Past, Future & Life

My first Humanities course for Senior year is called Journalism. The first unit we focused on photojournalism and how that can help us see the world. We took on the role of a photojournalist, practicing both the essential skills of photography and the critical thinking. On the first Field Experience, we went to a photo gallery. We meet the photojournalist, and her series is called “#Killing Season Chicago. She documented shootings that happened during the summer of 2010. The exhibit was amazing it catalogued where people got killed. Not one photo had a person in it. Each photo was a memorial for the people who died that summer. That exhibit guided us to our Action Project. The purpose of the first Action Project was to take on the role of a photojournalist and capture, through a photo the point of view of someone that I believed had an important/interesting/unique view on the meaning of life. I interviewed my younger sister Jiselle. I chose my sister because she’s really unique and wise. I love hearing her speak and her telling me all her ideas. She has a very different way of thinking and I loved to hearing what her meaning of life was. What was most challenging during this Action Project was taking the perfect picture of my sister. I didn’t just want to take a picture, I wanted to take one picture that really captured my sister's personality. That picture is below, I hope you enjoy!

Photo taken by JV. Past, Future & Life. 2016

The interview was taken in my kitchen on September 25, 2016. It was around 10:00 am. The house had an aroma of Cafe Bustelo, my sister and I favorite coffee. We sat at the kitchen island table. I began to ask her some questions.


What is the meaning of life to you?
The meaning of life to me is the way you live it. You can’t have regrets, you can’t hate, and judge yourself. You have to accept the mistakes you have made and move on. The meaning of life is you, you’re the one who is living, you only have one chance at life, might as well make it everything you want it to be.

Has life always meant the same for you, or did this meaning change to you?
The meaning of life to me has definitely changed. I use to think life was everything my parents told me. I use to listen to everything they said, and believed everything they said. I still listen to my parents, I still value their meaning, their thoughts. As I got older I realized that I had my own meaning of life, my own thoughts, and I starting seeing life in a totally different way. I realized that I was my own person and I could make my own decisions.

What are your values in life?
My values in life is to stay true to myself, I want to be the best vision of me and I’m still working on that. I want to reach all my goals, I want to have a good future, and I want our family to be proud.

We were eating french toast during the interview, my sister’s favorite breakfast meal. My keyboard was getting sticky from the syrup; I’m kinda a messy eater-I must admit. I was trying to type every exact word she was saying while eating, but I’m not so great at multitasking. My little brother, on the other hand, was also sitting at the table, eating french toast, watching I Love Lucy on his tablet, and also listening to what we were talking about. He’s 10 years old, and in my opinion a great multitasker. We took a little break and finished up breakfast. We had to move locations because, our Mami kicked us out of the kitchen to clean up. We relocation in our bedroom that we share together. For those that don’t share a room with a sibling I am truly jealous.

The interview began again,

What do you want most out of your life? I want to be happy; I want to travel to all the places I have in mind, so that way later in life when I’m older, I won’t be saying, “ I wish I went here or there” because I’ve already went to all of those places.

What do you like most about yourself? I like how I think, and how I handle situations. I like how stronger and independent I am as well. I like how im very outgoing, and spontaneous, I also like how I make people laugh.

What are your strengths? My strengths are school, work, and being independent. I like going to school, and getting good grades. I like to study and make sure all my work is done on time. I also like working and making money, so that way I can get all the things that I need. I also like how im independent. I look up to you, and sometimes wonder how you handle school and work at the same time, because I’m still getting use to it.

What are your weaknesses? Mmh, weaknesses would be my shyness. Staying quiet, being a little awkward at times. I’m working on my weaknesses, and I have gotten better but everything takes time, and growth is very important. Like I said before realizing your mistakes, and making them better. I would say the meaning of life would be myself. I am a living, I am breathing. I value my life so much I am very grateful that I am living.

This interview went well. I did have to force my sister a little bit with staying on topic, and yell at her to stop being on her phone and to talk to me!

The photo was taken after the interview, around 1 o’clock pm. The location was Wilson Park. The park is really close to our house. I took this picture when my sister was off guard, and I think those are the best pictures. She is a very sassy 17 year old and that kind of shows in the photo. I love her pose and the lighting of the photo. The shadowing is what stands out the most. The brightness can represent future and the darkness can represent the past.

She reminds me of myself sometimes. She is very independent like myself. Even though I’m the oldest and we are only one year apart; I look up to her sometimes. She’s amazing and I love her very much, people always thought we were twins when we were younger, and I remember we use to hate it LOL. I remember her always telling “hold my hand” when we were little. Although we are both young adults, Jiselle will always be my little sissy Selle.

After High School

My first STEAM course for senior year is called Economics. The first unit is called Utility and Value; this unit taught us how to make our own decisions when it comes to money and our future. We learned the meaning of utility as a way of modeling choices, and we also learned about economic and mathematical concepts like supply and demand, calculating with a matrix, continuously compounding, and simple compounding, and continuously compounding interest. On our first Field Experience, we went to the Federal Bank of Chicago. This FE was interesting;I learned a lot about the market, deflation, how much money Illinois shreds everyday, and how much money the FED bank carries. I can’t wait to see what the other FE’s are going to be like for this class. The purpose of this Action Project is to look at a reality that I will consider to be my future profession. I choose to pick two different paths for my future and see which one will benefit me the most. I calculated the real cost of college based on the two colleges I picked. What I found challenging was the calculations, but I overcame that struggle by meeting with my teacher and asking questions. What I enjoyed about this project was seeing what path is better for my future.

Day Care Shenanigans.

Over the summer I completed my community services hours. I volunteered at my best friends, aunts day care. It was an amazing experience, I got to bond with beautiful kids and learned how to have so much patience for them. I love working with little kids, they're so much fun and silly. The owner of the day care lives in Jefferson Park, which was awesome because I live in that neighborhood as well and all I had to do was walk to her house which was awesome. I started volunteering in August and would volunteer on weekdays. I did 8 hours each day. There were two main kids at the daycare that I took care of. A girl named Samara who is 2 years old, she was born in Haiti and just recently moved to America. She is the sweetest little girl I’ve ever meet, she’s so patient and quiet. She will listen to you and wants you to play with her. Even though she’s only 2 years old she is so driven and wants to know everything that’s going on. She also picked up English and Spanish really fast, which was really surprising to me. She is a very bright little girl. Sebastian is the other kid I took care off. He is 4 years old, and such a silly little boy. He loved jumping around and voicing his opinion. He is very adventurous and loved to play with me and Samara. Getting to know these two kids was such a blessing. I got to teach them how to read, write the ABC’s, write their names. and how to count to 10. I also looked after them as they played taught them how to be nice to one another and got to feed them, and cleaned up after them.

Playground. Taken by JV. 2016. 

My last date at the daycare was September 18, 2016. It was really hard for me to say goodbye to the kids. I actually went over my community service hours because I enjoyed being with them so much. Ely is the owner of the day care, and I want to thank her for letting me join her and helping her out. Ely is so sweet and I can tell she really enjoys her job, and she loves the kids she looks after. I would definitely go back and volunteer there again. I loved the experience and I loved meeting the kids.

Toy Area. Taken by JV. 2016.