Emma Griffin
Throughout my highschool years I have been in english classes that are surrounded on more historical topics, topics I didn’t have to think about I just had to research. My creative brain was shut down because everything I needed to know was being handed to me on a piece of paper or through google. I spent four years of highschool perfecting how to write argumentative essays or how to persuade people using ethos, pathos and logos. My access to my creative brain was turned off, if the question is, was I really thinkING in these highschool english classes? The simple answer would be no, my brain wasn’t flooding with creativity, nothing was making me think and analyze so deep that I would consider it thinkING, until I came across the suspicious pants in my first college english course.
Now, I am definitely one to look at a meme, maybe let out a chuckle and forget about it in the matter of two minutes so when I was asked to analyze this suspicious pants meme and find a deeper meaning than just a pair of pants, it’s safe to say I struggled. Although I finally felt like I had a chance to unlock my creative mind that’s been locked for so long, it seems to be a tad rusty. Just thinking about digging deep was more creativity I have accessed in 30 seconds compared to 4 years of highschool.
When I first looked at the suspicious pants I won’t lie, all I saw was a pair of pants that looked funny. I was asking myself “why are we looking at pants in an english 203 class?” Well the answer is to get me thinkING. Now, the first thing I noticed is how this suspicious pair of pants shows emotion. Somehow, someway this pair of pants was snapped just at the right time to catch it demonstrating an emotion. To me ,the pants look like they are judging me, they are suspicious and it’s confusing how a pair of pants brings out such obvious emotions. How can something that we see in our everyday life that we think nothing about, show emotion? I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t necessarily wake up and think about something as simple as putting on a pair of pants, I just do it naturally since it’s routine.
It is so easy to get something burned into your mind. Waking up, brushing your teeth, putting on shoes before you go outside, going to work ,it is all routine.You don’t think about it you are just used to it, which is why maybe we don’t notice when things look like they are giving off an emotion when they are. Reeling back into the suspicious pants, it is impressive to me that the person who took the photo, saw the pants, saw an emotion in the pants and managed to make an audience see the same emotion in a pair of pants by adding a simple caption.
That’s another thing, how can a caption make some agree so easily? Or how can a caption make you see what the poster sees? I was really thinkING now, it’s easy to make someone see what they see, you just have to have the right flow of words. The suspicious pants is just one of the many memes that make people see something just from a picture and two words. An example I see at least once a day are memes that use the captions “when you see it”. Not as obvious as the suspicious pants, but these memes too often get me looking and I spent about 20 minutes trying to see whatever the poster wants me to see. The suspicious pants honestly opened a creative mind for me, it made me think deeper about how it is common for emotions to be hidden until pointed out, not only in things such as these pants but also people. Thinking about this with myself, there have been so many situations where I hide my emotions until someone notices them or points them out.
I know it was a long journey connecting a pair of pants to my own emotional mindset and actions, but for me it was more of a realization. A realization that my abilities are beyond research and argumentative papers. I can make more of something by expressing my creativity and actually thinkING. As much as I enjoy researching from time to time it is safe to say I enjoy creating my own meaning a lot more. Not everything was handed to me, there was no right or wrong answer, just my interpretation and creativity.
Moving forward with this course, I am hoping to have more opportunities to interpret, use my creative mind and make something from it. I hope to continue thinkING and see what else I can dig deep into. Hopefully, I will be able to express my interpretation in discussions and my writing. I am setting a future goal to not only use my creative mind but express it. I have had a known fear of being wrong, but with interpretation I know my answer can’t be wrong. I also want to use my creative mind and keep it flowing, continue with my writing but maybe add in some opinion when appropriate. I look forward to maybe learning new writing styles, to better my writing skills. I will never say no to expanding my knowledge and I know there is always a way to better my skills. Throughout this course I hope to engage in some things that are out of my comfort zone whether that is through writing or sharing, I want to participate and do it confidently. Just like I pointed out with the suspicious pants, everything has an emotion it just has to be noticed, instead of waiting for someone to notice my biggest goal is to express and not hide. Thank you to this random meme of pants with a short two-word caption. Surprisingly, this meme made me realize more than one thing. My creative mind is opened up and my feelings are shared, I have dug deep, and I am ready to dig even deeper throughout my time in this course.