Reflection

Overall I have loved doing this experiment this week. I have discovered that being a Disney princess is a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I also determined that yes, some of the princesses are ridiculous and do not promote all good values (Snow White being a damsel in distress) but a lot of other ones do! The positives outweigh the negatives in terms of princesses and their values.

Outfit wise, I discovered that I do not have any green dresses and that wearing a dress almost every day for a week is not fun. I like my dresses, but every day? I like my leggings just a tad more than my dresses.

Hobby wise I have discovered that cleaning is a popular hobby amongst princesses. I am a terrible cleaner. But I discovered that the more artistic endeavors suited me more.

I am sad this week had to end, There were so many other princesses I didn't get to be!

But I am kind of relieved I do not have to worry about my hair, makeup, and clothing every day anymore. Being a princess is stressful because it comes with all sorts of expectations and rules. No one is perfect yet Disney princesses are kind of expected to be. I am by no means perfect, even when trying to embody these perfect princesses. I have learned just how hard it is to act, dress, and do like a princess.

Over all I had a great time this week and learned so much!

Day 7: Cinderella

To end the week I decided to try out my least favorite princess, Cinderella.

I didn't have that much going on today so I decided I was going to work on diligence. Basically I would be diligent in all the work I did, being kind, and having courage.

Due to the lack of human interaction (besides my family) I did not have much of to opportunity to focus on kindness so instead focuses on diligence. I cleaned like there was no tomorrow. I put away the massive pile of clothes on my chair, used the swiffer on my bathroom, did some laundry, organized my books (yes, I have that many), dusted, vacuumed, washed my sheets, sorted through old school papers, and cleaned a lot more.

 I also spent some time dreaming and planning my trip to New York City this Saturday to attend Book Con. Book Con is basically Comic Con but for books. Yes, I am that kid, the one who geeks out about books? That is me. I got online and spent my time looking at all the different signings I wanted to go to and the panels I wanted to attend. I made sure that I will get to go to the authors I really want to see.

After this I paper mached. This was quite the adventure. I was nervous at first because I have never paper mached but I remember one of my traits of the day was courage. With that thought, I plowed ahead. Turns out I am a very bad at paper mache. I have to make paper mache oranges for a play that I am directing so I decided using balloons would be fine. I was under the impression that I should let the layers dry a bit before starting on the next one so I gave them time to dry. That is where everything went down hill. The first "orange" I picked up started shedding newspaper pieces. Before I could say Wicked Stepsisters all the newspaper had fallen off! I miraculously managed to save two but I had to completely start over on the other ones! Oops....

Overall, I learned that diligence is a great thing to have. I did not have a lot of opportunities to play around with kindness or courage but I did my best. Being Cinderella was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I realized that I had more in common with her than I thought.

Day 6: Anna

Today, I decided, would be the perfect day to embody Anna. What I respect about Anna is that she is never afraid to be one hundred percent herself. She is fearless, strong, optimistic, and embraces her awkwardness. Family is also her number one priority. Today I am determined to embody her true-to-herself attitude and her dedication to her family.

Today is my last show ever with Hoggard's Honors Theater class. The drama department is like family; we bicker, we fight, but everyone has each other''s backs, no matter what. It has been a long three years in this class and I am sad to leave it. The show tonight was especially hard knowing that it would be my last time on the stage for good. At the end of Yellow Boat I felt it actually hit me that I was officially done. At first I felt relief and then I just felt plain sad. It is not everyday that you lose family and this is what that felt like, like I was losing part of myself. While I know I am moving on to do even bigger and better things there will always be a part of me that wishes I could just be a freshman sitting in Drama 1 again.

After the show we went out to dinner as the last thing we would ever do together as a class. We literally had 29 people sitting at one table in Red Robin. My classmates were loud and goofing off. Normally I would hide my face and mentally apologize to the people around but I ended up just laughing it off and enjoying myself.

I chose to be Anna today because I know how much family means to her and how much of an impact my drama family has had on my life over the past few years. It was time to say goodbye and I thought that would be easier to do as optimistic, fearless Anna. It wasn't.

Tomorrow, for my last day, I will be embodying Cinderella.

Day 5: Mulan

Today's princess was Mulan. I woke up this morning and got down to business... but not to defeat the huns... I got busy getting ready.

Today was our AP Lit class's day for playing kickball. Instead of adopting the dress and colors of Mulan I adopted the colors of "Ping" Mulan's alter ego. In order to save her father, Mulan sacrifices herself to join the Chinese Army to protect China from the Huns. She then adopts her male persona "Ping" in order to hide her identity. Ping allows Mulan to step out of her comfort zone and do things she could never do if they knew she was a girl. Mulan is unbelievably brave and honorable which is why I decided to focus on those two traits today.

I put my hair in a high bun and winged my eyeliner. I also wore a dark green shirt similar in color to Mulan's army uniform. I was ready to defeat the other AP class in AP kickball. Unfortunately... that didn't work out. Not only were we terribly outnumbered, our class was.... well... not very enthusiastic.

We had a grand total of two boys on our team and twenty something girls. If Mulan has proved anything its that girls can do whatever they set their minds to, however I don't think our heads were in the game.

One thing I am not proud of today is the fact that I did have a moment of cowardice. I should have been brave and volunteered to go first but instead I hung back, clearly not embodying Mulan. Although, I guess you could argue I was afraid of dishonoring the team I was mostly just scared.

Mulan left her family after she felt that she could not fulfill their expectations, I hung back and didn't volunteer to kick at first. Although I eventually went up I was very timid. I have this fear of making a fool of myself (mostly because I do this a lot) with things I know I am  not good at. I am NOT an athlete, I'm a drama kid. I can act or direct all day but when it comes to sports... Well, let's just say that I am worse than Mulan at her first day at training camp, which is to say terrible.

