This entry is a dedication to my mom. I wanted to tell the story of her struggles and how much I really appreciate her. Her selflessness is something I want to carry with me as I grow older. And I hope that others can take away something greater from this: You can tell a lot about a person by their hands. And in this case, my mom is an amazing person.
“When I asked my class what word described their vision of Mental Health at our school, they all thought of the same thing. At our school they are leaders – they promote Mental Health – offer help and assistance to anyone that needs it – they are aware and feel responsible. They have learned from their partnership with Directing Change and RCOE that the future is up to them! We have to work together within our school and our community to bring awareness and help to those that need it… that requires leadership.”
“I wanted to focus on LGBT acceptance, especially for people in families of color. I found that it’s more unlikely for people of color to accept the LGBTQ community, and their members of their family who might happen to be in it. In a perfect world, children would be accepted by their parents no matter their orientation or identity. Supportive families are the first step to acceptance in the greater world.”
“The word I chose to convey was ‘communication.’ Mental struggles can be alleviated through other people’s help, but in order for an individual to receive the help they need, their thoughts and feelings must first be declared. Adolescents are often told to reach out for help, but in reality, asking for help can be a very difficult and muddled process. In my painting, a girl is being dragged down by a tangible manifestation of those restricting factors in the form of blank, white masses. To better help the youth of today, I would like to see more receptive and accepting adults that can offer genuine aid to those inflicted with mental illnesses. Adolescents should not have their words drowned out; they must be heard in order to be helped.”
My entry is about my friends and how I enjoy hanging out with them. My submission relates back to the required content because my video shows my anchor.
My entry is about the recent overturning of Roe V. Wade. On the canvas, there is a television playing a news coverage of a protest fighting against the overturning. The people protesting look upset and are all holding signs with pro-choice designs. There is a woman intently watching the screen looking slightly unkempt with bandages. This ties into the theme of justice I was going for, where even if you are not able to personally be there, you can still watch others fight for the same cause. With a constant barrage of bad news in today’s media, it’s easier to feel desensitized and pretend like it doesn’t affect you. A lot of people don’t understand the repercussions of such a case being overturned or who it affects. Even if Roe V. Wade being reversed doesn’t affect you, it can harm the people around you and takes away women’s rights to make healthcare decisions for themselves. You never know when something like this could affect family or friends—it hurts everybody. Understandably, there are a lot of circumstances that would prevent someone from being able to fight for themself. The good thing about this world is that there are still people willingly putting themselves out there despite all odds to fight for everybody, both for you and me. I felt like a protest was a great example of this message.
My piece is a reflection, a part of myself. It’s a memoir told in third person, about how I overcame my trauma and found the beauty in life.
My entry/drawing shows me hanging out with my friends. When I hang out with my friends I truly do feel my happiest. I feel that this relates back to the required content submission criteria, also known as the what anchors you prompt because the photo represents me leaving all my troubles behind and focusing on the now with my friends having no care in the world.
With this piece, my goal was to show a runner escaping a cluster of chaotic things. Running has been my “anchor” over the past few months, so I decided to have the person running away from the sort of nonsensical, disorganized madness that, without an anchor, can really leave people detached from what matters. I painted the runner fairly small because it allowed the overwhelmingness of all of the stuff behind it to show through, while also setting them in front of the objects to give the idea of an escape. I also used night and day to represent the more chaotic aspects of the right side of the painting and the calm of the left.
My poem is an example of how many of us go through extremely difficult times and continue to have the question, “Why should we go on? What is holding me here?” And I wanted to show through my poem that we are our own anchor even if we do not feel like we are.