My Photo Essay Reflection

Through my photo essay, life seems fairly bland. Technically, life has been repetitive--- all of my photos were taken inside my home, and the only people you see are my parents---but I think I've also shown how it's possible to find joy in the little things. Even the photos of work weren't necessarily bad times, I have my dog, who's kept me sane, my project I spent a lot of effort on and learned a lot from, baking with my mom, consuming television, giving gifts and even things as little as California Tortilla and scented candles. It was very difficult to find moments “exciting” enough to document, so I decided to just showcase even the dreadfully boring ones. Before quarantine, I’m not sure I would appreciate these moments so much. I mean, before quarantine, I was banned from lighting candles in my house, so the fact I could take a photo of one in my bedroom is a big progression for me. I definitely didn’t expect to spend my freshman year of college at home with my parents. I didn’t expect curfews, or restricted movement, or rules. I didn’t expect to be able to stay so close with my core friend group from high school, even without seeing each other everyday, but I’m so appreciative that I could. Before quarantine, and routine group (socially-distanced) hangouts, my friend group had fallen further apart, and one of the girls I now consider one of my closest friends, hadn’t been integrated into our group at all. It’s hard to remember the silver lining of quarantine, and my photo essay might not make that silver lining abundantly clear, but I do think that under the surface, there’s a beauty in the repetition. It makes things that break it---making cookies, giving gifts, new TV shows, the $50 worth of Bath and Body Works candles I purchased on a Black Friday impulse and now get to burn for the first time--- all that much more special. Even my dog, Astro, breaks the monotony by only sometimes whining at my door to come in while I’m in class. For the order of my photo essay, I tried to build it as if all of these moments were in one day. We start the day with my lovely little man (who’s really 83 pounds and menace), and then we make cookies with my mom. We eat lunch, with a tad bit of TV, and then wrap a gift (I find I need time after lunch to begin to be able to do work again, and this photo was taken in early afternoon). After dinner, I do some more work, and have a bit of an evening snack, before winding down with my candle and chamomile time before bed. Though these photos were taken over two months, the way they could still semi-logically slot together really shows the timeless-ness of this semester. For next semester, I hope to move on campus, and hopefully life will pick up a bit, but I hope I don’t lose the things I learned this semester and the friendships I solidified.