Statement of Faith

        Being a teenager is hard. You have to go through the stress of drama, homework, after school activities, and all the other little things outside of school. I often wake up every morning thinking to myself ‘what am I going to have to have to put up with today’. The reason I get my butt out of bed and go to school is because I know that no matter what gets in my way; God will be there to help me through it and no matter how the situation turns out, God will accept me for me.

        I believe that God accepts everyone for who they are. I also believe, that in order to go to heaven, you must believe in God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Whether you are black or white, man or woman, gay or straight, I believe God accepts you. No matter what you had done during your time on Earth, good or bad, I believe God accepts you.

        I believe that God created this world and everything and everyone on it. Genesis 1:3 “And God said “Let there be light,” and there was light.” The first of the seven days of creation was the separation of light and darkness. The second day consists of the separations of the waters. Third being the first appearance of dry ground. The fourth day created the universe, months, and seasons, with the sun determining day or night, the moon determining the months, and the stars and constellations determining the seasons. Day five and six created the vast majority of animals and mankind. On the seventh day, or the Sabbath day, it was declared as a Holy day, since God had ceased from his work.

        I believe that everybody’s prayers are answered by God when he believes the time is right. Many of my prayers have been answered, and they surely were not answered right away. Many of them have not been, though. This is so because God clearly does not think the time is right for them. When you are struggling and stressful things keep getting piled on top of those struggles, it’s not because God finds joy in seeing your pain, it’s because he knows you’re strong enough to overcome the pain. “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and to give you a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

        Participating in confirmation for these last three years have been the most practical years when it comes down to growing in my faith. I’ve learned things about the Bible that I never knew before, and I just wanted to thank everyone who had made an impact in the growth of my faith and knowledge in God and the Holy Bible.

Symbolism

Next To You

Lyrics:

You got that smile
That only heaven can make
I'll pray to God every day
That you keep that smile
Yeah, you are my dream
There's not a thing I won't do
I'll give my life up for you
'Cause you are my dream
And, baby, everything that I have is yours
You will never go cold or hungry
I'll be there when you're insecure
Let you know that you're always lovely, girl
'Cause you are the only thing that I got right now
One day when the sky is fallin'
I'll be standing right next to you, right next to you
Nothing will ever come between us
'Cause I'll be standing right next to you, right next to you
If you had my child
You would make my life complete
Just to have your eyes on little me
That'd be mine forever
And, baby, everything that I have is yours
You will never go cold or hungry
I'll be there when you're insecure
Let you know that you're always lovely, girl
'Cause you are the only thing that I got right now
One day when the sky is fallin'
I'll be standing right next to you, right next to you
Nothing will ever come between us
I'll be standing right next to you, right next to you
We're made for one another, me and you
And I have no fear, I know we'll make it through
One day when the sky is fallin'
I'll be standing right next to you, whoa
One day when the sky is fallin'
I'll be standing right next to you, right next to you
Nothing will ever come between us
I'll be standing right next to you, right next to you
Stand by my side, side, side
When the sky falls down
I'll be there, I'll be there
You've got that smile
That only heaven can make
I pray to God every dayTo keep you forever, oh
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Essay:
Have you ever loved someone so much it hurt? Could you ever imagine watching them die right in front of your eyes? In the music video for the song “Next to You” by Chris Brown and Justin Bieber, they both get separated by the girls they love and Chris watches the love of his life get hit by a car in the middle of the world coming to an end. The two of them are separated by a crack in the middle of the road, resulting in Chris to jump over the enormous split to say his last goodbyes to the girl, bringing the line “Nothing will ever come between us”. I think this song could be different in so many ways with all the possible point of views it could interpret.

If the girl who got hit by the car was the one singing this song, it would be so different from Justin and Chris. Considering that the world was coming to a quite devastating end, I’m sure that the girl would rather have been dead than in terror of where a safe place would be to hide. One of the lines in the song, “I pray to God every day, To keep you forever, oh” is what Chris is feeling, whereas if the woman was singing, the line would be something along the lines of “I pray to God every day, To keep you safe from danger, oh”. 

Another possible point of view would be the father of the girl who’s with Justin. Although he’s not a huge part of the song, I think if he was incorporated into it more, he would have a huge voice. The tiny part that he’s actually in he takes the girl away from Justin. This part of the video makes him look like the antagonist of the song, but if you heard his story behind doing so, maybe he wouldn’t seem like such a bad guy. In many music videos and songs this occurs, where the father splits up a couple and you never know why, making him look like the bad guy.

The third point of view this song could be in is the daughter of the man that was mentioned in the paragraph above. The ironic part of the video is that the father and daughter are the ones who hit the girl who Chris is with. Nothing tragic like that happens to the Justin’s girl, but I’m sure, just like the father she would have a huge voice. Maybe she knows her father’s idea of the relationship. Otherwise she could just be explaining how she felt about the end of the world in the song.

All of the point of views mentioned above could change the song “Next to You” by Chris Brown and Justin Bieber is so many ways. Although they may not make the most sense, it would be very interesting to hear the song sung in all of their point of views. This song was very difficult to examine, but it was a great choice because of all the possible point of views it could have been sung in.

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Creative Piece:

Justin and I sit on the escape stairs of an old, brick apartment building. He hands me a silver, heart-shaped necklace. He offers to put it around my neck. He gently grabs my hair and sets it out of the way so it doesn't get clamped into the necklace. Once its clipped, he embraces me gently, and I kiss him on the cheek. I pull away and see a smile on his face. All of a sudden we hear a car. It's my father arriving in the back ally. He climbs up the stairs, and before I can say goodbye to Justin, he grabs me and takes me to the car.

"You'll never see him again, you understand that?" My dad scolds me, shoving me in the back seat.

We drive away, stopping midway at the sight of terror. Distraught citizens roam the streets, blocking the roadway. Some aimlessly stumbling, flustered on what's happening. Others are on their cell phones trying to reach their families, saying their last goodbyes. We take a detour to a clear street and start moving again.

"Dad! Let me out of the car! I need to see him one last time!" I scream trying to tug the door open as we dodge the cement collapsing from the buildings around us. 

"That boy is trouble, you know he his. You're not going back to see him." My father screams, getting so overworked, he almost loses control of the car. 

I glare at him through the mirror and he glimpses at me. In that one second that he takes his eyes off the road, a woman runs across the street. The car slams into her and she rolls up the windshield, shattering it as she does so, and tumbles back down slamming to the cold concrete ground. My father and exit the car, for different purposes though. While he tends to the injured female, I escape and search for Justin to say my last goodbyes to him. I run up to the top of a building to see if I can see him below, and to my surprise he was standing up there. We run towards each other and never let one another go.