What is behind celebrities’ lives?  Being celebrities’ fans, most of us know what happens on stage, wondering what celebrities do as normal and traditional people without cameras, paparazzi, and interfering fans. Actually, we know what artists want us to know, unless they are caught red-handed.  Let’s mention for example Britney Spears’ life.  She used to be called the “queen of the pop,” winning three Grammies and having a successful career.  However, about two years ago, she had to go to rehab due to her drug addictions; she lost the custody of her two children, and even shaved her head, leaving us shocked about this behavior.  No one could have imagined that she was having such a difficult personal life in the middle of her flourishing career, but as the popular saying says: everything that shines isn’t gold. She wanted to present a perfect life that didn’t really exist.

            Celebrities, such as Britney Spears “[are] not mortal after all” as Katie Roiphe says in her “Profiles Encouraged” because in order to keep their perfect artist reputation they have to struggle and live an unreal life, where everything seems ideal and equal to happiness.  However, fame and money hasn’t been proven to give people joy and pleasure; indeed, they usually bring celebrities frustration and loneliness, preventing them from living a normal life.  It’s clear that celebrities sell us an “ideal” life that contradicts their reality and at the same time influences us. 

            Celebrities’ lives seem to be powerful and indestructible, capturing our attention and interest.  Celebrities seem to follow the song “Whatever You Like” by T.I., which says: “you could go whatever you want” and “you could have whatever you like,” giving celebrities a sense that the world revolves just around them.  Paris Hilton, for example, was caught many times driving drunk and with an expired driven license without being arrested.  Money seemed to be the solution to her judicial problems; she paid the fines without difficulty, but one day reality came to her life.  As E Online reported, “the 26-year-old celebrity, Paris Hilton, was reported for jail late Sunday night, before the court-ordered deadline,” and which she didn’t want to obey.  Police officers had to go to her mansion in California and arrest her.  After spending twenty-three days in jail as a criminal, she said “I’ve had a lot of time alone to think and reflect on my life and realize what’s most important” and “Even though this is a scary thing, I’m using it in a positive way” (www. eonline.com).  Paris Hilton understood that being a celebrity doesn’t make her indestructible or better than regular people, but most importantly, she demonstrated that celebrities’ lives are not perfect.

            In addition, being famous and having a glamorous life, celebrities have a lot of influence on their fans.  We as fans pay too much attention to what artists say, thinking sometimes that they are always right in what they say, think, and do.  The last couple of years, for instance, song lyrics have had a great amount of violent and sexual content, sometimes influencing our lives.  Let’s mention the rapper T.I, whose song lyrics deal with gun, drugs, and killing; these type of songs manipulate many people’ behavior and thoughts in our society. For instance, people have learned to tolerate and accept drugs as one more problem in the world, but not as a problem that affect their communities, including their neighborhood, school, and people.   Violent content songs also present a world where rules don’t exist, telling people that life isn’t important anymore and that “trouble doesn’t come any worse than death” (Last Days of Celebrities).  Reality, however, always comes up.  T.I., for example, was sentenced to a year under arrest for having an illegal collection of guns.  It seems that he wanted to follow his songs content, but it was demonstrated that in real world there are rules and laws to follow for our own sake.  Going through such a big judicial problem, he realize that he was wrong and is going to school letting students know about the unreal life he was having and that we are not super heroes that can do whatever we want.  In fact, artists can tremendously influence our lives, but is our job to decide what is right and wrong.

            Celebrities’ fancy and “ideal” lives influence our way of thinking about the life we are having.  Artists have so much money that they waste it on ridiculous things, such as Beyonce, who bought a $52,000 purse and Britney Spears, who bought a $27,000 necklace for the Grammy Awards.  Isn’t that incredible?  Well, for them it is ok, but for us, the fans, it is almost impossible to spend that amount of money.  Celebrities can actually make us believe that our lives are not good enough and that to be low or middle class is a problem, but in reality social positions don’t make us better person.  As Jennifer Minar, author of “The Charmed Lives of Celebrities: Is It All That It’s Cracked Up to Be?,” says, [celebrities] have so much: they live in ridiculously large homes, take ridiculously lavish vacations, and own ridiculous cars.”

