Drowning in Perfection: A Junior Self-Portrait Illustration by Michelle Chan (2011)

For the illustration, my character trait was perfectionism and how although things I produce may come out close to perfect, it often makes me too picky and I spend too much time on it. I chose to represent this through a pile of diamonds with two arms reaching out of the pile. Diamonds are close to being one of the most perfect things on Earth, and no matter what you do to make them even better, the difference between a natural diamond to a ''perfect'' diamond might be hardly noticed. Thus, the diamonds represent things I want to be perfect, but sometimes I just have to accept it the way it is. The hands that are coming out of the pile of diamonds symbolize how at times I can become overwhelmed by all of the tasks that I have to accomplish and how time consuming it can be because I don't want things to look ugly – which is a good thing, but for me it takes me forever to finish things.