Pantene Commercial Response

    One of my grandmother's favorite creatures is a butterfly. She believes that while they are small and frail looking, they secretly harbor a silent strength within them. She loves the beauty and grace of a butterfly, and she loved the feeling of peace that comes over a person when they see a butterfly. When I watched the commercial, I saw everything that my grandmother says about butterflies, and I saw how it played a part in the commercial. Just as the girl is silent, so is the butterfly. But within her there is a secret strength that she finds and uses. She creates beauty, and that is one of the strongest things anyone can do.
     Whilst watching the Pantene commercial, some things that really caught my eye were the beautiful cinematography and imagery used to show beauty. One of the things used is a butterfly emerging from a cocoon and flying freely over a field. While that seems a little silly, this was used as a metaphor for the girl finally breaking free of social constraints and self doubt and finally expressing herself and showing her talent. While being a symbol of beauty and freedom, the butterfly also shows itself to be a sign of inspiration as well.
     I thought that the butterfly was a beautiful symbol of freedom and overcoming challenges for many reasons. Firstly, a butterfly is a beautiful and delicate creature, but simultaneously, it takes strength to emerge and break out of a cocoon. While being a part of its life, a butterfly is still faced with that challenge, and the butterfly is always one of nature's small beauties. When fully grown, the butterfly has no limits. It is free to fly where it wants and rest where it wants. It can do anything, and there are no feelings of restraint. Just like the girl in the commercial, the butterfly is free and expressive. Just like the girl in the commercial, the butterfly is strong.
  

  I didn't really expect much to be different whilst writing with crayon. I originally typed out what I was going to say on the computer first, and then transferred it over to the paper. When I finally started to write though, I realized that I felt much younger, almost like a kid again. This made me think of how I had thought as a child, and how, at that age, I didn't always like to tell the whole truth.

     Originally I had said that I didn't think it was possible to tell the truth just a little bit at a time to someone, but reflecting on past experiences in my childhood made me realize that there were times when I had done exactly that. There were times when my mother would have to coax out various details because I was reluctant to give them freely, and there were other times when I would tell one-sided half-truths to get out of trouble. 

     Physically writing with a crayon at first did not seem like it was going to be very challenging. I color all the time, and so to me it seemed like it would be fairly easy. But when I got started writing, I realized exactly how tedious writing with a crayon is. Coloring involved shading in various areas and it doesn't matter how wide or how distinct any specific line is. With writing, each letter had to be clear enough so that others would be able to tell what I was writing. I came to see that pens and pencils were so much more convenient, because pencils can be sharpened and pens have a steady ink flow. Crayons dull very easily, and it's difficult to keep the letters clear. 

     When I looked at the different responses, a few different adjectives came to my mind. There were some that were playful and beautiful, because the author had maybe doodled or drawn a flower on the side to make it more personalized. There were some that were very predetermined, like the response by Theodore where he had one paragraph going slanted up the middle with pale pink crayon. There were some that were very neat, where the author had originally written in pencil or had drawn lines, and there were others that were a little messier, but still personal. I think the sight and color choices had a big effect on the way that I responded to the posters. There were some that made me feel differently toward the same thing just because of the way they were formatted. But one thing that was so cool and interesting was that each of them had a piece of the author, both in appearance and in content. 

     A culture with only crayons as writing implements would differ from ours in many ways. Firstly, everything would be so much more colorful and expressive. Just as no one has identical handwriting, no one would choose the same colors or the same way to write. In our culture today, many people strive to be perfect and neat with their work, whereas in this crayon culture they are okay with making mistakes, and use their mistakes to create something beautiful. 

     One thing that that culture would be proud of is their different forms of expression. What would set them apart from another would be their various color choices, their handwriting, and their thoughts written out, simply but beautifully. 

     One thing I would like to further explore would be why we react so naturally to certain writing implements and why others create such a challenge for us to use. I would like to see what causes the changes in the different forms of handwriting, and why some seem so much more difficult to do than others. I would also like to see how different textures, utensils, and colors affect thinking, and how writing with something more refined may change the way one looks at something.