You don’t know me, but I have a lot to say about your system.  Let me tell you that thanks to your irreproachable idea of labeling students, I have suffered years of seclusion and frustration.  An “ideal” student was my position on Agustin Stahl High School in Puerto Rico, being the student teachers would love to have in their class.  Not a word would come out of my mouth without permission, which would keep my thoughts unable to flourish, creating on me an incredible shyness.  About five years have passed since my high school graduation, a considerable time to realize that I was not really a perfect student; In fact, I waste too much time being the students my teachers want me to be. A new and redefined “ideal” student has come out of my mind.  You were wrong all the time; an “ideal” student is more than following rules and earning A’s and B’s. 

            As Gatto says in his “Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher,” “I teach you how to accept confusion as our destiny” (p.364), that is exactly what you taught me. Why I couldn’t talk to my friend in class when I have the desire to do so?  Isn’t it a natural necessity that would help me develop and better human relationship?  Individualism was created on me, which sometimes made me be a little selfish.  Is that an “ideal” student?  An “ideal” student would be Lewis, a high school friend of mine.  He was a “bad” student of my class, talking without permission and putting a little care to the rules if not any. What teacher didn’t see was that Lewis was intellectually curious; he wanted to learn more than English literature and math, bringing with him National Geographic magazines.  He just wanted to discover a world out of the school. I wonder why you kill my curiosity?  Letting me be a robot that never complained and followed rules.

            “Curiosity has no important place in my work, only conformity” (Gatto, p. 366).  Why did you call me “ideal” students? I wasn’t more than a conformist, being unable to make my own decision and waiting for others to decide for me.  Gatto emphasizes, “we have built a way of life that depends on people doing what they are told because they don’t know how to tell themselves what to do.”  On high school, for example, there were many “escape” to the beach of which I didn’t go to any; “bad” students, like Lewis, didn’t miss any.  That is what I’m talking about.  You prefer to call an “ideal” student a person that is not able to explore the world without fear and that first thinks about what other people would say rather than thinking of doing what he or she wants; that is what you create on my.  An “ideal” student is the one who rebel against those who try to stop him or her from flying, never being conformist.

            As Neusner highlights on “ The Speech the Graduated Didn’t Hear,” “here grades can have meant little in distinguishing the excellent from the ordinary.  But tomorrow, in the world to which you go, you had best not defend errors but learn from them.”  So why do you make me believe that my good grades were the base of being an “ideal” student.  An “ideal” student not only has good grades, which is not is a requirement, but also is unique and authentic, meaning that to be different is not a problem, rather it makes the student a special person.  An “ideal” student has friends and socializes with everyone, sometimes becoming the most popular student in the school.  So why did you teach me that I had to be locked together with other “ideal” students?  Thinking that outside students could be and bad influence on me.  Thanks to you I do not have many friends and sometimes judge people just for the group they belong to.

            Any student can be “ideal” since everyone can have a different perspective of what does it means, but I encourage you to rethink about it. As Neusner suggests, I would try to unlearn the lies you taught me (p. 376).  More and more students would probably be part of your system, so please let them be spontaneous and allow them be fulfill their intellectual curiosities.

My family is located in three different places: Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and New Orleans.  My little brother, my mother, and grandmother live in Puerto Rico, my big brother and I live in New Orleans and the rest of the family lives in the Dominican Republic. Throughout the year, each member of the family is really busy with full time jobs and, as me, some of them are studying really hard all the time to earn good grades.  Our busy schedules do not give us enough time to call and say hello, unless someone in the family has a birthday; because we believe that birthdays are really important, and we have to call to say happy birthday. Hard pressed for time during the year, we almost never get in contact with each other or see each other.  However, there is a great day in the year where everything changes.  That day is Christmas Day; the day the whole family gets together in the Dominican Republic to make and enjoy the delicious Christmas dinner.   

Christmas Day has always been an important holiday in our family.  We believe that this colorful season has to be enjoyed to its maximum with the family, and of course food is involved.  Food is not only food, but it is a combination of the traditional family flavors, mixing gourmet spices that give life to the classical Dominican kitchen. Laurie Colwin emphasizes this point in her “How to Fry Chicken” saying, “no one will ever fit to touch the top of her chicken fryer.”  My family Christmas dinner is unique and a tasty temptation.   But, there is more attached to Christmas dinner than its deliciousness, Christmas dinner actually proves that food keeps in us the value of home cooking and keeps my family and I connected to our heritage.

