Farewell, and Thank You for the Balloons!

The semester went by so fast – it’s like I created my blog only yesterday, and now I’m looking back on my journey, and it felt better than expected.

And since it’s an ending, and endings are bound to get a little cheesy… This video is a metaphorical summary of my entire blogging journey:

Throughout my journey, I learned a lot of things, including social media and software skills:

• Blog (obviously) with over 1000 views
• Promotion on a Facebook page, as well as on my personal Facebook
• Over 800 Twitter followers
• Multi-track audio editing with Audacity
• SoundCloud
• Slideshows
• Video editing with YouTubeEditor and MovieMaker
• BBC 5-shot method and news package form for videos
• Storify
• ThingLink
• SocialBro
• … And finally, I learned that I am able to work under pressure and deadlines, and that it’s actually not that hard to approach people

But, most of all, I got a sneak peek into the childhood of my interviewees, and each and everyone had reasons and stories to tell about their idols. Let’s take a brief look back at who their idols are:

William Clark

Male: Jim Ryun (athlete) for his sports achievements, as well as for his later involvement in sports camps for kids and service in Congress.

Female: Sally Field for her cuteness, but mostly for her ability to grow into a serious actress and activist.

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Rada Atanasova

Male: Bugs Bunny for his clever tricks and ability to manipulate others into doing what he wants them to do.

Female: Danielle (Drew Barrymore’s interpretation of Cinderella) for the fact that she takes action instead of waiting to be rescued.

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Alexandra Solonevich

Male: Dumbledore for his wisdom and for being the type of elderly person she strives to become in her later years.

Female: Bloom for her magical abilities and supernatural power of fire.

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Bozhidar Radev

Male: Indiana Jones for his intelligence, adventures (and attractiveness, of course).

Female: Traxex for being dark, vengeful, strong and fun to play because of her great damage.

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Harrison Ford

Iva Pavlova

On the topic of Star Wars (in light of the coming sequel), she shared that when she was younger, she wanted to marry Han Solo!

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Denitsa Getova

Male: Edward Cullen, because he helped her go through her first break-up, even though she feels his character isn’t realistic.

Female: Hermione Granger, because of her intelligence, organisation and respect for order… Although Deni did mention that her first favourite character was Barbie, and Hermione came later, but had the greater influence.

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Luna Lovegood

Jetmira Allushi

Male: Tom Sawyer for his playfulness and adventurousness. She also mentioned Harry Potter, because his ability to find a family in his friends reflects her life and ideas about family and belonging.

Female: Luna Lovegood for her ability to be different and to be herself even when others see her as crazy or strange.

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Hristina Balabanova

Male: Popeye… because his spinach-driven strength inspired her to start eating spinach as a child (which meant a lot, since she wasn’t really fond of eating)

Female: Luna Lovegood for thinking outside the box, being different, but also smart and loyal to her friends.

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Fan art of Arya as described in the books

Sava Stoyanov

Male: Geralt of Rivia because of his ability to remain impartial and do what is morally correct in a violent and corrupt world

Female: Arya (from Eragon), because of her selflessness and ability to ignore her feelings in order to achieve a greater good… and also because he had a bit of a crush on her.

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This answers the question, “Who are they?,” and as for the part regarding “What do they say about us?,” I tried to answer that for each person individually in each of my posts. However, there are a few general trends that I noticed:

• The Harry Potter series were the most popular ‘source’ of childhood idols – 4 of my interviewees (Alexandra, Denitsa, Jetmira and Hristina) had an idol from there. This seems about right, because most of my interviewees were from my generation, and I think we were really influenced by Harry Potter as a group.
• Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter seems to be the idol of the semester – 2 people (Jetmira and Hristina) independently had her as an idol!
• On that note, I think it’s worth mentioning that 2 people (Iva and Bozhidar) shared idols that were played by Harrison Ford. I am full of respect for his acting.
• Additionally, If I count myself, it would be 2 of us (me and Iva) who shared idols from Star Wars!

So there they are, the idols of the semester:

Harrison Ford

Luna Lovegood

And finally, we come to the actual end… I will not be writing anymore posts, but it was a wonderful journey and I am endlessly thankful to those who agreed to share a piece of their childhood with me, as well as to you, who kept on reading!

Like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, if you wish. And may your childhood idols always be with you in your heart, because they are wonderful memories and an endless source of inspiration!

Past and Future

People say that if we are lucky, our childhood goes by very quickly, because as kids we are happy and careless. I guess it’s because I’m equally happy (even though not as careless) that the first half of my journey with Childhood Idols is already over before I know it. Today I want to focus on three things – an overview of what happened so far, a brief look at what will come next, and finally a special midterm surprise for all of you!

Things To Remember

Harrison Ford

This wall consists of the heroes that my interviewees kindly shared up to this point. Let’s take a closer look at what each person had to say:

Professor William Clark has active, real-life heroes. As a child, he looked up to high school athlete Jim Ryun and actress Sally Field simply for what they are. As a grown up he appreciates their involvement – Ryun in sports camps and Congress, and Field in serious roles and women’s rights. He said, “as they’ve matured and I’ve matured, now I can see in them qualities that I would view as important in people.”

