Author: Arlette Alvarez

Being Inside

My first thought, when presented with the opportunity to focus on something outside, was rain. And more importantly, how present it is even when I’m inside and dry. It is comforting to listen to when you’re inside working, it’s calming, and has found its way into a lot of people’s study culture and general work settings. I won’t lie, I do in fact also listen to “studying in an old library in the melancholic rain (dark academia playlist).” It is a type of serene calm I don’t think can be found elsewhere, and has been vastly important to my own work. I included the exact video I’ve frequented during my studies below. Example

Being Inside (2)

Though, being inside my own dorm isn’t exactly the point of this sort of assignment. So, to fit within the spirit of enclosed spaces and comfort, I’m hoping to focus on a past visit of mine’s to Howe Caverns, truly a place I wish to never return to. To provide a brief description of the location before you analyze the picture I’ve included below, it is a tight, colorfully lit and wet piece of space. To be away from natural lighting was, for a short period of time, beyond terrifying of course. At one point during the tour they take you on, the guide will call for the crew to shut off the lights, and leave those in attendance in both uncomfortable silence and darkness. I have this very distinct memory of the event though, not of the quiet or the dark, but of the water slowly shifting as the awkward small shuffles of the people on board rocked the row boats. Each small movement causing a ripple that was just about all you could hear, underneath the breathing of most every other person on the same boat as me. It in a very similar sense to the rain and music I discussed above, felt beyond comforting. To sit amongst so many peers, yet feel alone in such a meaningful way was an experience without comparison. The waves were slow, pushing against only the rocks holding us. It is a calm I hope to reach again, and have actively sought out via noise-cancelled headphones. Yes, this is the incredible reveal that the things I wear around my head, sometimes referred to as headphones, do tend to have sound coming out of them as I find it calming.

Being

Sound, from the rain hitting windows, to waves launching into each other, means so much to me. My appreciation for sound isn’t something I see going away anytime soon, and though not mentioned, this love extends beyond the water you can find underground. Thoreau shares this love as well, within the section of Walden dedicated to the bodies of water surrounding him, he shows it the same care. We certainly get rain here, but it certainly feels like bodies of water have a much more subtle presence up here. Though that doesn’t make them any less deserving of appreciation. And yes, the title is a reference to that one movie I have not watched.

“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature.”

I got the picture working! It is now here.

Was I totally digital? (How much did I come here with?)

No, not really. Somewhere deep in a closet back home my medal for “excellence in Computer Science” has been gathering dust. Though I’ve never really lost my love for seeing code come together into an end-product. My AP Computer Science Principles course in highschool was of course, not the most in-depth guide to coding or putting together my own projects outside of the class, but I’d be lying if I denied that it didn’t set me up to explore further. A short bit of exploration into HTML and Python, plus a few subsections within the latter, was really all it took to set up the smallest seed of hope that I’d return to coding in the future. And now, in my second semester at SUNY Geneseo, I’ve found a class that mixes my primary interest of English, with something I hadn’t properly thought of since leaving highschool!

Am I a little more digital now? (Where am I now?)

Yeah, actually. Through this course I’ve moved past using websites with built in tips as a mediator between me and my attempts at making a button produce music, and started to actually explore my computer as a system I’m able to make use of. My hope moving forward both through this class, and once I’m past it, is to take this information and use it as a path to explore further. Whereas my highschool’s application of coding and similar topics felt closed off and even just confined to random websites I wouldn’t have a subscription to by the end of the year, but what I’ve gained here isn’t something I can lose access to unless by my own choice, and I truly appreciate that. I won’t leave a list of commands we learned here, but even those are just a starting point for exploring and understanding what I’ve got going on, a strong point to build upon. And I kind of just love that a lot.

What about the non-digital? (Did I read?)

Of course. Through our reading of Broad Band I got to learn about a very important section of the history of something I’ve made use of all my life. Without this context, I miss out on the importance of my ability to access and make use of my own computer. Through being treated as little more than a throwaway project, these women provided us with more than just a starting point for a concept so important to what we do BEYOND this class. It is a history that cannot be avoided, one that requires the willingness to express respect no matter how far ago it was. This applies to so many things, history isn’t something that we can EVER sotp exploring. There is also, and yes this is an excuse to take us back to my starting section, a history medal up in the same closet. And that is a combo I am genuinely proud of, and that I will not let go of even if the medals were plastic and worthless. I cannot, at any point and especially as an English major, ever stop paying attention to both techonology and the history surrounding me and anyone else.

I wasn’t reading can you recap in two sentences? (Why?)

I love technology, history, and reading. I love where they meet up even more.