The Thing About Artists

By Claire Cordonnier

You’ve probably had the satisfying experience of listening to a pop song and resonating with the lyrics. 

It’s comforting to know that you aren’t alone in your feelings. But what about for the artist? What's scary about sharing your art with people is that you are sharing with them something deeply personal. Good art is drawn from life and expresses something authentic and unique to you.

Good artists need to have “life” to draw from. They need to have had life experiences that have challenged and changed them emotionally.

What separates artists from other people? Do they have more interesting lives than the average person? Or do they feel emotions more strongly than other people in a way that compels them to express them?

In expressing their emotions, artists allow themselves to be vulnerable in a way that resonates with their audience.  I would argue that this kind of vulnerability doesn’t exist the same way in other fields in which the answer is more “objective.”

But what about the scientists and engineers that work in these "objective" fields? Don’t they feel the same need to express themselves? Perhaps their work allows them to cope with their emotions in a more indirect way.

On a More Selfless Kind of Friendship

By Claire Cordonnier

Recently, I had the gift of making a new friend. We met at a party where both she and I liked the same guy; she confronted me about it immediately saying, “girlfriends before guys.”

I remember being struck immediately by her openness and sincerity. The barrier of entry to our friendship seemed non-existent. One of my favorite things about her is her unbounded generosity. I think that people need to stop using the word “sweet” to describe everyone they meet, because it’s a word that is starting to lose its meaning.

There must be another word for someone who lends you her clothes like it's nothing, compliments you genuinely on the things you care most about, invites you into her life, and shares her friends with you like it's the most natural thing in the world.

I wish that more people approached life with her generous attitude toward others. As one grows older and enters the career space, one is increasingly tempted to view relationships with a transactional mindset. When purely self-centered intentions accompany activities like networking, insincerity can make things unenjoyable for all those involved. “What can I get out of this relationship” is a question that shouldn’t be constantly on our minds.

In one of my classes right now, we just finished a unit where we examined significant themes of sacrifice in the Bible. Sacrifice can take many forms and is especially valuable when thinking about relationships. It requires generosity… which is why generosity is such an important virtue in friendship, which is all about sacrifice.

People like to reference the five love languages (acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, and gift giving) which are actually each a nod to generosity!

Claire Cordonnier is a spring 2025 intern for National Review Institute. She is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree at New York University, and plans to major in politics and journalism. Before beginning her studies at NYU, Claire spent a gap semester interning for non-profit organizations–The Borgen Project and the Childhood Cancer Society–and working as a barista in a local coffee shop.

The City of Roommates

By Claire Cordonnier

“When you’re young, you don’t need much to survive,” a hair stylist told me recently when I was getting my hair done somewhere near 60th street. That’s right, if you keep your necessities cheap and uncomfortable, there’s more money to spend on frivolous things like hair treatments and overpriced clothing.

As you get older, your physical needs become more demanding and uncomfortable things become even more so. New York is full of discomforts, and these can’t be tolerated as easily by the old as by the young. 

The things that make roommates annoying are the same things that make the city annoying. And aren’t roommates more so a “young people” thing? 

One can’t get too far away from their fellow New Yorkers; we’re all siblings in a way. We all live close enough together to observe and be annoyed by each other’s dirty habits. We’re all constantly in one another’s way: blocking the sidewalks with our slow walking, hampering the stairwells with our meandering steps, and causing our business-casual fellow New Yorker to miss his train and wait another 6 minutes.

It’s not enough to check the street intersections for cars, you must also check for the lightning swift biker that comes hurling down the gray street in your direction, who’s trajectory seems prepared to yield at nothing. In more residential areas, your every step ought to be one of caution, as the sidewalk is never guaranteed to be clean. At night, the random unexplained yelling of strangers and the persistent, long honks of cars keep you up.

Our lives occur in such close proximity to one another, we’ve probably both contemplated our deepest sorrows in the same subway car, or enjoyed a happy morning coffee in the window seats of the same cafe. These are not new ideas. We express our affection for one another often in the form of distrustful glances and unsmiling faces. Reluctantly, we’re roommates.

How many young people are here in New York, just living off of the adrenaline of being in the city, that mixes with their youthful feelings to give them a sort of immunity to New York’s discomforts? I hope that they enjoy it.

'Make New Friends, but Keep the Old'

By Claire Cordonnier

Make new friends, but keep the old.

One is silver; the other is gold.

A circle is round; it has no end.

That’s how long I will be your friend.

This song, “Make New Friends,” is sung by young girl scouts all over the country. That was certainly my experience. The song is about the importance of friendship and being there for others. The lyrics in the first stanza remind listeners not to neglect their old friendships, calling new friends “silver” and old ones “gold.” Ironically, the song's young audience may not be old enough yet to meaningfully distinguish “new” from “old” friends, though surely they will grow up to find that the message of this song endures.

Making new friends does not isolate one from old friends if one takes steps to maintain and nurture their pre-existing friendships, which can really become as valuable as “gold.” This is because keeping a friendship for a long time often requires both parties to face the challenges that inevitably arise in long-term relationships.

Cancel culture manifests itself in one's personal relationships in that it can encourage one to eliminate others from their own life upon the first signs of the other person being problematic. While it is good to be aware of warning signs in a relationship, how far is too far? Is it possible that the cancel-culture mindset prevents people from persevering long enough in relationships for them to develop into “gold?”

The song “Under the Bridge” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers describes the loneliness experienced by Anthony Kiedis, the band's frontman, and the connection he felt to Los Angeles:

Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner

Sometimes I feel like my only friend

Is the city I live in, The City of Angels

Lonely as I am, together we cry

Its lyrics also nod at the common experience of loneliness endured by many city-goers. It's a cliche to come to the city to pursue a new life. But many people do, and in doing so, leave behind all of their own friends and end up feeling lonely. They pass by the city’s picturesque locations, ice cream parlors, and cafes - all of which would be wonderful to enjoy with friends - with an ironic weight of sadness in their throats.

But the city is also full of gift shops containing postcards to send back home, and beautiful parks to walk through, with one ear inclined toward an old friend on the phone. So why not beat the loneliness stereotypes by developing “golden” friendships?

Claire Cordonnier is a spring 2025 intern for National Review Institute. She is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree at New York University, and plans to major in politics and journalism. Before beginning her studies at NYU, Claire spent a gap semester interning for non-profit organizations–The Borgen Project and the Childhood Cancer Society–and working as a barista in a local coffee shop.