When I walked into freshmen orientation, I felt an uneasiness churn inside my gut. I had no idea what I was doing there. I believed in my abilities to pursue a bachelor’s degree, but the anxiety was setting in on a whole different level. I initially signed up for a culture, literature, and arts major. After one quarter, I switched over to media and communications. By some stroke of luck, I met with an advisor one day and she steered me towards a degree that finally felt like a good fit. I decided to double-major in society, ethics and human behavior with environmental studies. I also made the choice that day to pursue a minor in gender, women and sexuality studies. Ever since, I have been much more fulfilled as a student. The rest of this essay expounds on the writing assignments I included in my annotated bibliography.

It is no mystery that people my age face major obstacles due to interactive social media. I was born in 1999, which means that smartphones were introduced to the world when I was about twelve. The majority of what I’ve seen on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. has either been utterly negative or brain-rotting. It was refreshing to come across the post I used for OA7 in my interdisciplinary inquiry course. Especially since xenophobia becomes amplified on internet platforms. I embedded this into my portfolio because it exemplifies how this technology can be used to evolve humanity, not hinder it.

OA7 was homework from my interdisciplinary inquiry course. Every interdisciplinary arts and sciences (IAS) student must take this during their first quarter at UWB. I took it spring of 2019, and the following summer I took a pause from college to become a registered yoga teacher. The training was 200 hours over a month and a half, and I got certified through 8 limbs in Seattle. (There are four locations, I learned at the studio on Phinney Ridge.) I taught my first yoga class in September 2019 at a studio in downtown Everett. At the end of that fall quarter, I applied for a fitness instructor position in the activites and recreation center (ARC). I got the job, and began teaching at the start of the following winter quarter.

That season was a blur. I was taking 17 credits; three five-credit classes and an indepedent research study with Professor Sara Maxwell, in my marine diversity and conservation class. The job consisted of sifting through Google scholar articles on the seven species of sea turtles, and attemtping to log new information for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Initially, my fellow researchers and our professor were supposed to attend a large confernece to discuss the gathered information, then covid hit. I was teaching at three different studios and a few one-on-one lessons in addition to those. Everything came to a grinding halt, and everything became remote. Fitness instruction was the hardest over Zoom. I stuck through it, and we came back in fall of 2021. I have been teaching in person in the ARC ever since. Winter quarter of 2020 was catastrophic, however I somehow landed on the dean's list for the first time in my life.

Growing up, I didn’t notice that magazines, TV, advertisements, etc. were full of people with the same physical attributes and skin tone as me. When the thought did pop up, I didn’t think much of it. Let alone how it could be affecting people who look much different than me. The pattern continued on into my teenage years and even during my entrance into adulthood. Throughout my time studying at UWB, the concept of intersectionality became solidified for me. As a result, I started to understand my own privilege more than ever, as well as how white supremacy still lingers in the US. Lack of representation of black and brown people in the media is an example of the latter. In cultural psychology, I was reminded of how influential a child’s mind is. If a child doesn’t see people that look like them, it can be extremely discouraging; perhaps even depressing, and those are just to name a couple of potential emotions.

I eventually settled on Fiji to research, because I desired to report on a place where fuller-bodied, dark-skin women have been historically celebrated rather than ignored. Although my essay may give off the impression that the US isn’t a great place to live for the aforementioned type of woman, it has shown signs of getting better. A bigger array of representation has already taken place in mainstream media and advertisements. Unfortunately, a lot of this occurred after June 2020, which seems like virtue-signaling. Ultimately, no culture should insinuate to up-and-coming young ladies that looks are a value of great priority. Still, little girls need role models to look up to for confidence. I don’t think this piece is the best portrayal of my writing skills. However, participating in this class pushed me to be intricately inquisitive towards culture and psychology.

After I wrote my third translating movements paper for histories and movements of gender and sexuality, I was surprised by my score of 97%. Though I’ve scored full points on my writing pieces prior to this, I include it because the particular course was mentally testing. Dr. Julie Shayne is an excellent professor and human. She doesn’t hesitate to praise students for outstanding work; nor hold back constructive criticism. Which paired well with the content she embedded in the class. She was less concerned with us memorizing dates as she was with names. Groundbreaking movements are easier to remember when coordinated to a face and name.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a great privilege to gain all of this knowledge. Simultaneously, it’s challenging to communicate the far-reaching acts of these women. I’ve read this essay more times than I can count. Sometimes I’m trying to spot what makes it exceptional; other times I’m attempting to find ways to improve it. My main objective while working on this project was to use synonyms. Ever since, searching for new words has been a regular part of my writing practice.

The chance to practice my artistic skills in college was always exciting. Which is what I got to do for CCE 4 in public arts and ecological restoration. I completed my drawings on Procreate for the iPad, and an Apple pencil. The airbrush, streamline and color fill tools came in really handy for these two sketches in particular. In addition to sharpening my techniques, I learned how plants communicate underground. Trees and shrubs transfer nutrients below the soil, through their roots. The plants’ ability to do this is what makes phenomena like controlled burning possible.

One key guideline to follow in college while studying a major that requires a lot of reading and writing; is to paraphrase as much as possible. In my task from the third week of my death rituals class, I didn’t achieve this. Still, I recorded vulnerable emotions of relevance to the course material. Looking at how I presented my abilities based on this assignment irritates me. I’m mad at my past self for not putting in more effort. I’m satisfied I was open about my personal fears around death. My statements are simple, however, my hope is that if someone grieving from the loss of a loved one were to look at the content in this short writing exercise, perhaps they would feel less alone. If there’s one thing I learned from the plethora of information in this class, it’s that community soothes the grieving process.

When I began my studies at UWB I was more concerned with animal lives than human lives. I took marine conservation and diversity a quarter or two into my time at the university. I read a 75 page report on orcas in this course that deepened my concern for their survival as a species. I realized that the endangerment of the southern resident population of orcas is a deeply ethical issue. Indigenous tribes around the pacific northwest are heavily spiritually connected to these animals. Extinction of this species would not just be a loss to nature, but to the dignity of indigenous families and tribes as well.

Choosing artifacts for this website was puzzling, and felt unfeasible. It seems like I’ve done an innumerable amount of writing, typing and reading. I wanted to put together an assemblage that was a well-balanced portrayal of my college experience. Every moment of it was enriching and fulfilling in one way or another. The most crucial thing I will take away from obtaining my bachelor’s degree is that I aspire to be a lifelong learner. Hadn’t I taken this path, I wouldn’t be as inspired to continuously deepen my education. Simultaneously, I found that I don’t like cramming or forcing information into my brain either. I grew to appreciate the practice of self care while chasing dreams and reaching goals.