One thing that I learned during this semester in seminar is to let things be whatever they are. It’s obviously a disservice to water things down and down play things, but it’s just as much of a disservice to over hype them. To make an assignment bigger than it needs to be or to write about a moment in an exaggerated way diminishes the potential for real life to be magic. This hit me hardest while creating my portrait of Chabely, and I speak about it in my LP post.
“I thought that portraying someone’s personality required some sort of deep and spiritual connection with and knowledge of the subject. I realized quickly that I would achieve no such connection nor would I gain any such knowledge in the span of two weeks, so I let that dream go. I then saw that if I had tried to go deep and make my portrait into some profound piece, it wouldn’t be authentic. It would be empty of Chabely and full of assumptions and ideas that I imposed onto her.”
There were also sometimes in my I Remembers that I downplayed a moment in life in writing and it wasn’t received well. What I thought would add intrigue just shut the reader out. That’s the opposite of the desired effect. Honesty is the best policy
