What will your verse be?
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer." -Harriet Tubman
The journey...
As Alexis Jones writes in the introduction to I Am That Girl,
"...living a perfect life is like watching television in black and white: you take out all the color. We need the adventure, all of the highs and lows, the unexpected heartbreaks, the ecstasy, the challenges, and the sweet, smooth sailing. Life is not about picking out the parts you like and leaving the rest, it's learning to coexist with it all and choosing to see the beauty, the grace, and the hilarity while also experiencing the inevitable disappointment and failure."
Read the following poems...
O Me! O Life!
BY WALT WHITMAN
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
"That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."
and
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."
As Robin Williams asks his class, "What will your verse be?" Take a minute to ponder that question.
Remember...
You have the potential to create magic, to ignite change, and to inspire the world. As Kofi Annan said, "To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go, and why you want to get there."
So again, I ask, What will your verse be?
What this means for you...
You will create your own video explaining what your verse will be. This video can be a compilation of your words, a photo essay, a confession; whatever you choose, but do not make it more than one or two minutes long. This video will be your testament to what you hope to share with the world as you move on from high school. And in the spirit of this project, each of you should make the very last line, picture, etc. of your video be the sentence, "This will be my verse."
We will share these videos in class.
How to get started...
First, think about how you will tell your story. Print out this storyboard and use it to plan your video. Think about incorporating your voice, pictures, and maybe even music into the video to make it more interesting.
Second, begin filming, photographing, and creating all of the shots or pictures you'll need to make your video come to life. Below you will find a list of tools that will help you easily create and edit videos and pictures. Explore the tools and be creative.
Finally,