Therefore Kickball did not go over as well as I had hoped, although I did make it to third base and am determined I would have made it home if we had not gotten out right before I touched the base.

The rest of the day went well and it was an enlightening experience to focus on bravery.

Tomorrow I will be embracing Anna!

Day 4: Snow White

Today I embodied Snow White. Snow White is probably one of the most criticized princesses because of how little she actually does or accomplishes. Anna saved her sister, Pochaontas saved John Smith, Mulan defeated the Huns, Snow White got poisoned and had to wait to be rescued.

Snow White is a bit of a damsel, something I can not personally understand. Waiting to be rescued is not realistic nor is it good time wise. Who has time for sitting around waiting for help?

I am a very get-it-done person. I also have this thing where if something needs to be done I am going to do it and it is going to be good. Therefore waiting around for help does not sit well with me. Pursuing help is acceptable, waiting around is not. Snow White is basically the stereotypical vision of a female during that time. She is very gentle, likes to sing and dance, and absolutely LOVES to clean. She loves cleaning so much she decides that she will clean up after seven men she does not even really know! She does not have as much of a voice as the other princesses do which is why I decided to throw one of the most controversial princesses in today.

My traits today were gentleness and overall femininity.

Today I had the opportunity to sweep and mop the drama room. Being as I was Snow White this was the perfect opportunity for me to sweep and clean for the seven dwarfs! Although, instead of cleaning up after just 7 dwarfs I was basically cleaning up after 70 drama kids.

I thought I was doing a pretty decent job until I was told I was too gentle with my sweeping... Apparently cleaning is not the time to be gentle. I also thought I did an okay job mopping until the custodian told me "You've never mopped before... have you?" Today I discovered I should never, ever be a maid.

Today I learned how frustrating it can be to rely so heavily on other people. I told myself at the beginning of the day that I would not lift heavy things, this made the process of transitioning into rehearsal very complicated. Although I am not an overly outspoken person I do have opinions. This morning I told myself I would not offer my opinion unless it was explicitly asked for and therefore missed out on a lot of great conversations. While Snow White's gentleness can be considered commendable, her lack of self realization is disturbing to me. I discovered I did not like being Snow White.

Although today's princess was not as enjoyable I am hoping tomorrow's will be! Mulan is one of my favorite princesses and I can not wait for tomorrow!

Day 3: Belle

Today I spent today embodying Belle. I wore a yellow lace dress with a book locket. I got up earlier than usual thing morning so that I could curl my hair and put it up the way she does in the ballroom scene. I discovered how bad I am at curling my hair (the curls fell by second period) but I tried my best.

Belle is extremely intelligent and has a thirst for learning. Today I focused on learning and schoolwork. Due to the fact that it is my senior year and the middle of the week, it was hard for me to stay on task. Though I didn't learn typical school stuff I did learn some life skills!

1. I learned how to alter a dress. Currently in drama I am directing a show, a cast member needed a dress taken in and so I decided to learn how to take a dress in. It was surprisingly easy and only ended up taking me a half hour!

2. I learned how to hook the computer up to the sound board in the drama room. I have been doing drama at Hoggard for four years and never learned how to operate the sound board... Today was the perfect day to learn!

Belle is also known for being outspoken and voicing her opinions. This for some reason has always been a hard thing for me to do. I have always cared  way too much about what people think of me and how they perceive me. Belle is viewed as odd in her town and just doesn't care. Today I made it my mission to not care about what other would think or say and voice my opinion. I did it but I had some moments where I felt liked others were judging me. The farther into the day I got, the less I began to care about what others thought. Today has definitely been a good day for me. I learned a lot about myself and that other peoples opinions of me do not matter as much as I think they do. The only opinion I should be worried about is my opinion of myself.

As far as Belle's hobbies go, I spent a lot of time reading today. It is no secret that I love to read, I am a huge book nerd and I am not afraid to admit it. One of my favorite things about Belle is how big of a reader she is.

Tomorrow I take on the challenge of being Snow White. I am particularly excited to embody Snow White because of what a challenge it will be. Snow White is not as well rounded or developed as some of the other princesses. She is basically the standard for the "perfect woman" at the time. I look forward to another exciting day of being a Disney Princess!

Day 2: Tiana

Being Tiana today was no easy task. I started off this morning with no idea what to wear. I did not realize how little green I own until it came down to me, my closet, and only a few green items. I ended up not having a green dress but instead wore a long, green shirt. I was hoping to be able to wake up and seize the day but found myself almost as tired as Tiana after a long shift at the restaurant.

Tiana has a very natural look so I did my make-up but not anything extreme. I just used a simple powder and used mascara on my eye lashes.

The qualities I focused on today were Tiana's hard work and her ambition. My ambitious goal for today was to finish my long Personal Finance Project as well as the second part of my AP Human Geo project. By channeling Tiana's work ethic I was able to do both!

Tiana is well known for her passion for cooking. I chose to do Tiana today because I knew I wanted to be channeling her when I went to help out the Feeding the Hungry program I work with every week. I was looking forward to doing some serious cooking tonight but unfortunately there wasn't as much need in the cooking department as there normally is. Instead I did odd tasks and fixed and served Sweet Tea. Although I didn't get to do the intense cooking I wanted to tonight I did still get to serve! I mean, Tiana probably fixed drinks too, right?

The thing I love about Tiana is that, yes, she finds a man in the end, but she is not a damsel in distress! She stands up for what she believes in and never gives up on her dreams. She is self-sufficient and independent, she refuses to put her dreams on hold in an attempt to fulfill the expectations placed on her.

I am so excited to continue with this project! Tomorrow I will be embracing Belle.