wrote to the environment department of that company, saying that it is really a waste to have air conditioners open 24 hours and 7 days a week. Because at night time, no more than 30 people are in 6 or 7 3-floor buildings. So my suggestion was if they could add at least 1 degree at night time then may could change many things. But no reply I received. Anyway, if I have choice or we have class outside, I'd rather wear another pair of...summer shoes.

The two things on me that may be a little bit different from other people are the glasses and my jade bracelet. I know many people wear glasses, but not everyone so I used the word different. Well I have to say if we don't have written languages or if every word is twice the time of it is now, I may get rid of my glasses. Back to the basic, the reason I have to wear my glasses also have something about the educational situation in my country, due to the large number of population and the limited educational resources. In a word, I really want to throw away my glasses, if this is a different world.

The jade bracelet is a gift from my Dad before I came here, because in Chinese culture it means safe and healthy. That makes the bracelet not only an ornamentation,but stands for Dad’s love. And also it is some kind of cultural symbol. At last, just by coincident, the Chinese Character of my given name "Lu" means jade in Chinese.

So these are almost all the things on me. Like I said, they could be totally different from what they are now due to a different society.

----------------------------------------------------With me-------------------------------------------------

What in my backpack and wallet, are almost the same with most people. In the wallet there are some cards including credit & banking cards, student card, driver's license, some member cards, some cash and coins. It is basically the same with most people around me even people are far away, the only difference is the language on the cards and the heads on the cash. Ancestors created and rulers developed these systems for us, and we follow and keep on developing them. From just cash to less cash more cards to all cards to maybe no cards or cash at all (fingerprints goes for everything?), it is just a part of our social system and really not controlled by us.

In my backpack, I have an assignment planner which is like a calendar book with me. The old statement comes again: it would be different if we have different time system. One of my experience leaded me to some thought about our time system and how it affects people. Once in college we had normal 2 days weekends. Because of some emergency happened, the school just extended the weekend to a week in temporary. All the things changed suddenly. People played video games all night because they did not need to get up early the next day. Much time was wasted because suddenly everyone seems is rich of time. 2 days were spent like 1 day. That really made me begin to think about our time system. If we use a different time system, 36 hours a day or 10 hours a day, what kind of effect will be on people, both physically and psychologically? Will that also have some effect on the other things of the world?

Books, pens, notebooks, laptops... these are all school things. Again, if we go to a forest school, maybe we need some other stuff... Here is the thing, people may won't believe some stupid forest school or some countries or land they don't know, since you can't Google them! It seems nowadays that if you can not Google something, that thing does not exist. Yes, Google is a huge part of our social life now. Can you image life without it?

All the things with me. All the things are created for this specific society and time.

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If you read till here you must be tired of hearing me saying"this is defined by the society", so I will not say it again as conclusion.