Jan 8th Audio Stories

1. Remembering Laura
http://www.radiodiaries.org/my-so-called-lungs/

When I chose this story, I had no idea what I was in for. The title alone somewhat gave it away, but I had no idea how emotional it would make me. The audio story I chose to share is about a girl named Laura who is dead now. She grew up with a disease called Cystic Fibrosis. Before I listened to the story, I did not know what this was. It turns out that Cystic Fibrosis causes the lungs to deteriorate.

A few years ago, someone gave Laura a tape recorder so she could discuss how she was feeling from time to time. Sometimes she wouldn't touch it for months but other times she wouldn't put it down. One thing that was shared during the audio story really changed the way I saw "dying people".

In her private audio recording, Laura talked about how her friends acted around her. She said that sometimes while she was having fun laughing with her friends, in the back of her mind she would think about how they chose to ignore the fact that she was dying. Although all of her friends knew that she could probably die within the next few years, people rarely addressed it. This made me sad because if I were one of her friends, I would probably just choose to ignore it as well because thinking about it would be to hard to bare. If I got the chance to talk to Laura, I would love to ask her how she wished the people around her treated her in her last years. If she wished that they would act happy so she wouldn't be sad, or if she would have rather they cry with her.

2. Amanda's Diary: Girlfriend
http://www.radiodiaries.org/amanda-from-new-york-girlfriend/

Amanda's story jumped out to me because the introduction portrayed her as a rebel. It starts out with her talking about how she doesn't care if her mom sees her smoking, then she later goes into talking about the way she dresses. She describes it as a somewhat edgy Gothic look. This intro was interesting to me because I was excited to see the way she views herself rather than the way others view her.

One thing that she said during the audio clip which interested me was that one thing that attracts her to most to people is their voice. I could agree with that because I have heard guy's deep voices that I love as well. She also tells a story about how when she was little her and her friends would play a game called sleeping beauty in first grade. In the game, the girls would pretend to be asleep and the boys would have to give them a kiss to always wake them up. Amanda says that she wanted to give the girls a kiss and wake them up.

When Amanda tries to explain this to her parents (on recorder) they act as if they are in denial. They say that she is too young to know what gender she likes. Her parents say "its just a phase". She is clearly very frustrated with this because she starts crying toward the end of the audio. I completely understand how horrible it feels for her parents to go against what she is because sometimes my parents don't agree with my morals and they think I am the one who is wrong no matter what. I really liked at the end how she explains that "no matter if you are half horse and half fish, you are proud of what you are, and I am proud of what I am".