Web Finds: Best Coin Ever Spent

I didn't know if I should categorize this under Hot Topics or Web Finds. I decided to put it under the latter, as my abundance of Hot Topics could compete with the opinion columns in the New York Times. So I came across this gem on Facebook; a post shared by a girl I haven't spoken to in nearly a decade. It's a video about a girl who innocuously puts a coin in a hat, and magic ensues. Safe to say that I cried. You probably won't though, I'm just sensitive like that.

Let's get to it:

I cried because it was moving. It made me realize the beauty of music and creative geniuses. These people who perform—whether it be the cello or the trumpet —all have music in their veins. They see the world differently and embrace it in a way that most people can't.

I didn't bawl or anything. I was just astonished at the amount of talent these people have, and why people don't appreciate them as much. 

Think about it. In high school, Music and Art aren't core subjects. They're the two subjects that you kind of sailed through because your parents couldn't care less. But fail Biology or Math and you're in for a beating. This not only undermines creativity but those who find themselves with a penchant for oil paintings or the tuba will think that there's something inherently wrong with them. 

Some schools even cut off Art and Music classes if they don't have the money for it. 

Art and Music teachers aren't as valued either, as they are only teaching 'filler' classes. The real teachers are the ones teaching Science and Economics. Those are the subjects worth working hard on.

People make fun of those who take a more creative major in university. You're majoring in design? Shitbrain. You're majoring in... what was that? Photography? I can do that with my eyes closed. Visual arts? So have you applied for food stamps?

The worst part about taking anything that pertains to the Arts is the condescending look people give you. As if you can do nothing better. "If you were smart, you could be a surgeon or a lawyer," their eyes say.

Sometimes it doesn't even have to be someone else's eyes. Ask any Art or Music student and their eyes will say the same. People patronize artists so much that they have started doing it to themselves. Most believe that they are not smart enough for 'real' majors and jobs—that what they're doing is second-rate to the accountants or businessmen in this world. I know so many people who had to defy their parents' wishes to go to an Art or Music school. It must be tough for them to have to fight to do what they love because society depicts their passion as inconsequential.

So maybe Art students won't make as much money and our majors won't be the talk of the town. People see design work as child play. But I'll be damned if another businessman comes to an ad agency to make an advertisement. Or when a politician needs a filmmaker to direct his campaign.

Art and music might not seem important to a lot of people because it goes hand in hand with life to the point where you take it for granted. From the pattern on your shirt to the tunes you blast from your speakers, they all integrate into your life so seamlessly that you forget that that's what gives color to your life. It's like growing up in a red room and you're asked to describe the color red. 

Art is on the packaging of your calculator, on the booklet of your engineering university, and the song you hum on the way to your Symplectic Topology class. So don't render our wonderful ingeniousness as inferior. After all, you don't look at the ceiling on the Sistine Chapel and think, "wow Michelangelo is one dumb ass."