As mentioned, Christmas Day dinner keeps in my family the value of home cooking.  It is true that we rarely can see each other, but when we do, we know that there is more than eating yellow rice, pork, and potato salad.  Actually, believe it or not, eating is not the most important fact. Seasoning the pork, making rice, boiling potatoes, making green salad, and preparing corn bread brings the whole family together, which is really what makes Christmas Day dinner perfect.  Everyone has something to do, something to share, and something to try.  My grandmother, for example, is the one who seasons the pork.  She knows the right portions of ingredients the pork needs to be delightful and the right amount of time it needs to be cooked to its perfection.  My mother, on the other hand, is the rice queen.  Preferring long rice, my mother’s rice will never be too dry or too wet; it is mouth-watering.  In contrast, my specialty is the potato salad and, of course, since I have a good taste, I try a little bit of everything.  Without doubt, home cooking is the central part of an ideal dinner, where the family can apply its cooking secrets. As a family, we enjoy the moment together, trying to have a better Christmas dinner than the year before, never forgetting the importance of home cooking in our family.

Similarly, Christmas dinner is the perfect way to keep my family connected to its heritage.   Having full schedules and innumerable tasks to do, it could be easy to forget our heritage or ancestors’ traditions, but Christmas dinner gives us the opportunity to preserve those traditions as valuable knowledge.  After dinner is ready, for example, there are some kinds of familiar rituals that we always follow as respect for God and as a connection to our roots.  First and most important, we sit together, leaving God a space in our table so that he can accompany us and enjoy the meal with us.  After that, a volunteer, usually my mother, prays for the family, gives thanks for the food we have, and ask God to never forget those who have nothing to eat. Considering our meal blessed, we eat and enjoy our food as a family, sharing experiences, telling jokes, and remembering funny events in the family, such as the day my aunt Maria fell down in the pool after going to the beauty salon.  James J. Farrell highlights this point in his “Home Cooking” when he says that when we remember the good old days, we remember good food and good conversation (Earl K. Long Library Database). Christmas dinner rituals preserve in my family what might seem few little things, but at the end those little things are really what give Christmas dinner its familiar value.  Hence, when Christmas dinner meaning is considered, family heritage preservation is the number one outcome.

            In essence, both Christmas dinner value of home cooking and Christmas dinner connection to our familiar heritage bring an important benefit in my life:  infinitive regards.  Let’s mention, for instance, the variety of aromas in my grandmother’s kitchen.  First, the irresistible yummy smell of roasted pork, where one could easily know the pork taste without even tries it.  Also, the strong garlic scent invades the house, which gives the rice a unique flavor.  Similarly, the corn bread fragrance is tremendously provocative and tempts one’s curiosity to have a piece.  It can pass years after years and those memories will be there, reminding me that Christmas dinner is a deliciously familiar tradition that I have to pass to others generations.  Christmas dinner familiar reunion actually made me appreciate the valuable family time, where not only I have fun, but where I also have the time to tell my family how important they are for me.

            It is granted that for innumerable reasons not everyone appreciate Christmas dinner as I do.  First, since Christmas dinner usually takes hours of preparation, many people prefer to eat dinner out, preferring processed food over healthier home-made food.  The article “Americans’ Dining-Out Habits” explains that an “average of one out of five meals are consumed by Americans— 4.2 meals per week” (Natural Restaurant Association).  People just think about saving time and keep up with their busy live.  However, Christmas dinner is not about the time we spend preparing it; it is about what we eat and the meaning it has.  First, preparing Christmas dinner at home, we can be pretty sure that our food is chemical free and that it wasn’t frozen for a year.  We decide how and when we want to cook, so that it can be as fresh as possible.  On the other hand, Christmas dinner can also be an incredible experience, where the family get together and have fun.  Moreover, if we compare eating dinner out and preparing Christmas dinner at home, we find out a major benefit:  the leftovers!

            Considering that Christmas dinner can bring home cooking values and connection to one’s heritage, it should be part of everyone home tradition.  Today is the day to start viewing Christmas dinner as a way to get the family together and as a way to keep strong ties with our ancestor’s customs. Home cooking “is an activity that adds warmth, enjoyment and bonding to family life” (Foods ‘n’ Herbs).  The only way to preserve one’s traditions is putting them in practice, so let’s enjoy Christmas season and “experience the most basic act of love and care” (www.foodnerbs.com).  Christmas dinner is not about food, but most importantly, it is about family; let’s enjoy it!