"My Life on Earth"
a Scrapbook by
Madilyn Kendall
For my project I was looking to answer the questions: “What is the purpose of (your/human) existence?” & “What does it mean to live a meaningful life? AND What gives your life meaning?”. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to express myself through an art piece but as I thought of it more I thought about how I like to take pictures of my everyday life or of things that matter to me. I decided to make a scrap book of all those pictures with my journal entries & quotes that have spoken to me or been able to express my insights on life better than any other type of art piece I could've done. Adding the images & the text helped give better insight as to what the selected images were trying to convey.
After creating this project I realized putting all of these things that matter to me and that emphasis my perspective on life into one place; my scrapbook really made me see the big picture & I was able to show my story to others without needing to explain it to them because everything in my scrapbook said it for me. Throughout the philosophy project I feel that there was this safe space created in our class that made me & others feel comfortable enough to be so vulnerable about our lives & sharing our stories with others; which made me really open up & connect with people I may not have if we hadn’t done this project. One thing that has become important to me after this project is not overcomplicating one’s life & you are always able to see through the tricky details to see the bigger picture. This project made it possible for people to have the mental space they need to think about their life on earth, what that actually means, & what is most important to them. I think this was very eye opening for many other students besides just me & for me personally it felt spiritually healing in a way that I feel was long past needed. Getting to see everything in my life in one place on paper felt very grounding & made me feel secure because of the way I have always felt about things in my life being out of my control & my life feeling messy and chaotic; but when I was given the time to actually stop & think about these things & each small detail in my life & actually put them in one place with an explanation, it made me feel like I could control the way I see my storyline of my life without feeling trapped in the middle of my own chaos.
Altogether I personally feel that my perspective on my own life has changed a lot. I feel a little more healed from my past & my childhood but I also feel hopeful about what is to come now that I am more knowing of myself & how I have actually been impacted by each of the events in my life. I think I can say I can continue to live my life knowing I am capable of simplifying the tough situations in my life & valuing what I have in the moment because time goes by very quickly & people come and go but your input & what you give back to the world & the people you cross paths with can truly have a positive impact on you & your happiness. We just have to keep going & live in the moment & stop to appreciate every little thing whether it’s people, places, or moments because it’s all temporary but it's also all important.