Google Images, MTV
So, about the only good things to come out of the MTV movie awards (yes, sadly, I watched them) the other night was Johnny Depp’s generation award, Harry Potter’s best cast award (although they totally should’ve had Best Movie in the bag, I don’t know what you heifers voting for Breaking Dawn were thinking – I know I’m being mean, but seriously?), and then one other award that they handed out for the first time. It was called the Trailblazer Award, and they gave it to Emma Stone. I’ve been trying to find a video of her acceptance speech, but naturally YouTube took them all down. However, I did find it on Comic Book Movie, so I will link it here for you to watch. It’s a neat little acceptance speech, and I thought she had a lot of good things to say about what it means for her to be a trailblazer. In this sense, MTV did good in creating a new award and picking out the winner, because Emma gave an incredibly inspiring speech.
I wanted to share it today, because I’ve been thinking about my own trailblazers. I especially love how she said her trailblazers made her want to be more herself, and I thought that was a very insightful and wise thing to say at an awards show crowded with a lot of teenagers. I would have to say that my trailblazers are, of course, Jesus Christ, then Madeleine L’Engle, J.K. Rowling, and even Nancy Meyer, who directs, writes, edits, and produces pretty much all of her films.
Emma seems to be grounded in her trailblazers, even though she sets herself apart from them, and it made me realize that I don’t really get engaged with my trailblazers like I should. I don’t mean I should call up J.K. Rowling one day and say, “How’d you like to grab a cup of Joe this afternoon?” (Although, that would be totally awesome.) But, I don’t know, I feel like I should allow myself to connect more with these people and their works more than I do, if only connecting with them through their works. I might make this a little project for the blog – really get a grasp of who inspires me, go out and experience different types of literature, art, history, etc., and really find people who encourage me and motivate me to do better and create magnificent works, even if I’m the only one who thinks they’re magnificent. In the mean time, I would love to know who your trailblazers are. If you end up writing your own post about them, please let me know. I would love to read it!
Here is the link for her speech; it’s the second video on the page. I tried to embed it, but, you know, WordPress hates that crap.