The purpose of this project, is to develop our critical awareness. First of all, I spend a day writing down what I have been thinking about. Secondly, I spend another day reflecting my thoughts visually: taking photos around the city. Thirdly, I begin thinking ahead to my supporting details and brainstorming in general ideas of my day of thoughts. Therefore, I did this project because it was necessary to talk to my present self.
Thinking in Writing
More often, I think about far away looking at myself changing. Progressing, growing up or moving forward to life. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing or who I am with, I would see myself in the future. However, family problems take my attempts holding me to the past. Sometimes, this is what stop me of seeing myself in the future. Sometimes, It erase or change the image in my mind. Here is when I blame destiny until the day I hear ” we create our own destiny”. As an immigrant, I know that I have a lot of opportunities. As time passes, passion and vision becomes one.
Meanwhile, for me success is the result of the amount of time I spend pursuing my ambition. “Does that mean that doing what I have to do because I have to is my destiny or if I stop receiving what life is giving me and choose my own path is also my destiny”. In other words, for this thought I was thinking that destiny and future might be the same. I give little attention to myself. I rather give more attention to other people than me. I choose to satisfy people with my time and I think is because I am to good to say no. However, I got it do the opposite in order to see that change on me. For example, ” why does it feel so wrong to reach for something more, to wanna live a better life and what am I waiting for?”. In my mind, this thought should receive less attention because it will just keep me stuck in a circle with the same answers. Thus, time is the key to a better landscape of myself and my life.
This Mosaic that I found at 86th street and Lexington subway station around 8pm, reflects my current thoughts. First of all, it reminds me of the artist’s color wheel that I bought for one of my classes. Secondly, for me this design of an eye reflects my future of seeing myself as a designer. Thirdly, in this mosaic we can see different shapes and colors specially the different animals around the white. Therefore, this photo that I took reflects a part of my current thoughts.
Also, I took this photo of a poster at the train station on 125th street and Lexington. This represent my current thoughts of becoming a graphic designer because it illustrates the type, vector images, and the nike logo. Besides that, there’s a complex design of a city created in a praline system of semi dark and light sides.
This poster at the train four, is one of my top current thoughts. This is how I see myself in the future. In other words, this poster represents successful students at cuny. Therefore, in five years I also want to see myself graduated from cuny.
This is another poster at the train four. It represents the different races of people taking the train. There’s repetition and contrast in colors. So I compare this to my thoughts because people are looking at different directions and that vision is uncomfortable sometimes.
I took this one at Jay street subway station. There’s only two colors black and white and it contains three bulbs. For me, this bulbs represent my brain where all my thoughts are.
This photo is my daily life routine. At first it was hard to climb the stairs but now it is easy for me. Every morning I see it as a challenge, everyday I want to climb it in less time. I took this photo with snapchat near my house and add a little decoration.
On the first page of my story when my life first started, the future seemed dark with no glory. Being from a poor, small village in Dominican Republic, I thought my destiny was set until I learned that we create our own destiny. As Nelson Mandela once said “There is no passion to be found playing small in setting for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living”. In other words, we should not stay in the same spot if we have the chance to move on.
My name is Miguel Santos, a graduate of the New York City College of Technology. Time goes fast and now I am working at a studio as a graphic designer in 2020. In this job, I work in a group creating layouts, designs, ideas and helping around as a visual communicator. I turned 24 years old this July but I still live with my mom and siblings in Manhattan. In this essay, I am making an argument to myself about how to change my current thoughts and actions in order to achieve and see the progress I want five years from now. In this argument, I am going to discuss how to manage my time, increase my skills as a designer, and how to maintain a stable life as an adult. These are the three topics that I will explained in the following essay.
First of all, time is essential to build myself for the future. The more time I spend doing my work the efficiently I will get it done. I remember what inspired me to manage my time during the first semester: Gladwell’s theory of 10,000 hours in his book “Outliers”. According to Gladwell, it takes roughly ten thousands hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. Therefore, Instead of doing everything random, planning is essential to start managing my time. A lot of frustration is usually the result of poor time management because of doing everything at the same time. I need to create a schedule that allocates time for exams, reports, essays and recreation.
This is productive, because I wake up at 7:00Am and go to sleep around 1:30Am which means I spend a lot of time awake. However, half of this time is wasted using social media and sometimes doing nothing or complaining of feeling tired. In reference to Thinking in Writing, “I choose to satisfy people with my time” meaning that it doesn’t matter if I am doing my work, I will go out, if a friend or family member needs me during my time. I chose this thought, because it is not a matter of self discipline for me in order to be fair. Therefore, This thought reminds me to avoid all interruptions. Thus, achieving my goal for this semester of completing tasks on time.
In order to improve my skills as a designer, it takes a countless number of hours practice and patience. I am attempting a major in communication design, where I have to direct the viewer’s attention. Equally important, communication is key which is one of my biggest weakness. A good communicator persuades with his work and gives a variety of ideas by speaking to the clients or audience because the work is already visually there. Therefore, I have to look around since there are great designs everywhere around me. In reference to Thinking Visually, I took a photo of a poster at the train station on 125th and lexington that represents my current thoughts of becoming a graphic designer “because it illustrates the type, vector images, and the Nike logo”.
I chose this thought, because it teaches me that I have to learn to identify good designs, study it’s theory to find the message it convey, and that I have to find my own style that I will feel good with because sometimes there are different roles depending on the project I am working on. Another way to increase my design skills, is to join the design club at my school and take advantages of any other events around my community. Experience is everything, instead of brainstorming at the computer, I have to use paper and pen to sketch my ideas and spend minimum two hours just on drafting and craftsmanship with the work. As the professor explained at the beginning of the semester, good communication allows any business to reach its goal and avoid misunderstanding keeping in mind that communication is rhetorical and multimodal. Finally, I always need to spend some time reading the design elements until reaching my own definition while the ideas flow.
My own definition of being an adult, are responsibility and self independence. In other words, I need to consider myself matured, not only physically but psychologically and financially. However, it is very difficult to maintain this stable life. One responsibility, is to be the caretaker of my parents. Although, now I’m in no rush to become an adult because I am taking advantage of my mom’s guidance, housing and rules for as long as I can. Therefore, I have to start socializing with the environment and each new people I meet.
Happily, my ambition is the same as confucius’s idea “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”. So, I portray myself in a senior graphic designer since I love the visual presentations by designing art. I will enjoy the moment I am in and embrace my life when i am adult. Right now, I should get my driver’s license and be mindful that having connections is necessary in the adult life. Also, Love play a big role and find it early, its productive for a better future life since it motivates a lot. As one can see, maintaining a happy life as an adult is a long process of self awareness. Thus, time is important for a better landscape of myself and my life.
These are great advices, I am putting it into action. I am more dedicated to myself than usual. Right now, I already decrease half of the time I spend in social media and is like seeing my life flashing before my eyes. Instead of spending time with people of my age, I would like to have an adult friend from who I can learn from. Besides that, I am going to tutoring and office hours to engage more and benefits from time. In addition, I need way less money than I think to survive, stop obsessing about it and just spend less. I feel happy now, creating art every once in a while. Remember, that I always wanted to go back in time and now I did. In other words, not regrets I am always here in my hundred percent. As one can see, a true personal advice are the best lessons to move forward in life.
