For this project I wanted to establish the connect between the changing in seasons and emotions. A topic I focused on greatly is seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. SAD is when a person becomes depressed at the same time every year. People in my own life have this disorder, I felt like I had a connection with the subject.
art
I chose to paint for this project. I wanted to create a painting through the eyes of someone with seasonal affective disorder, specifically someone who gets it around Fall. For someone who has SAD in the Fall I imagine Fall is not their favorite season. With having this information I decided the colors of the painting would be dual, dark, and more towards the brown side. As where for anybody who loves fall the trees would probably be bright orange and the skies would be pastel.
(painting is unfinished)
(painting is unfinished)
eNGLISH
With some help from Mr. Ward I decided writing a college essay was a good decision. The overall theme of my project match up pretty well with my essay prompt. The prompt I chose was "The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?" I reworked this essay a handful of times but, it could always be revised again. Below is my essay!
In sixth grade we had a standard reading test that would determine if you were put into a normal reading class or a special one. I rushed through the test and was put into the special one. I was labeled with a reading level of a fourth grader. So, while everyone was progressing forward, I held myself back. This experience taught me to take my time and be myself so I can be judged as myself.
Even today, I have aa fear of being judged for rushing my work yet I still have bad time management. I’m currently in Apollo, a project based class where I have 3 weeks to create a project with a topic of my choosing. I picked my topic and started off good; meeting with the teachers within the first few days of the project. Then, I slowly got caught up in things outside of school and left my priorities in the dust. This made me look lazy and like I didn’t really care but, I do care, in some ways I overly care. I’ve decided that to create the best future for myself I need to prioritize my priorities. These lessons will push me forward instead of holding me back.
Although time management plays a big role in me procrastinating so does my depression. Depression makes me want to do nothing, my motivation hits the floor. It makes me want to lie in bed all day, waking up early seems ten times harder, and wanting to hangout with friends difficult to achieve. Depression doesn’t rule my life and I am in control. Depression has made me learn that if I truly want to do all of those things I can. I’m at a point where I can live with the depression and I’m working to overcome it.
In coming years I look forward to the obstacles I’m going to face because I have built up the tool kit of strategies to power through them. I appreciate the lessons that I learn from and the hardships that I face knowing they will help me grow as a person. Having depression makes me feel like my art has a creative uniqueness to it that someone who hasn’t learned through all of these life challenges wouldn’t have. I want to pursue a career in art and I know that these lessons will only help me reach my goals.
In sixth grade we had a standard reading test that would determine if you were put into a normal reading class or a special one. I rushed through the test and was put into the special one. I was labeled with a reading level of a fourth grader. So, while everyone was progressing forward, I held myself back. This experience taught me to take my time and be myself so I can be judged as myself.
Even today, I have aa fear of being judged for rushing my work yet I still have bad time management. I’m currently in Apollo, a project based class where I have 3 weeks to create a project with a topic of my choosing. I picked my topic and started off good; meeting with the teachers within the first few days of the project. Then, I slowly got caught up in things outside of school and left my priorities in the dust. This made me look lazy and like I didn’t really care but, I do care, in some ways I overly care. I’ve decided that to create the best future for myself I need to prioritize my priorities. These lessons will push me forward instead of holding me back.
Although time management plays a big role in me procrastinating so does my depression. Depression makes me want to do nothing, my motivation hits the floor. It makes me want to lie in bed all day, waking up early seems ten times harder, and wanting to hangout with friends difficult to achieve. Depression doesn’t rule my life and I am in control. Depression has made me learn that if I truly want to do all of those things I can. I’m at a point where I can live with the depression and I’m working to overcome it.
In coming years I look forward to the obstacles I’m going to face because I have built up the tool kit of strategies to power through them. I appreciate the lessons that I learn from and the hardships that I face knowing they will help me grow as a person. Having depression makes me feel like my art has a creative uniqueness to it that someone who hasn’t learned through all of these life challenges wouldn’t have. I want to pursue a career in art and I know that these lessons will only help me reach my goals.
History
For this portion of my project I wasn't completely sure what to do. When meeting with Mr. Wimmer we came up with the idea of connecting people with seasonal affective disorder problems with people who lived on the frontier during the 1888 cold wave. In the book, The Children's Blizzard the author goes into detail about weeks and weeks of horrible weather and misfortunate events for the people on the Frontier. For example, in one of the stories a snow mountain 26 ft tall formed right in the middle of a farmers field in the beginning of January. This mountain came from a blizzard that hit out of absolutely no-where. The people living on the frontier had no time to prepare; they had no food stocked up, not a large amount of wood, and not enough warm clothing to bare that type of weather. That snowstorm had lasted for weeks. People started starving, the men of the families had to trek out in snow and temperatures 24 degrees below zero. The closest mill was 21 miles away. So each farmer loaded up their wagons with grain sacks and a team of horses. Then the men eventually returned and the wives made bread for their families and thats what they survived on. All in all this book talks about how hard it was to live through this. Anytime there was a break in the bad weather the men would go to work and the children would go to school. They were such hard workers and they did not complain.
I took all of the information I gathered from these stories and had a discussion with Mr. Wimmer about what someone from that time period would think of seasonal affective disorder. I feel like they would think a person with SAD is just lazy, and complaining. Because they are such hard workers, they had no time to be sad about there not being as much light during the day. They were go-getters. I feel different, I'm sympathetic for people who have SAD because my mom has it. Its sad, you see someone you know/love turn into someone else for a month or two out of the year and then go back to normal. Even my mother says she doesn't know why she sad and it makes her not like fall all that much; because she knows Some other people I know say it feels their true personality just disappears for a few weeks then they're back to normal. Educating myself about SAD and reading about people from the frontier who suffered so severely has given me more appreciation for my emotional state and for what resources we have today.
I took all of the information I gathered from these stories and had a discussion with Mr. Wimmer about what someone from that time period would think of seasonal affective disorder. I feel like they would think a person with SAD is just lazy, and complaining. Because they are such hard workers, they had no time to be sad about there not being as much light during the day. They were go-getters. I feel different, I'm sympathetic for people who have SAD because my mom has it. Its sad, you see someone you know/love turn into someone else for a month or two out of the year and then go back to normal. Even my mother says she doesn't know why she sad and it makes her not like fall all that much; because she knows Some other people I know say it feels their true personality just disappears for a few weeks then they're back to normal. Educating myself about SAD and reading about people from the frontier who suffered so severely has given me more appreciation for my emotional state and for what resources we have today.