Throughout our reflections unit, we were challenged to look back on our past year at freestyle and produce a reflective product which demonstrated what we want to continue doing and what we want to change going forward. We were prompted to question our own identities and opinions. ‘Who am I.’ The very foundation of the unit consisted of this question. While some people had no trouble finding an answer to this question, I was searching for hints, anything to define me. The reflections project helped me focus myself and discover myself through the process of its work.

Mandala

The Following mandalas were made in illustrator with the use stroke transformations and clipping masks.

Thread

For the black and white mandala, I drew random patterns on the inner rings of the mandala to try and get a pattern which looks cool. On the outer layers, I tried to create a few patterns reminiscent of a few animals. Most notably, the bird head and the deer with massive antlers.

For the color mandala, I attempted to create a pattern similar to those found commonly on Indian textiles. I used the colors between red and yellow to show warmth.

This I Believe

We were tasked with writing a “This I Believe” essay in English, which we converted into a video for digital media. We were supposed to convey a point, or opinion we had and use anecdotes as evidence to support our ideas.

Photoshop Art

Towards the end of the reflections unit, we focused on making artwork in photoshop. My favorite style of painting was definitely acrylic painting.

“The Minneapolis Miracle” (now in acrylic)

The process in painting this image was incredibly tedious and painstaking. I know that it’s a process similar to tracing, however I decided to zoom in and paint every detail in the image. The lighting made it so that I had to make my brush strokes small so that the image wouldn’t look weird.

Reflections Video Essay

For my Film class, we were tasked with filming a video essay on a topic of our choice. I had gone through a bit of an emotional rough patch during that time, and I channeled it into a short essay about getting rejected. It was a bit painful, but it helped me get over my problems. Although there are some questions about its quality, this means a lot to me.

College Personal Essay

We were tasked with writing a college application essay in our English Class.

My grandpa had cancer. A tumor was growing in his body for two years and I didn’t know until a month before he died. 

Winter of 2017, my parents received a call from India about my grandfather’s diagnosis. Cancer. More specifically, Glottic Cancer. He had a tumor in his throat making it difficult for him to speak or breath whilst also making it difficult for him to swallow his food without choking. Both my parents claimed that they didn’t hide anything from me— I just never paid enough attention to their everyday calls, checking in on his condition. I was on a whole other planet. I failed to notice the odd timing of my dad’s visit to India in the spring. I was out of the loop.

My dad returned home from India with my grandparents, and I was too busy volunteering and attending summer school to pay them any attention. Both my parents worked on weekdays while my brother had his usual summer camp, which left me home with my grandparents. I always thought that taking care of my grandpa was a burden the family dumped on me. Handling my grandfather was a tedious experience, as I initially didn’t know how to handle any accidents. This led me to find ways to efficiently handle my grandfather’s ailment, which I still didn’t know was cancer. He would have consistent episodes of choking, where I had to use my knowledge of first aid to help dislodge the food caught in his weakened throat. I also faced a language barrier, as he struggled to speak English and spoke mainly in Tamil, my family’s native language. My fluency was put to the test, as I was eventually able to understand everything that came out of his mouth. I monitored his breathing on a regular basis and used basic medical techniques like the Heimlich maneuver when necessary. With the tons of leftover summer hours I had, I constantly kept researching his symptoms and corroborating information from different sources and “discovering” his disease. I had my guesses, but I always thought of cancer as an ultimatum. As summer came to a close and my grandparents went back to India, I remember going to ask my parents whether they considered checking my grandfather for cancer. They asked me what rock I was living under for the past nine months, and explained the whole story from start to finish. I never felt so proud and embarrassed in the same moment.

My grandfather would pass away a month later, and while his death blew a hole in my life, he left behind something much more important. One of the most important experiences in my life, his last summer allowed me to truly put to use the dulling skills I had learned in school and at home. So while I am slightly disappointed in myself for not finding out about my grandfather’s cancer earlier, I am glad that I was able to figure it out nonetheless, on my own.