Introduction
This project literally changed my life. It’s insane how a simple activity like the ones I had to do for this project changed the way my mind functioned three weeks ago. Before going in deep with this project I did not really payed any attention to what was on my mind during my walking hours but after the day of thoughts, I started realizing my thoughts are very important and they reflect how I am as a person. This project was also very helpful because it showed me what was lacking off in my life.
Thinking in Writing
An average day of mines I wake up thinking on how my day is going to take off. The times when I don’t have school, I usually work on my craft. My craft is fashion design. During my day of thoughts I was making a jacket I designed. My mind was so into the garment I was making that nothing else was on my mind but ideas of how to make my garment better. I am a person who gets bored quite fast so I had to switch up what I was doing. I later grabbed my math homework and started looking through it, another thing about me is that I hate math, so my thoughts about math are always “who created math”, “why do we need math”, “ugh”, etc. I hate this kind of thoughts. One reason is because it makes me lose my focus on school. I was analyzing how I passed my math remedial class, which I thought was hard even though in reality was not, but the secret was that even when I thought it was hard I made my mind believe it was easy and that way I learned a lot more than what I was learning with my ignorant way of thinking about math. I notice that I also think a lot about my future. At times I zone out thinking if I’ll get to my goals in life and it feels real while I’m there. But I’m sure I’ll not get there if I focused so much on how my life would look in the future and not about the work I have to do right now to get there. After writing this I want to start focusing more on my craft and not get bored with it, I want to have fun with the fabrics, textures, the sewing, the draping, etc. Also with math I want to be able to love it and not hate the moment my break ends and I have to head to my math class.
Thinking visually
This image represents how fast I work on my craft and sometimes it comes out wrong. You probably don’t see anything but I do. The flaws with this is the white thread in between the fabrics. The thread is always supposed to be the same color as the fabrics.
This picture represents the passion I have for my craft. Every Day when I wake up and see this it inspires me to keep working harder and harder on my dream. I also want to learn how to be patient and to wait until I have a plan to go ahead and create something.
This picture represents the bored math problems I have to go through on my math course. Which I don’t like but I tell my mind I like so I can learn them.
This picture represents the fact that math isn’t just about numbers, it’s about shapes, it’s about architecture, it’s fun, this is the way I want to feel about my math course.
This picture represents the idea that I spend to much time zone out thinking about my future instead of doing what I have to to right now to get there, it’s like my goal is right there so close to me but It’s getting farther because I’m not doing what I have to do on time.
This picture represents how I want to feel about my future. A car starts at point A and ends at point B but between A and B there’s a road that car has to take. I sometimes think I’m on point B when in reality I’m on point A. I wanna feel as if I already left point A now I’m on the road to point B.
Thinking reflectively
I’m Bryan Jimenez and I’m twenty four years old, I’m now graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology. At FIT I met a very special person who I am now engaged to and we are working together on our fashion dream. During my student years at FIT I did a lot of internships that allowed me to network in fashion, photography, and art. Thanks to this new friendships I made throughout college I am showing a spring/summer ’21 “Ready to Wear” collection at New York Fashion Week. My fashion career has grown so much in just five years, from sewing at my room to having my own showroom. It’s unbelievable how far I’ve come. During this essay I will argue to myself on how I can become successful by changing the way I was thinking five years ago. Four things I would have done in the past would be to focus on school, on learning the basics of anything before going in too deep, on practicing more exercises, and appreciating everything I have in my hands now.
People say there’s no reason to go back on the past since nothing can be done or change, but I personally wish that a “going back to the past” machine existed. If I could go five years back on my life I would definitely focus more in school. During 2015 I was attending City Tech it was on my second semester, I had a part time job and I was also working on my clothing line. That entire year my least prioritized responsibility was school. I set work and my career goals before school, which was not good because I lost focus and I was not taking school serious so my grades immediately went from b’s to -c’s. Due to my grades going down I had to stay another year in City Tech to get my grades up so that FIT would accept me, which I felt like it was unnecessary because I had the chance to get good grades and I didn’t use it. If I had gotten better grades in college I probably would not have to take all these exams my job and college is now requiring me to take. If I was to speak to the kids in high school or college I would highly recommend them to focus on school. There’s nothing more important then school and that everything will fall into place as soon as school is done.
Everything we do in life requires some type of learning. Some learn visually , some study and some are self taught. I am an fashion designer and everything I know about fashion I have learned myself, I learn how to sew by practicing everyday and even though I know how to sew and construct garments I can say that I am not the best at it yet. If I could go back five years to when I first started sewing and designing I would tell myself to focus on basics before going big. When I first started pursuing this fashion dream I was 17 and I wanted to rush the process and that cost me not money but time. Time because I would always do something wrong while I was sketching or sewing and I would either have remake what I did wrong or most times I would have to start over. That costed me a lot of time which could have been used to learn other techniques. After a year of rushing my work and having to remake project after project, I finally understood that I had to learn the basics before I can move anywhere else, I then started over doing simple stuff such as t-shirts, sweaters and on and on, trying to make it as perfect as I could and I can now five years later say, those lessons I learn while remaking garments taught me that the process is very important and everybody has to go through it to become professionals on their craft.
If I had the opportunity to go five years back from now and someone told me to do exercise I would probably tell them “I don’t have time for the gym”. Five years ago I really did not have any time for a gym. But what I did not know is that I did not have to go to a gym to practice exercise. A book that change this mindset of mines was “Brain Rules” by John Medina. Medina talks on how beneficial exercise is not only for our body’s and health, but also for our brain. After I finish reading “Brain Rules” I realized that I was just killing myself if I didn’t practice any types of exercises and so I started walking longer distance than my usual walks, riding my bike more often and from there on I started the hobby of doing some type of exercise everyday.
Family it’s the best gift men has. Five years ago I knew that sentence but I was not seeding on to it because I was too busy living my own life to the point that I did not realized that I had a family wanting to spend time with me. Like I said earlier I wish a going to the past machine existed so I can appreciate not only my family but everything god has handed me. As soon as I started working on the arts and fashion Everyone around me started telling me “you are so talented”, “one day you will make it” but I didn’t really saw that talent in me until now, maybe because I was making garments the wrong way or maybe because I didn’t have the skills an average designer has after some time in the fashion world but the point was that I was learning and I did not recognized the beauty of learning. Now every time I learn something new about any topic not just relating my craft I feel proud of myself because I finally understood how to value everything I have and learn everyday.
I remember how bad I wanted to be on my twenties five years ago, now I am twenty four wishing I could go five years back, the irony of life. My life it’s really not bad at all for all the mistakes I made throughout my teenager years but it can be a lot better if I had payed more attention in school. If I was giving the opportunity to attend school again I would definitely cut everything and everyone off to focus on school work. On the other note my fashion works are where I pictured them being five years ago. I am glad I learned the lesson of practice during my journey and thanks to that lesson I am who I am today. Five years ago a lot of my friends were into fitness and doing exercise but I wasn’t and I regret not associating with them as much earlier in life because now it’s really hard for me to do exercises everyday. Now that I am 24 I am still the same slim boy from college and even thought I am not ashamed of how I look I still wish I was a little bit more fit. I can believe it took me five years to start appreciating everything I have in my life, it took me to open my eyes into the real world and see how other people live and how I live. And that’s how my story ends.
