Ambition

Pursuing the brightest possible future by immersing myself in my passion.

Rationale

          I chose to take my pictures at a local architecture firm downtown, called OPN Architects, where my godfather is one of 7 principal architects. I chose to take my pictures at the firm because since (roughly) second grade, I’ve wanted to follow in the footsteps of my godfather to design buildings. Lately in my writings I’ve focused on my future and my career path so I enjoyed entertaining the idea of basically making it so that I appeared as an architect in the pictures I took. I’m pictured in one of  the large skylit offices of the principal architects, writing or drawing on a piece of paper.

          I chose to use one of the pictures of me facing away from the camera, interestingly enough. I did this because in the picture, whatever I’m doing, writing or drawing, there’s at least some connection for the viewer to make, for them to use their imagination to decide what exactly I’m doing where the camera can’t see. The single edit I made to my photo was applying an iOS filter called ‘Vivid cool’. I chose this of all of the other selections because it creates a calming feel to the photo, takes some of the warmth out, and in my opinion creates more of an analytical look.

 Reflection

          Some think that your personality is an unchanging thing. A personality is a set of traits and characteristics. By the textbook definition, this makes sense. Neither traits nor characteristics change, right? What about the person that possesses these traits and characteristics? People can definitely change, that’s no mystery. Are people and their personalities different things?

          In an episode of Invisibilia, “The Personality Myth”, Alix Spiegel and Hanna Rosin meet and converse several people, one of which is an inmate named Dan. When first introduced, Dan is described as a hustling and bustling individual with a very bright and positive energy. Dan was organizing a TedX event for his fellow inmates to attend. How could such a nice man be in a prison for some reason? It could be something that didn’t involve malicious intent, like involuntary manslaughter. But no, Dan was convicted raping a woman at knifepoint. Dan says that “I've come to terms that I'm kind of in prison now for someone else's crime”. That’s how much Dan was able to change himself, he says he’s now not only a completely different person on a personality or cellular level, but on a mental level.

          I say that your personality is a never ending development of your experiences and surroundings. Dan, from The Personality Myth, said that it took 2 years to completely reconfigure his personality. Your personality is not set in your core and it’s never once the same as it’s been in the past. You’re always experiencing new things that change your perspectives (and biases), opinions and ideas and reshape your personality. People hear the words “You’ve changed” often enough. People, their personalities, they’re constantly changing and developing, whether for better or worse in the eyes of those around them.