Math Major Rada Atanasova said it is hard to separate the influence characters had on her from her parents’ influence, since it was her parents who introduced her to the characters. Nevertheless, she loves Bugs Bunny’ manipulative cleverness, and admires Drew Barrymore’s interpretation of Cinderella – active, smart, and capable of resolving difficult situations on her own.

JMC Major Alexandra Solonevich likes her idols magical. Her female childhood idol was Bloom – the exuberant, red-haired Winx girl who can control fire. Her male idol was Dumbledore because of his wisdom, extravagance, and the fact that he seems to always know what should be done in every case. She simply sees him as “ a perfect person […] in elderly age”

Economics major Bozhidar Radev looked up to Indiana Jones as a child. Indy’s intelligence, attractiveness, adventures and combat skills are all good reasons for that. His female hero, Traxex from DOTA, is dark, beautiful vengeful, and “all about the DPS.” This shows that he was a dedicated gamer even as a child.

Here is a brief video that summarizes the impact of Childhood Idols so far:

What to Expect Next

1. More people who share their heroes

2. A transition from separate video and sound interviews into unified video materials (thanks to MMJ class!)

3. More videos than before

4. More and more ‘awww,’ nostalgia and inspiration to remember your childhood!

My Surprise For You

I think it’s about time I shared my childhood idols with you! It’s not fair to ask everyone to share their heroes with me without revealing mine. I’ll tell you why I like them (I still do), but I won’t attempt to analyze myself, because I think I’ll be too biased.

My female hero was Padme as she appears in Star Wars Episode II, played by Natalie Portman. She is very gentle, diplomatic, yet brave, loving, compassionate… and I won’t lie, I just loved all her dresses. She looked so delicate and beautiful, I wanted to be just like her.

My male hero was Naruto from the Japanese anime series of the same name. First of all, it’s important to note that I loved him even before he got as powerful as he is in the later part of the series! I know he gets a lot of hate for acting before thinking and for not being the smartest. What I admired about him was his determination and his kindness – he always works hard, and always tries to understand others. He is never arrogant and doesn’t act as if he is superior even when he is stronger.

To everyone who is reading this, thanks for sticking with me, I hope you enjoyed reading about the childhood heroes of others. I encourage you to stay for the rest of my journey, it will be a lot of fun!

And finally, don’t forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

The Cunning and the Clever: Rada Atanasova’s Story

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing AUBG sophomore Rada Atanasova. Rada is a Math major who doesn’t lack imagination and creativity. She has a wide variety of interests and ever-evolving hobbies that include discovering new music and an appreciation for art and poetry.

Rada shared that during her childhood the limited number of TV programs didn’t give her a wide range of characters to choose from, but I personally find her choices an interesting combination of funny and meaningful.

Bugs Bunny

Her favourite male hero was Bugs Bunny. She unknowingly made a little rhyme for this popular Looney Tunes character: “That was Bugs Bunny. ‘Cause he was so funny!”  He impressed her with his ability to get out of tough situations and win arguments with trickery.  Two characters would be stuck in the classic, back-and-forth Yes-No-Yes-No type of fight. “And at some point Bugs Bunny would change his position, and he would go like ‘No!’ And the other guy, he just didn’t notice and went the opposite way, went like ‘Yes!’ And then, then of course at the end Bugs Bunny got what he wanted, he was like, ‘Oh… OK, Doc!’”  Although Bugs Bunny is often seen as cunning and manipulative, Rada loved him for being smart – and don’t we all!

Danielle/Cinderella

Her female character was Cinderella. But before you go ‘awww’ and think Rada’s heroine was cute and girly, I must tell you she didn’t look up to a typical and generic Cinderella. Her role model was Danielle, Drew Barrymore’s take on Cinderella in Ever After: A Cinderella Story. Rada liked her because “she wasn’t like the other Cinderella-s, she took action.”  Not to mention her brains and beauty! Rada’s favorite scene from the movie was the one when Danielle and her prince were captured by a gang of thieves. Danielle demanded to be set free, and the gang jokingly told her she could leave with all she could carry. At which point “she just took the prince on her back” and started walking. This made the gang laugh, but also won their admiration, so they agreed to escort them.

When I asked Rada if her idols changed her, she said that since it was her mother who got her the tapes with moves to watch, it was “a bit difficult to separate (…) what [she] would have learned from [her] parents and these characters.” Although hard to discern the source, the influence was still present. We didn’t go looking for deeper meaning to Bugs Bunny. But Rada confessed that she “definitely” wanted to be like Danielle.

Click below to hear Rada tell her story:

Despite the fact that one is a live-action human, and the other – a rabbit cartoon, I couldn’t help noticing some similarities between Rada’s heroes. They are both witty and clever, good at conversation, and have a certain innate aptitude for getting out of tough situations.

P.S.: Don’t forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter!