Kylee Achey

The Waves

you know you make too many promises 

you know you have to break some 

people that get hurt are the ones that show the most love 

when every September rolls around 

you have to let yourself hit the ground 

feel until you can't breathe 

let the guilt consume you until it leaves 

drown in every emotion this world has to offer 

let it bury you alive and let it watch you prosper 

you are the author, your mother's daughter 

come hell, or high water 

Rationale: 

I think the picture I have of myself reflects what the piece is meant to portray. It definitely corresponds with the key words in my flash fiction such as "hurt" and "guilt". I tried to find a picture that I thought really complimented my piece well but still had enough of my personality in it. The grain and the filter on the photo are meant to represent "bury you alive" and "until you can't breathe" and how your vision of life gets blurry when you go through tough situations. 

Reflection: 

Most of us have different ideas on how personalities develop and how they impact who we are, but many people have the same basic understanding. That personality stems from our past experiences and describes who we are in relation to the people around us. We make assumptions about people based on their personality traits; the way they talk about different topics, what makes them laugh, what makes them walk away. We all have past experience and history in our lives that shows sometimes personalities clash, and many experts do believe in the science behind personalities and how it changes the relationships we have in our lives. I was always told that there is a set list of personality traits someone can have, if you have one you have to have the other ones that correspond with the ones you already possess, and a lot of people think this way. A lot of people think that never changes. 

In an Invisibilia Podcast called "The Personality Myth", two women go into a prison to interview and meet the people that are behind bars. Everyone involved in this project goes through some serious questioning about what personality is and if it can change. Dan, the man they spend the most time with is so adamant about his progression into a new person that he actually says "I'm in jail for someone else's crime, I'm not that person at all anymore". They mention the experiment where marshmallows are placed in front of a child and they are told not to eat it, the children that have enough control to hold off until told otherwise were supposedly going to be more successful later in life. This experiment was de-bunked and in the podcast, it is said that "Your future isn't a marshmallow". Our need to believe in consistency often distracts us from letting us change anything. 

I think my personality was mainly shaped in my childhood. I was exposed to a lot, and I think how I was raised can be compared to how people try to socialize animals when they're young so it helps them be stronger as they grow up. I believe people can change, I've seen it all around me and I don't think there are necessarily things that happen that suddenly push someone to change. I think it's something that happens gradually and happens constantly. People that don't believe others can change just haven't been observant of their own personality over time and haven't been able to experience someone in their lives go through that change. I think our identities are influenced by the choices we make just as much as our choices are influenced by our identities.  It has to start somewhere (most likely with the choices we make, these build our personality), but as soon as you get the ball rolling it's something that goes back and forth almost equally.