Hey guys! Iām Kaleb Bravo, a 15-year-old who plays violin and produces music.
Spotify:
Soundcloud:
The current state of wom is getting pretty upsetting. People are starting arguments and saying incredibly disrespectful things to others (Iām not going to name who did what). I just have a couple things to say:
Have a sense of maturity. Don't start throwing verbal stones at those with opposing views, and know when/if it is okay to make jokes.
Be respectful. If you know that a joke or post is going to be rude and hurtful towards anyone, then don't post it. Just simply don't. Things will be better in the long run.
Please take these things to heart. I cannot stress this enough. The wom community will be much better if you guys just take these things to heart.
- Kaleb B
(That's all y'all are getting out of me)
Continuing the saga of w posts
Maturity
TW: immature people will not appreciate this post
Thereās a lot of stuff I really want to say about controversies and stuff but I know I shouldnāt. I have been controversial in the past (IYKYK) and being on the outside now really reveals how stupid it is. I donāt want to start that again. So Iām gonna give some meta thoughts, and why Iām hopeful this will stop eventually.
Most of the recent controversies have been about jokes that someone made that were in bad taste, and then it turns into an argument about some bigger issue (Imagine somebody makes a joke about their friend being so stupid for using 24hr time. If it blew up, it would become an argument about which time method is better.). This is just immature. If you really donāt want to start controversy, donāt post a joke if it even has a chance of starting an argument. āBut I should be able to make a joke 
ā Is it worth it at the expense of a controversy? Set your priorities right.
How this looks practically:
Iām going to use myself as an example. I used to be super controversial. I became more mature and look what happened. I havenāt been involved in any major controversy at all. I used to use wasteof on my Apple Watch. I stopped doing this because it made it easy for me to post something without thinking. Now I only use it on my computer, and I only use the computer between noon and 4pm. Maybe you should do the same thing. Put barriers between yourself and this site if you have a problem with not thinking about your words.
If you set limits on yourself, eventually you will get used to them and you can go back to how it was without the limits, because the limits make you more mature. I canāt use wasteof on my watch because of a bug with watchOS, but I think I am mature enough to handle it now.
TLDR: Do whatever it takes to get maturity and avoid controversy. This may require leaving wasteof, or changing how you use it. But no matter what it takes you should probably do it. Stop the immaturity and focus on what really matters.
The good thing is, maturity naturally grows with age. wasteof seems to be around itās carrying capacity (the amount of new users has decreased massively from its late-2022 peak), so from this point on the average age of the site will only increase. The average maturity should do the same. So I think it will get better in the future.
I am not leaving wasteof anytime soon and I think its a really bad move to do so. Leaving because you think the community is bad is really prideful (āI deserve betterā) and it usually makes the community even worse, starting a negative feedback loop.
Anyways, hope this is helpful. Maturity is really lacking on here and I think itās the core problem that causes fights and arguments. That and a lack of humility.
Guys you must read this
i barely go on this website, but every time i do, i feel like people need to remember that:
the one most important thing for us to learn is to understand differing opinions and to learn in life. assuming that we are right and here to prove everyone else wrong prevents us from growing and gaining more insight into the world, and also makes people that seem self-centered and arrogant.
instead of surrounding ourselves with people we agree with, re-enforcing our opinions, we should try to hear from and understand other people who may have differing opinions. we donāt have to agree with them, but itās important to be able to listen to them respectfully and then explain why we may disagree.
instead of tuning out people we disagree with, we should follow them, hear their opinions, and think about and understand why we disagree or maybe agree with them.
on twitter for example, you should follow both sides in something like politics. of course you will have an opinion, but you should understand and hear from the other side so you can be informed. itās likely your opinion wonāt change, but being able to hear things we disagree with is what helps us become more constructive and educated people, instead of rejecting other beliefs.
tldr: pause and listen, donāt assume you are here to prove yourself right, we are here to grow and learn from differing opinions
Headed back home from Indianapolis! The trip I took was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget :)
This photo was taken at the Indianapolis Airport.
I am standing to the left of the Indy sign, behind everyone.
*Face reveal alert*This is an important message for younger generations (like mine). Please read through this, it is very profound guys
Let me add on to this further. When youāsomeone with a dissenting viewāchooses to insult me, you are making your cause appear much worse. It not only ruins your credibility, but it also dismantles the very integrity of your beliefs. It communicates to me, āThis person has no empirical basis for their beliefs. They rely solely on intuition and personal experiences to guide their decisions.ā Rather than relaying empirical and unbiased evidence to give reason to your beliefs and actions, I see you making insults based solely on prejudice and other forms of simple-minded heuristics.
Notwithstanding, I have a responsibility to lend an open ear to everyone, regardless of how inexplicably challenging it is to listen to them. I can only pray to God that people can bring themselves, in time, to the point of mere intellectual competency.
And why does this frustrate me so much? Because I cannot even obtain someoneās dissenting views, as they are too preoccupied with wanting to attack me. Itās seriously like dealing with children; they donāt have the mental capacity to hold a discussion without needing to squeeze their ego and feelings into the conversation.
I want to hear a constructive, informative description of your perspective. Thatās all. I am asking for you to do the one thing you love to do most: talk about yourself. But, for the love of God, donāt give in to the childish impulse of throwing insults at me that deter meaningful inquiry. I am already being generous enough by trying to obtain a point of view that disagrees with my own. I donāt have my own views supported from hearing that. Yet, I still do it, because I know that thoughtful reasoning requires more than just one dominant perspective on a subject. So pleaseādo me the favor of not needlessly interjecting with an insult.
It disappoints me that I live among a generation of people who cannot read past one paragraph without exclaiming, āItās too much.ā
There is genuinely no experience more frustrating than being completely unable to communicate with someone because their brain just shuts off after, āguh, information overload, Iām used to using Chat GPT to summarize everything but I canāt here.ā
People need to incorporate active, critical reading more frequently in their lives.
Vent over.
Yesterday's performance was amazing! I took some cool pics of the Palladium, where I performed:
Now here's a shot of my orchestra performing (from the livestream) (minor face reveal) (I am circled)
If you want to watch my orchestra, check out the following video with the timestamp 7:23:54
The performance is finished! I'll send pics soon
Tomorrow Today, I'm performing in the Music For All National Orchestras Festival! If you want to watch my orchestra perform, tune in to this website at 4:00pm EST on Friday: https://festival.musicforall.org/2024schedule/
Yesterday in Indianapolis was pretty chill. Our orchestra went to rehearse our music, then we went to the Music for All opening session. Afterwards, we visited the Newfield Museum and I had a blast! Here's some photos from the museum:
It's today!!!
Tomorrow Today, I'm performing in the Music For All National Orchestras Festival! If you want to watch my orchestra perform, tune in to this website at 4:00pm EST on Friday: https://festival.musicforall.org/2024schedule/
Tomorrow Today, I'm performing in the Music For All National Orchestras Festival! If you want to watch my orchestra perform, tune in to this website at 4:00pm EST on Friday: https://festival.musicforall.org/2024schedule/
Greetings from my JW Marriot hotel in Indianapolis!
The timezone change threw me off a lot, so I only got 5 hours of sleep. Also one of my roommates decided to change the room temperature to 60Ā° before we went to bed 
On the plus side, I got this cool shot before the sun rose :D
W post
not everyone is going to have an 100% approval rate. Failing to engage with other users just due to a few differing opinions is stupid and not the way to go about life. Living in echo chambers isnāt the way
