It’s 2 A.M in the morning, and I, along with 50+ people, are waiting in the pouring rain outside of Arden Mall in Sacramento. You examine the demographic of the people and they are young, 17-24 year old males. As the minutes go by slower and slower, I often ask myself “Am I really doing this right now?”. I doubt myself, ready to leave this place of purgatory and go back to my warm bed, until I fall asleep against the wall, cold and hungry.
I wake up at the crack of dawn, and finally there is commotion. The security guys arrive with what everybody has been waiting for: a ticket to enter the mall and wait in line some more. This is just great. Being near the end of the line, I waited 30 minutes just to get a ticket and enter the mall. Again and again I’m thinking to myself “This is really stupid” and “Is this really happening right now?”
After a total of 10 hours waiting in line since 10P.M last night, I finally leave the mall and an old lady who seems like the type to go to the mall every morning and drink coffee asks me “What were you guys waiting for?” and I politely tell her “shoes, ma’am”. That’s right, shoes. They are Air Jordans to be exact. To the old lady, lining up all night for a pair of shoes may seem ridiculous, but for many urban youth, lining up for “jays” once or twice a month is the norm for the extreme sneaker collector. During these campouts, I hear people making fun of Star Wars connoisseurs who line up a ridiculous amount of time before the actual movies are released, but I ask myself, “Are we really all that different from those Star Wars people?” Apparently not, and what may seem drastic to you, is the norm for other people. Everything is all relative to what we believe, and if I believe waiting 10+ hours in the rain for Jordans is justifiable, then so be it.
This is a nice use of a personal narrative and visual objects to make a point about relative values. At what point, though, does the issue of relative values become problematic? Try to write your way into the difficulties of your subject, Sam.
I remember seeing that commercial for the first time and I felt that it was really nostalgic (even though I've only seen clips of all those Jordan moments), but cool nonetheless.
I think a human flaw is being hypocritical. Just like you said, those who spend a dedicated amount of time waiting for something are just like one another; only the product is different. Waiting hours to watch Stars Wars is no different than waiting hours for the final Harry Potter book to come out or watching the sun rise for a new pair of Jordans. And in no way am I saying this is bad; on the contrary, I wish there was something I could like enough to stay up all night for it. Regardless, it's just about perspective: one thing that's not important to you may be crucial for another
2 comments:
This is a nice use of a personal narrative and visual objects to make a point about relative values. At what point, though, does the issue of relative values become problematic? Try to write your way into the difficulties of your subject, Sam.
I remember seeing that commercial for the first time and I felt that it was really nostalgic (even though I've only seen clips of all those Jordan moments), but cool nonetheless.
I think a human flaw is being hypocritical. Just like you said, those who spend a dedicated amount of time waiting for something are just like one another; only the product is different. Waiting hours to watch Stars Wars is no different than waiting hours for the final Harry Potter book to come out or watching the sun rise for a new pair of Jordans. And in no way am I saying this is bad; on the contrary, I wish there was something I could like enough to stay up all night for it. Regardless, it's just about perspective: one thing that's not important to you may be crucial for another
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