My self portrait is a literal self portrait that I decided to draw in pencil. The background is made out of face masks. My shirt is made out of the edges of those same face masks. My eyes are also made out of face mask fabric. The idea behind this piece is that we are all so used to seeing people’s faces behind masks for over a year. This piece allows me to take back power and show everyone what is behind the mask, making the masks just an afterthought soon to be in the rearview mirror.
My Morning Routine:
I wake up at 6:30 am to the sound of my iPhone’s standard alarm. I instantly turn it off and look over to see my roommate sound asleep in his bed only about 6 feet from mine. I open my phone and go through social media for about 30 minutes every morning. I do this as a change to allow myself to wake up and to catch up on any important news that happened the day before. I get out of bed and check my weather app to see today’s forecast. That will determine which clothes I pick out for myself. Once I have my clothes in hand, I make my way to the bathroom. I can’t change in my room due to my roommate being in there. I wouldn’t want him waking up and seeing me naked. While in the bathroom I get dressed, use the bathroom, and also brush my teeth. Now that I am dressed, I can put my shoes on, grab my wallet, mask, keys, and backpack and make my way to the front of the building where I wait for the 7:30 bus. Usually, there are only 2 other people on the bus at the same time I am on it. This bus will take us all to Penn State Abington. Once on campus, I walk from the bus drop off/pick up area all the way to the woodland building in order to get to my Chem 212 lecture. This lecture begins at 7:45 and ends at around 9 every Tuesday and Thursday. Once lecture is over, I head back to the bus circle where I get on the bus to bring me back to Lions Gate. I am always the only one on this bus and we have to wait on the bus for about 10 minutes because the bus leaves campus at around 9:15.
Looking at my free write, I notice that I am alone or mostly alone for a majority of my day. I also notice in a more obvious sense that about half of my day I am in a mask. For me, I see this as how the pandemic is both bringing people closer together but also driving people apart. For people who were lucky enough to be in lockdown/quarantine with loved ones or family are able to experience that love and connection every day. For myself and for lots of other college students, we are by ourselves or just with our roommates for months at a time. It’s hard to see friends we’ve made when we’re not allowed to go out anywhere or have more than a certain number of people in a room at a time. It can get very lonely so I believe that it is important for not only myself but anybody else in a similar situation to myself to have a strong support system and keep in touch with family or loved ones as often as possible even though it’s not face to face.