Class exercise, Who am I?

 In our last class, we had to do research on ourselves. For this, we were asked to draw the silhouette of our body on a paper to fill it with things that represent us.

On the first step of our research, we reflected on our childhood, The Early Years. I decided to do the drawings for this part on my feet since I believe childhood is the foundation or base for the rest of my life. From low to high, the first drawings are my mom, my sister and my brother on one foot and a few hearts on the other one, representing my family and the love in my house. Then I drew waves because my hometown is surrounded by water; I can see the sea from almost every window in my house and from my school as well, and my fondest memories are in my pool with friends or at the beach surfing and playing. 

Next, I drew some flowers because my mom has loads of plants and flowers on our house's terrace, and she taught me how to take care of these plants from a very young age. Every summer we would have lunch together along with my siblings on the terrace. I drew a specific flower, the Fuschia, because for some reason when I was a kid my siblings made me believe that that kind of flower was a nose-eater, so I grew up being scared of it and now in retrospect, I find it funny. I drew a mouse and a bear as well because the first one was my favourite plushie and the second one was my sibling's, and they would fight about it constantly. On top of that, there are two pencils because I have always recurred to drawing and painting when I am bored, ever since I was a child. Lastly, I decorated my thighs with colours because when I think about my childhood I see bright memories with sunny days and happy feelings.

The next step was to reflect on our teenage years. I placed these drawings in my head because growing up I had a few mental and physical health problems. Which is why as well there is a wobbly cloud where my brain should be, because I was an overthinker and very sensitive. For this, I drew two faces, a sad and a smiley one, representing my mood swings. As brows, I drew arrows going up and down, showing the ups and downs I faced. Apart from that, I drew a clown face because when I was feeling better, before my mental and physical health problems, I was considered funny and clown-like, but it also represents the way I feel about this phase in my life since I feel like I was ignorant and not very smart and I regret many of the life choices I made back then. The colour choice is not arbitrary; while my childhood was colourful, my teenage years were black (sad) and red (angry).

The third step revolves around personality. Since I do not have a good sense of identity, I decided to ask a few of my friends to describe me briefly, to have at least a start with this step. They said different things about me but the one I heard the most was "good person" and "altruist", so I decided to draw a big heart on my chest, because I find it true; my biggest hobby and source of joy is making others happy and giving out presents ( small details such as cookies or hand-made gifts). After this I tried to think about the things I complain about the most, and I reached the conclusion that I am complex, lazy, deep, unpredictable, stupid, scared and annoying, but I am also open-minded, loyal, rational, unstoppable and constantly evolving and trying to learn and improve.

Next, we had to evaluate the people around us. I decided to draw a barrier or silhouette around me made out of people, because I believe that society is the biggest influence anyone can have, and it shapes all of us in different ways. I drew both green and red people to symbolise the good and the bad because I have had good experiences and bad ones, as well as positive and negative influences.

The ultimate step was "what have you become", and I drew it on my belly. I drew a circle with arrows and wrote "changes" around it because I find evolving an essential part of life. Then, inside the circle I wrote some of these changes such as the trouble I faced, "travelling" and "moving to the UK".

Lastly, I decided to leave my arms empty because I believe that there are many more things in my life that are going to shape me in the future, and I need the space to change and grow.