Fireside Chat Artist's Statement
8:24 PM
I decided to tell a story about a hard thing that I went
through in my life, but I wanted to make sure it had a positive feel. I talked
about how basically my childhood was cut short in a sense. When I was 9, I got
hit with reality really hard and really fast. My grandparent’s sold our cabin,
my second home, and then went through a really hard divorce. At the same time,
my dad was super sick and wasn’t supposed to survive his necessary surgery. I still feel the repercussions of these events
in my life, even 10 years later. But I wanted to emphasize my belief about how
important it is to let hate leave our hearts to make room for love instead.
I was so nervous for our fireside chat. I really wanted to
present something heartfelt and sincere, and not cheesy. For my media element,
I went through a lot of old home videos. I found clips at our cabin, as well as
some footage of my grandparents when they were still married, and some footage
of my dad teaching me how to ride a bike. I wanted the visuals to reflect what
I was saying, both literally and figuratively. I showed a jenga tower falling
and me falling off my bike when I talked about trials, and then I showed the
other end of the clips, me getting back up and high-fiving my grandpa, to
represent faith and forgiveness. I feel like everything went the way I wanted
it to during my presentation. After I started, the nerves went away, and I just
tried to speak from the heart.
I loved listening to everyone present their stories and
presentations. Everyone did such a great job, and I could tell everyone put a
lot of effort into the stories. Some of them made me laugh, and some made me
want to cry. This assignment felt like the culmination of the entire semester.
I have gotten to know everyone so well this semester, and I have learned to
love everyone as well. At the end, I didn’t really want to leave. I just wanted
to hug everyone and tell them how great I think they are. I’m so thankful for
the camaraderie and love that has grown over the semester.
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