Tag: Smith

Down

kirbyfullyloaded1 Comment

“I don’t know where I’m at
I’m standing at the back
And I’m tired of waiting
Waiting here in line, hoping that I’ll find what I’ve been chasing.

I shot for the sky
I’m stuck on the ground
So why do I try, I know I’m gonna to fall down
I thought I could fly, so why did I drown?
Never know why it’s coming down, down, down.

Not ready to let go
Cause then I’d never know
What I could be missing
But I’m missing way too much
So when do I give up what I’ve been wishing for…”

-Jason Walker, “Down.”

Every year at Ojai Valley School we have a show at the end of the year called the Festival of Talent, which is exactly what it sounds like.  Last year we had a particularly beautiful performance by two fellow OVS bloggers, theotherblackgirl and rangerthecat; however, the former graduated.

They sang “Down” by Jason Walker, a song from the hit TV show “The Vampire Diaries.”  The show is based off a book series of the same name, written by Lisa Jane (Ljane) Smith.  But I’m getting off topic.

They did an amazing job at the show, a duet that left everyone speechless.

I apologize for the shaking and coughing.  It was freezing, I had no tripod and clearly, I was coughing.

You can compare it to the original:

So what’s this song really about?

Well, I don’t think I know.  I’m kind of super lame about the “interpreting the artistic and hidden meaning of stuff.”  So I couldn’t tell you what the artist meant or even what the general public thinks.

But I can tell you what it means to me.

It’s about someone who can’t find love.  This person has been standing around, waiting, hoping, wishing for the right person to come around.  It sounds like perfect love entered his/her life once, but it failed.  The singer is stuck on said love and is unwilling to forget it, for fear of it coming back and not being there to reciprocate.  Or maybe he/she is afraid that love was so perfect there will never be anything else like it.  Either way, this person is going down because of the loss.  He/she is confused why it felt like they could “fly” when they were in love, only to realize they were “stuck on the ground” and then they “drowned.”

It is entirely possible I missed the point completely.  But that’s what it says to me.

Sound familiar?

Cattle-ranching Trip

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Not very many people can claim that they’ve been on a real cow roundup, but I can!

Last Sunday, a group of three seniors, including myself, OVS art teacher Ms. Smith, and lower’s Australian riding instructor, Andy, loaded two horses and made the six hour trip up to Independence, California to stay at the Smith Ranch.

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Without knowing what a cattle roundup is to the fullest extent, I imagined massive herds of cattle running in each and every direction as the riders each struggle to keep them in a group and headed towards the pens.

Without knowing what ‘putting cattle through a shoot’ is, I imagined the branding to be a horrid sight, and the castration to be something that my weak stomach wouldn’t be able to handle, and the tagging to be intolerable.

I was completely wrong in every sense.

The first day of herding cattle was as easy as one could possibly imagine. The cattle didn’t even bother to defy the natural order of things and simply moved as soon as a horse came near them.

I was also lucky enough to ride one of the most incredible horses that I’ve ever encountered. Elizabeth and I were given to rented horses from a pack station down the road whose names we weren’t told. I was given a lovely strawberry roan quarter horse who was not only calm and collected but willing to go whenever asked to grab a stray calf. We named him Barry for his color and the large “B” branded on his left flank. We were also given an older gentleman of a horse who never ceased to have his tongue hanging out of his mouth and his head regally held above all of the others. Not to mention he was easily over twenty and was covered in random patches of abnormally long hair. He was named Thor, which was followed by more jokes that I could ever keep track of.

Throughout the whole time our faces were stuffed with the most amazing food, and minus the brief stomach flu that we all experienced, it was definitely one of the best weeks of my life. If any riders are considering going next year, they definitely should. It’s absolutely wonderful!