IB TOK 1

The art piece below was one of our very first TOK projects. We had to create our own personal map that represented who we are and strive to be. I chose to make a poster on how my favorite books have shaped who I am and how I view the world.

My map is the story of the people and places in my life, based on the characters and places in books that I look up to and learn from. My home, New York City, and oceans in Florida and South Carolina are close together to represent family. Carrollton High School and the dam in my neighborhood are close together to represent friendships, and New York City and the oceans represent my special journeys.

My home is the people in my life that I love and protect, and have taught me to be caring, to be honest, and to be loyal. The book, Throne of Glass, relates to my home because the main character, Aelin, worked and fought so hard to earn her home.

My school has taught me new things and given me great opportunities. It is a place that has taught me to be open minded. The Night Court within the book, A Court of Thorns and Roses, showed the main character, Feyre, that the world still was, even with all the hardships and pain, a truly new and breathtaking place.

Nature has influenced me to appreciate everything I have been given, and to experience new things with friends and family outside. In The Mortal Instruments, the Faerie Realm was foreign and challenging, but also incredibly magical and spectacular.

I was born in New York City, and still visit family that I love and look up to every year. The city is a place that has always been very influential, worldly, and stunning and has made me who I am today. The apartment in The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was built after so much fighting for what the characters believed in, and was finally a place for them to feel safe and loved.

Lastly, the oceans I have visited throughout my life have taught me to be brave and to explore, and they have helped me to realize how grateful I should be to have a family that can provide me with so many adventures in our wonderful world. The ocean in the book, Shatter Me, was dying and isolated, but, through nonstop hard work, finally became thriving and new again after so long.

My books have always opened my eyes to how lucky I am to have the people and places in my life that are constantly there for me creating wonder and adventure. I am proud of how I am able to take novels and transform them into pieces of knowledge I can look to for guidance, spreading the values of reading and analysis to others.