Monthly Archives: May 2018

Birthday Hat

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/17/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

My family and I spent the new years eve of 2007 to 2008 at Disney. Since it was such a memorable trip, we bought a happy birthday cake hat as a souvenir in one of the stores of the amusements parks.  We had yet no idea how much this hat would mean to us. On my dad’s birthday, I believe it was in the year of 2008, my mom made my dad wear the hat whilst we sang him happy birthday to him. It was seen as a joke and we thought we would only do it once but every birthday afterwards, the member of the family that was celebrating his or her birthday would wear the hat. It became our family tradition. For me, it is extremely meaningful, not only because it reminds me of our trip, but also because it is a tradition that grew with me. At some point I thought it was really silly that I had to wear a birthday hat while people sang happy birthday to me, but the tradition grew so strong within my family that it became a pleasure.

I believe that the initial idea was just to buy something to remind her of the family trip. To have an object that represents a time where all of the family was in a break having a good time together. However, it became part of a tradition because it was a birthday hat and her family thought it would be nice to celebrate the birthdays wearing the hat. It’s not something that represents a superstition, yet an idea of having a good time. At my house, we normally do the “kitchen party” as we call it. It’s kind of a surprise party (not anymore because everyone celebrating a birthday knows it’s going to happen) that happens in the kitchen as soon at the person celebrating the birthday gets home. It’s amusing and I think it’s healthy to have these jokes during birthday parties.

Blowing the Candles for Wishes

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 23
Occupation: Software Engineer
Residence: Los Angeles, California; Ceará, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/13/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

Davi is a USC alumni that has been working in Los Angeles since he graduated. I met him in one of the Brazilian Student Association events during my freshman year. He is a good friend and never abandoned his Brazilian roots. He talked about his birthdays and how he makes a wish every time he blows the candle. Here is his story:

 

My tradition is making a wish before blowing the candles on my birthday. I first heard it when I was five years old from my mother and it’s a tradition that has been in my family for ages, so it’s important for me because I really believe that making a wish before blowing my candle, it’s going to become real. I have made some wishes that have turned into reality so I will continue doing that for my upcoming birthdays. I will also pass this tradition to my children, because apart from being something that goes through my family I think that having faith is an important part of life. You have to first believe in something and then fight for it and in my opinion it is a good way to start by making those wishes during your birthday.

Davi appears to be a superstitious person because he has been sticking to this tradition since he was little. I think he started to believe heavily in making wishes before blowing the candles because it is something that has been passing down through generations in his family that is always meaningful to people. I think that having heard about this tradition when he was a young boy also encouraged him to keep doing it because as children we tend to believe in things more easily. Furthermore, Davi said that some of his wishes during birthdays have become reality; as a consequence, he continues to blow candles and make wishes in hopes of realizing all of his other dreams. In fact, I make wishes every time I blow the candles on my birthday; I believe it’s something really common.

 

Academic source:

https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-we-blow-out-birthday-candles

Cutting the Cake from the bottom Up

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/17/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

A tradition I have is to cut the cake on my birthday party from the bottom up. I first heard it when I was seven years old at my birthday party, and some uncle just yelled it out, “cut the cake from the bottom up so that you grow in life.” And it’s pretty common, every party you go to there’s going to be one person who’s going to yell it out the second before you cut the cake and it’s meaningful because it’s superstitious, it’s just thinking that if you cut the cake from the bottom up it means that you are going to grow and ascend in life. So, basically every time I have a birthday I do this, it’s an automatic response while I cut the cake and I really do believe that it will be beneficial for because I take this superstition seriously.

I’ve heard about this tradition several times throughout my life. It is said to be more normal in weddings rather than birthdays but I guess everyone does that while cutting the cake in celebration. In fact, I also do it sometimes but not as often as other people, since this is a superstition that I don’t really believe in. Pedro seems to be a superstitious person, he said that he has been doing this since the first time he heard about it. I think that having a superstition sometimes is healthy because thinking positively that you will grow in life can indirectly help you to achieve this. I believe that cutting the cake from the bottom up suggests that you will grow in life because you starting from the bottom and always growing; therefore, cutting the cake in the upward direction proposes that you will nurture.

“You get what you give”

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 22
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

My proverb is “you get what you give.” I heard this saying for the first time when I was 18 years old in my history class in high school. We were learning about the history of the Americas, and it was right after the college application process was done and a little bit before the decisions came in. So everybody from my class was a little nervous and we pretty much stopped talking about what we were learning in class. Our professor, who had studied at Columbia University, gave us that piece of advice. He pretty much said that it doesn’t matter where you go for college in this case what matters the most is what you put in, cause that’s all you are going to take out of the experience. And I think I’ve taken this advice to heart, because it’s essentially true. Every time I start a different project, you know, I have a decision to make. I turn on the mindset that I’ll get what I give and I’m only taking out what I put in. A good piece of work won’t come without my input.

In my opinion, this proverb proposes the idea that it doesn’t matter where you stand, you output will be based on your performance. Although coming from a person who studied in an Ivy League school might be easy to say, it suggests that he put in the work for his achievements. Luck is always involved, but it’s only a small portion of the consequence. There is progressive association with the determination and its benefits, it doesn’t simply occur. I also try to apply this to my life in every aspect that I partake. I know the person who said this quote and he is in fact a hard worker. An excellent teacher and a great person and coming from him is meaningful to his students.

“C’est en forgeant qu’on deviant forgeron”

Nationality: Tunisian
Age: 19
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: French
Language: English

Tej is a USC friend and my partner in the soccer team. I met him during orientation and he has become one of my best friends in college. He was born in Tunisia but lived the majority of his life in the United States. Here’s his proverb story:

The proverb is in French, my dad always uses to tell me this in though situations: “c’est en forgeant qu’on deviant forgeron.” It’s like if you work hard you’ll succeed, practice makes perfect. It’s meaningful because I know that with hard work I will get to where I want to be in life. Dedication will pay off. My dad always told me since I was little in Tunisia, and continues to tell me. So when I first moved to the U.S. when I was about 9 years old I didn’t speak any English. It was very hard for me and I was having a tough time with my classes and everything but my dad just told me to keep working hard. So that’s what I did and now my English is almost perfect, I have no accent. And I mean I go to USC so I guess it all worked out in the end. Yet, I still apply it to any work I do, even with soccer, which is a meaningful sport to me. The more I practice the better I will be in that sport and that’s how I helped my team to win the league championship in during my freshman year. Beating UCLA at their home field couldn’t get any better.

I couldn’t agree more with this quote. Although I didn’t understand what it meant before the explanation, hard work does pay off and practice makes perfect. In life, the more you practice, the better you become, no matter what field you choose to pursue. I have heard many people say that willingness beats skill. If someone is good at something but doesn’t put the work to succeed, the other person who might not have the skill but who works hard will be the one to prosper and achieve the goal. Coming from abroad I didn’t know how hard it would be to get into a highly selective university like USC and I think that my hard work made me achieve my dream of studying in the US. Also, I believe that coming from his father also encouraged him to work hard and to believe in this proverb because it is someone who you look up to and this makes it even more special.