Reflections

Welcome to my reflections website! As our first unit back at Freestyle, we hit the ground running. In this website you’ll find my personal essay and lyrical essay which we wrote in English. In Digital Media we created a perspective video and in design a diptych. My overall goal was to work off the skills that I had honed the year before. I was espeially interested in making my websites more refined.Not only was I motivated just so that my art would be better, but I felt like I owed it to Freestyle to show how much I've grown.

Now that I’m a senior, college applications are a constant source of torment. Luckily, in English our first project was to write a personal essay similar to ones we’d write in our applications. I had a really hard time figuring out what I wanted to write for my essay, but an activity we did in Digital Media actually helped me make up my mind. In that class we were asked to write a two minute essay about anything we wanted. I wrote about something that had been on my mind a lot at that time. The essay basically was about me relating myself to the succulent plant in that we’re both independent. The essay makes more sense I promise. After completing that activity, I felt inspired. In English I took the 2 minute essay and expanded on it.

Another project that we did in Digital Media was our "Things I've Learned So Far" video. We were asked in English to think of words of wisdom that spoke to us. In AfterEffects we then made a video with music, audio that we had recorded, and text of these phrases. The end product is something like a slideshow of the greatest advice I've received.

Lyrical Essay

For my lyrical essay, I wrote about an experience that my friend who deals with anxiety experienced. We had just finished reading the book Citizen and were asking to write about another person who had one defining trait that was completely different from you. My friend had an experience at her work that I would’ve reacted to in a completely different way than how she did. By hearing her talking about her experience and then writing about it from her perspective I was able to more deeply understand what life through her lense looks like.

Antsy

You’re at work as a cashier at a popular lunch restaurant. It’s been a busy day, so you’re already on edge. A woman comes to you asking specifically for sliced bread, but you inconveniently, are not trained to use the bread slicer. She stands off to the side as someone more qualified is left with the task that you can’t accomplish. The next man in line steps up to you to take his order. You continue to help, but the woman before grows impatient and just asks for the regular bread. Torn between helping the person who came first and the one you’re currently helping- you interrupt the man to return to the woman. The man turns to you. “You should really learn not to half-ass everything that you do”. It hits you like a slap to the face. You try to stop the hot angry tears that will ultimately run down your face, but you’re throat is already closed up and you fail to keep it together. As you look down at your own feet, you curse yourself for acting like a child because you can’t even take the criticism. The man gives you an incredulous look like he can’t quite believe your reaction. You think about your friend who has worked in food service for almost two years. She would have never reacted like this. She would have known what to do. As you go to leave your shift early- your boss told you to take it easy- the man comes back. “I’m sorry I got you in trouble, but really! You need to learn to get a grip.”

Black and White HDR

In Design, we had a photo assignment. We were supposed to take the themes from our personal essay that we had wri tten in English and photograph objects that represented them. My essay touched on themes of expectations and isolation. I ended up taking pictures of solitary candles and dresses ready to be worn. The method in which we used to take said pictures is HDR photography or High Dynamic Range photography meaning that I would take 5 pictures of the same image at all different exposures to get a more varied light. I then went into Photoshop and turned them black and white and adjusted the darks and lights.

Perspective Video

In Digital Media we then had our perspective video. This was created in AfterEffects basing it off of our short two minute essay. I had written mine about succulents and used various images and my recording of the essay to further display my message. A crucial aspect of this project was using 3D aspects, something that proved to be pretty difficult for me. This was probably the main project that suffered from me being distracted by other things going on in my life. I fell behind in work because I chose applying for college and working on work for other classes. Fortunately, I was able to push myself to finish even though the end result wasn't something I was completely happy with. I think this project will stick with me because I had to overcome my own challenges to finish it.