From My Perspective

Flash Fiction:

When you’re a kid, you have all these other kids to go around and hang out with, even one that’s your age.You can go play with anyone you want because everyone is friendly. You run around and have all the energy in the world and can have fun doing anything.

You’re in middle school, you’re scared because this school is way bigger than the one you were just in. There’s a lot more people and judgments that are in this school. Puberty hits and you’ve got acne, no one else seems to have it though. You’re self conscious because you know people are judging you and watching you. Great, and now you have braces, just to top it off. So now you have less confidence than before. Middle school is full of judgments, low self esteem, and no confidence.

Now you’re a senior in high school, you’ve been looking forward to this for a very long time. You saw all your siblings get to drive around, go wherever they wanted and hang out with their friends when they wanted as a senior. You’ve been waiting to be a senior, so you could be independent just like them. You still get those people who may not like you and judge you, but it doesn’t affect you anymore. You don’t care what those people have to say about you. You’re the most confident and carefree you’ve ever been.

Artist statement:

You can see in my piece that it’s not one picture, but more than one. All of my photos are different. Some of them are of me smiling or laughing. The other ones are of me with a straight face or a little smirk. There are three photos that are in black and white. These specific pictures are in black and white because they show the main faces I make on a daily basis. I laugh, I give a smirky smile and then a serious face. I also have one picture that’s out of the ordinary. This picture is of me kicking a soccer ball during a soccer game. Soccer is part of who I am, I’ve been playing it since I was little, so I felt I had to put that in there so you could see me. I wanted you to see the laughable, sporty, kind of serious side to me, that’s why I picked these specific pictures.When you move up to my banner I picked colors that looked good together and that would bring out the color of my pictures. I also love the colors blue and purple so I based the other colors around those two. I chose the font to be wacky like that because I’m not one to follow trends so I wanted to pick a font that seemed out of the ordinary and stuck out.

In my flash fiction I talk about how when you were a child everything was carefree you had no worries you could just hang out and do whatever, which was amazing. I moved on to talk about being a tween, A.K.A. a middle schooler. How I felt the most judged and felt like I couldn’t be myself in middle school. Everyone was so judgmental, they saw if you looked fat or skinny or even if you had acne or not. It made it hard to have self confidence. Now being a senior in high school, I am confident enough to be myself. I mean you still get those people with judgmental looks, but I’ve learned to ignore them and not care what they could be thinking about me. My personality has changed throughout the years from scared and low self-esteem, to confident and carefree. My pictures show me being me. Everyone may have their own perspective of me, but I see my personality in these. I see goofy, quirky, laughable, and sweet.

What I’ve learned about personality and perspectives is even though you might think you’re a nice person and you want everyone to like you doesn’t mean everyone will like you because they have their own perspective of you. This made me choose to create a collage because even though I arranged everything and picked out the colors I wanted and I like it how I did it, some people won’t like it. They just have a different perspective on it. Everyone perceives things differently.

Reflection:

Most people say they have some people they agree with and some who they don’t. An example of people who disagree on most things are Republicans and Democrats. The two groups disagree with one another on many topics. Although, each person in both parties has their own perspective, so they might not always side with their party. Everyone has their own thoughts and perspectives.

Ms.Becker, LA teacher at Kennedy High School, did an experiment with our Perspectives class called, “Paper Ball Activity”. Each kid stood at their desk with a tiny paper ball. Ms. Becker put a trash can in the front of the classroom, right in front of a students desk. Our task was to throw our paper ball into the trash can without moving from our desk. But the catch was if we made it, we got extra credit and if we missed, we failed the class. The people in the front were super excited with that because they knew they could easily make it in. The people in the back argued because they had almost no chance of making it. Some of the people in the front didn't think it was fair, they thought they had an unfair advantage. Our teacher wanted us to learn that everyone had a different perspective and may get put at an unfair advantage in life while other people are behind. Another activity was done to show the bias of the world in a youtube video called “Life of Privilege Explained in a 100$ Race” published by Peter D. another teacher. In the video all the students start at the same point you take a step each time the teacher gives a statement and it applies to you. Whoever reaches him first gets the 100$ prize. He gives statements such as, “Takes two steps forward, if you never had to help mom and dad with the bills” or “Take two steps forward, if you never wondered where your next meal was gonna come from”(“Race”). Close to the end, he asks his kids to turn around and look at the kids behind them. There were several students still on the starting line showing they didn’t have it as good as the other kids. The other students assumed they all had the same opportunity to get the prize. But no, they walked forward without thinking about how these statements actually show how privileged they are compared to their peers. To the kids on the starting line it seemed as if all the other students were privileged, while they had difficult lives. They all have different perspectives on life, this shows it can be based on how you were raised and you’re living conditions.

Personally I would say people like Republicans and Democrats do have their own opinions and perspectives on many subjects. Politicians know not everyone will agree with their view, but they continue to speak because they want to share their perspective in hopes to change people's minds.I thought the paper ball activity was a good way to show us perspective. Since the people in the front had a different perspective on the trash can, they were more willing to throw the ball. But the people in the back were more reluctant because they didn't have a high chance of making it.That showed me that everyone has a different perspective whether it be on a view of a trash can or life. The “$100 Race” also showed me how everyone has a different perspective on life and different biases. All the students thought they were going to have an equal chance to get the money. You could tell that they all thought it was going to be a close race by how big of steps the kids were taking forward.That’s their implicit bias, they didn’t know that so many people would be behind them. I’ve come to learn that everyone has a different perspective it may be on whether or not you like someone or even political issues. I know that it’s a good thing to have a different view than someone else and it’s okay if you argue. Not everyone will like you, but it’s okay, you’re not going to like everyone either.