REFLECTING
Artist Statement
I am first and for most a struggling follower of Jesus Christ. My creativity and talents are gifts given to me to do good in the world. I inspire to live up to the title "artist" and have excepted that only practice will get me there. As I further in my education I hope to continue exploring what I want from the world and what I want to get back to it. Illustration has always caught my eye whether it be in ancient eliminated texts or children's books. As a visual learner and graphic design major, I feel that it is important to show things in a visually appealing and easily comprehend the way that is both intriguing and eye-catching. Illustration has played a big role in my life considerably more so in my younger days as a struggling dyslexic elementary schooler. Young and ashamed of my inability to read I had to find books around the classroom that had cool pictures and would look at them each day during silent reading time all the while wishing I could read. Eventually, I hope to be a children's book author and illustrator possibly focusing on reaching children with dyslexia as dyslexia has been a huge part of my life. I hope to empower young children with dyslexia and ADHD by writing engaging stories that are scientifically easier for dyslexics to read whether it be through font color or the size of the text. I want to inform the public on the importance of dyslexia and how dyslexics although challenged in certain ways, bring original and different ways of thinking to the world. Qualities such as lateral thinking, spatial reasoning, and pattern recognition are some of the positives that come with dyslexia which are highly sought out for in the world we live in today. The further I progress in my life the more clear things will become nothing is set in stone and there's always room for improvement.
A Year of Reflection 2018-2019
I never actually considered myself a writer let alone a good writer until I decided to start pushing myself to greater lengths. I challenged myself to join writing 121 even when I thought I would fail, and in turn, pushed my writing forward.
In my first reflection, I wrote about pushing myself out of my comfort zone, "there is only growth if there is discomfort." Not only have I applied this motto to my writing but also to my life. This year I decided to commit to Point Loma Nazarene University, partly because I wanted to go somewhere small with like-minded people but also because I wanted a fresh start. Walking on to the campus for the first time was like a dream come true. A warm breeze filled my lungs as I walked along the beautiful cliffs called Point Loma. I entered a session with a PLNU student panel and was filled with curiosity and questions about the school I would soon call my own. Two of the students mentioned making new friends their first year on a backpacking trip through the Sequoia National Forest for incoming freshmen. I had always wanted to go on a backpacking trip and the idea of going intrigued me.
The rest of the weekend I dreamed of going and wondered what it would be like. However, as I looked over the details a week ago, I was discouraged and overwhelmed. Going with a group of strangers and experiencing the personal-ness of having to pee behind bushes and feel disgusting from the lack of showers just felt like too much. I replayed through my head the plethora of reasons I could end up hating the experience. After two days of deliberation, I realized deep down that 'growth comes from discomfort.' If I took this risk, I would have the opportunity to gain close bonds with fellow students before the year begins. Even with this realization, it was still scary to commit, so I told my parents to sign me up before I changed my mind. Similarly, I would never be able to grow my writing if I didn't try new things and wouldn't be able to grow as a person if I stayed in my comfort zone.
Throughout my informational reflection, I focused on something different and more specific about myself. I learned that in the initial stages of writing I just have to write. Almost every time I try to start a draft I end up sitting around in my room "preparing myself" to actually write all the while overthinking my essay as I stare blankly into a brightly lit screen. I need to write on physical paper to watch my ideas and words pour out of my brain rather than just sit and think about writing. "Just do it," as Nike says. One thing that my writing teacher Mrs. Larson has talked about in class has been really helpful to me: it is better to block out time in small portions rather than sit down and write an entire essay. To experiment with this suggestion, I started timing myself for 15 minutes to see how much I could get done. The results were miraculous. Not only was I able to start myself on a roll but I was actually able to write about a page and a half which otherwise would have taken me hours if I sat down to write my whole essay. Writing in short portions also allows me to write paragraphs out of order so I can come back to them later and reorganize.
Something I have found to be almost more powerful than sitting down to write is simply going about my day and always keeping my essays in mind so that I can write down anything I hear, see or remember. By doing this I also am able to organize my thoughts better and always be generating new ideas and example to further my writing and ultimately convey my ideas to my readers. I used this technique most often during my research essay on neurodiversity and genetics.
I think overall my best weapon in the war against bad writing is passion. My writing becomes instantaneously better if I write about something meaningful to me, which shined through in our latest research essay. I brought forth my best effort in order to speak my mind and inform others of an issue often overlooked. I felt so deeply and connected to my essay on so many different levels. In the future, when given writing assignments I need to focus on finding different topics and angles to fit my own experiences and passions, there is always a loophole, I just need to find it. While writing my research paper I became fully consumed with my work which soon became a topic in my everyday life that I would mention or refer back to. To my dismay, I was even overwhelmed with enough emotion that I cried while I wrote parts of my essay, bringing out some of my most raw thoughts and emotions.
Throughout the year of writing, I was able to boost my confidence in my work more than I have before. I was proud of my writing for the first time and was actually taught methods in writing rather than just getting handed assignments.
My Notes
Often times when people imagine note taking they envision a perfectly organized bullet list of notes quotes and annotations. Let me assure you that all notes are different for different people.
I have found note-taking to be very important. Small disconnected facts if you take note of them, can come together to make something united.