My Self-Shape

I first started my self-shape by first drawing the rectangle. This represents how when I was young, I tended to be more reserved. This also represents my tendency to be a perfectionist and have everything work out the way it is supposed to. Inside the box, I used a blue color on the sides and a purple color in the middle. The shade of blue that I used is the color used on the Chicago flag and this represents where I am from. I think Chicago played a big part in the person I am today as it exposed me to many of the things I value such as hard work and paying it forward. I did a light purple in the center to represent the need to relax and take a break. I also use the purple as the backdrop for the stable things in my life (the two different colored squiggly lines). The green squiggly line at the bottom represents my family and close friends who have constantly been there for me. While this certainly does not apply to all of my family, there are members of my family who had a major impact on my life and who have always supported me such as my mom, my aunts, and my grandpa (all on my mom’s side). On the top, the blue line represents how life is constant and always continues, even when things are hard. Both of these lines are squiggly representing the constant ups and downs in life and relationships. I emphasize this again with the green box on the bottom. I use this to emphasize how my family always supports me and motivates me through everything I do. The fact that it is on the bottom also emphasizes how they have helped me grow into the person I am today and have supported me since I was little.

On the left side, I added this bright explosion coming from the box. This represents how I eventually broke out of the box I had put myself in. I used to be a very shy person, but as I have gotten older I have become much more confident and I am no longer scared to tell people what I think. In addition to being shy, I was very softspoken and quiet throughout most of elementary school and middle school, but now I don’t consider myself to be shy or quiet as pictured in my self shape. I also used this as a way to show how I use my voice to help others whether it is through helping another student or person, protesting injustices, or teaching my future students.

In the upper right corner, I have a thought bubble. In the thought bubble I have a bunch of different colors, each representing a major I currently have or thought of having. Each color is the color used for the tassels of the major at University of Illinois’ graduations. The red is communications/journalism, the purple is law and criminal justice, the light green is psychology, and the light blue is education. I placed the red first because journalism/communications is what I originally thought I was going to do. I placed purple next because it was one of the things I considered doing once I knew I no longer wanted to do journalism. Then I have blue and green not blocked by anything because these are currently my majors (and the ones I plan to stick with). I made sure all of these colors were touching because they all helped me develop into the person I am today and highlight some of the many passions I have. I also made sure to make journalism/communications and law/criminal justice visible because these skills and passions can still be seen in what I plan to do in education and psychology such as fighting injustice and sharing my passion for reading and writing in the classroom.

This connects to the Goffman video from this week because he talks about how we often put on masks and perform for others. I saw this especially in the rectangle that I drew first. As I mentioned before, especially when I was younger, I wanted to fit into a box and not show off my talents and interests, but as I got older, I broke away from wanting to be in this box. However, I think we put on a performance a lot of the time and hide some of the things we don’t want to show everyone.

In conclusion, I enjoyed doing this activity even though it was kind of daunting and took me a few tries to get the shape I wanted!