Music has been a source of importance and pleasure for thousands of years. Like any other form of art, it's been a medium in which creators have been able to express themselves and their views, and listeners can see themselves in and relate to the music; and who needs an outlet for their emotions than … Continue reading The Symbiotic Relationship Between Teenagers and Music →

Examining If I Ever Get Out of Here, every chapter has a song title, but it's recognizable that Band on the Run is never used, however, its lyrics are what inspire the title of the book, cueing to the overall theme (“Band on The Run”). Lewis's admiration for the Beatles and Paul McCartney is result … Continue reading Escaping the Rez & Racism →

In the United States, institutional racism is weaved throughout the foundation of our country as much as our other social constructs such as the "American Dream". Through implicit biases, or explicit racism, people of color are oppressed by the environment they are in as well as those around them. Institutional racism is a term to … Continue reading Institutional Racism’s Weight on Adolescents of Color →

(Aubrey) I feel stuck. I feel like I am not understood. I am expected to act like an adult yet my thoughts, feelings, and actions are not validated. Do they think I am a naïve child or do they really take me seriously? I so desperately long for the taste of independence. I feel so … Continue reading A Day in the Life of My Thoughts →

The beginning of Eric Gansworth’s If I Ever Get Out of Here opens with a young American Indian boy, Lewis, wanting to cut off his long, braided hair. His friend Carson gets assigned barber duties. In passing, Carson’s cousin isn’t convinced that Lewis cutting off his braid will “make those white kids suddenly talk to … Continue reading The Musicality of Identity →

By: Liz Timple Saying someone “grew up on the wrong side of the tracks” means that they live on the poorer, undesirable side of town. This saying originated from the fact that train tracks often literally separated the different economic communities within a city (The Wrong Side of the Tracks). Although this seems like a … Continue reading Growing Up on the Wrong Side of the Tracks →

When George first invites Lewis to his home the reader is ecstatic that Lewis finally has a friend that doesn’t live on the reservation that he will be able to hang out with. But with this interaction comes consequences – George will want to see Lewis’ house, but that is the last thing the reader … Continue reading Lewis and George’s Homes →

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. This old saying has been thrown around for years. It insinuates that we always think there is something better out there, and to attain it, we need to uproot and leave our current position. However, what this saying fails to consider is maybe … Continue reading Classism →

“They always told us that one day we would move into a house, a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year. And our house would have running water and pipes that worked. And inside it would have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but stairs inside like … Continue reading There’s No Place Like Home →

Brooke Myers In the book “If I Ever Get Out of Here” we see a young boy named Lewis struggle with feeling accepted at school. Lewis’s struggle revolves mainly around his race and his family’s economic class. Lewis is an Indian and he lives at the reservation in a small rundown house. At school he … Continue reading Fitting In →