Blessed by the Goddesses
Through the pandemic, I got a chance to build a strong connection with my bedroom. As a result of isolated months in this room, I had an opportunity to observe it like a place I have never been before. With my everlasting research, I realized that I usually change the way I envision my room according to my emotions and needs at that specific moment. One of them is the feeling of joy, which I observed these changes most vividly.
As a mortal, I am in need of some spare time to reset my system and have a break from the chaotic nature of today’s world. At times like these, I usually crawl into my magical cave to reconnect with the universe. Locating myself on my bed, lighting my candles, and now I am on my way to a cleansing journey. With my closed eyes, I envision the room pealing like an orange and creating a gateway into a more powerful frequency. The room fills with pale moonlight, and all the earthy colors slowly fade into variations of light greys. By taking my respiration system under control, my aurora starts healing and creating pink hues surrounding the room. I vision myself getting closer and closer to my higher presence by embracing pure happiness and confidence. White noise fills my ears, making me feel like I am in the presence of goddesses who regularly celebrate and challenge me to do my best.
After resting in this magical dimension for several minutes, I am finally ready to return to the mortal realm as a brand-new person. As the very second, I open my eyes, my room suddenly converts into its original form by only leaving behind a flickering candle, which symbolizes the vibration of all the supernatural actions that took place seconds ago. (2021)
Back to 1692
For the topic of grief, I did my research by recalling my past memories when I felt pure sorrow. By memorizing all the times that I felt depressed, I figured out that there is a pattern of me being misunderstood. As a result of this discovery, I decided to dedicate this panel to a memory of mine when I felt misjudged.
I tend to come up with controversial topics, and in a conservative town like Ankara, this situation makes your life much harder than usual. I must say that my parents are doing a great job of keeping up with me. However, every now and then, they judge me like a picture book. Previously I got accused of being an unaccountable human being just because I choose to follow my long-time dream of becoming an artist and proceeding with my education in an art school. I felt betrayed by my parents’ reckless approach to this passion of mine.
So, I dragged myself back into my room to isolate myself from all the ignorant people that damaged my self-image. As an over-thinker, I got headaches from my split personalities arguing to see if I did something wrong or not. I envisioned my room in all tones of blue while feeling blue. I even hallucinated like I somehow managed to transfer back to the village of Salem in 1692. Then I voluntarily visioned my room as a wooden cabin with ropes dangling from the ceiling. I was walking up to the court with cold hands and shaking legs. As always, I got accused of being a delusional human being who has different goals from studying a boring major or living a monotone life. Later I saw myself as I get publicly executed by a bunch of ignorant people.
To sum up, I discovered that I tend to dramatize my feelings at those times of distress by envisioning my bedroom as a history book. (1692)
Rock from Another Dimension
I have always been a person who is interested in spiritual concepts. Through the pandemic, I had an extraordinary chance to cultivate this hobby of mine. I have purchased tarot decks and collected different herbs, but only one of my new equipment managed to impress me deeply.
Manifestation is the act of calling your wants into your life with the help of different rituals and practices. You can both practice it by writing down or speaking loudly. There are almost no limits with manifestation as long as you are not over the control of someone’s free will. Crystals are the most vital equipment of your manifestation practices. These magical stones enable you to higher your frequency, helping you send your message to the universe.
My rose quartz is my favorite object in my room since the day I bought it from an antique store. It holds the gifts of healing and protection. Since it has an aura just like human beings, I sometimes envision this object as a friend who keeps me company all the time. After a long and exhausting day, I love to meditate with it and recharge my energy. In its presence, I feel protected and cleansed from all the negative energies. This crystal also symbolizes all the hope I have for the future. Whenever I hold it with my eyes closed, I vision myself as if I have already moved to NYC and earned my position in my dream company just as I manifested.
To sum up, I have a deep spiritual connection with this object. Apart from being a vital piece of equipment for my manifestation practices, it is my spiritual guide leading me through the path of my dreams. (2024)
Bridge 1 Reflection
1) What was your intention for the final draft, and how do you feel you conveyed that intention?
My main intention with this assignment was to unite my long-time interest in spiritualism with the needs of this work while staying true to my selected title. With this assignment, our professor required us to come up with a 4-panel narrative in which we will be exploring our space through different seniors and from the eyes of various objects.
First of all, I did a quick research of my selected theme, ritual, for a more genuine final result. Then, I observed and memorized how specific feelings, emotions, or activities shift my vision towards my surroundings. Through this process, I had to remember old memories and examine my current habits.
Once I gathered all the information, I decided to categorize them as four main panels. Even though I was already invested in the concept of rituals, I decided to select what aspects of it I should include in my assignment to develop more professional work.
After doing my assortment, I started to pair the elements of my theme with each panel for a more homogeneous mixture. In the first panel, I collided my theme with the emotion of joy by mentioning the practice of meditation. In the second panel, which is about a moment of grief. I paired my feeling of misunderstanding with the Salem witch trials. In the panel in which I should focus on a specific object, I choose to focus on my rose quartz. Deciding on this particular item made me end up with a final draft, which I am fully invested in and passionate about. This choice of mine helped me to drag both elements of spiritualism and rituals into my work.
To sum up, I managed to accomplish all of my intentions by doing proper research beforehand and carefully planning out the pieces I wanted to touch on.
2) What did you discover about yourself and your process as a researcher, writer, storyteller, and creator through this assignment?
Writer: In this assignment, I had this extraordinary chance to discover myself as a writer. This experience challenged me to develop a unique word choice to make this work appear as professional as possible. As a writer, I had a hard time creating a common language for my readers. I intended to use understandable and clear sentences to transfer complex thoughts. My favorite activity in this position was polishing the final draft. Skimming the text and finding some aspects that can be developed gave me endless joy. This process made me realize that I am cursed with being a perfectionist.
Creator: As a creator, my most challenging job was sorting the panels out. Choosing a specific scenario for each of them and linking them back to the main topic affected me to have sleepless nights. Visioning graphic content for each was by far the most problematic aspect of this position. After embracing all my fears about this assignment and brainstorming for days, I managed to develop a pairing system that fulfills this assignment’s needs.
Storyteller: Creating a supernatural yet relatable storyline was my main intention for my position as a storyteller. I had to convey all the vibrant scenarios I came up with it as vividly as possible. I managed to visualize all the wild things I imagine by storytelling whenever I experience joy or grief. Also, the technique of storytelling helped me to depict my theme since I have a spiritual one.
Researcher: As a researcher, I had this chance to work with brand new techniques. Researching by memorizing and observing made me realize that we do not actually need a secondary information resource to research. Exploring these ways helped me widen my perspective about the things I write about and create a space of freedom.
3) Discuss your relationship to the modes of investigation practiced in this assignment:
Memory: By the technique of memorizing, I managed to recall past moments and investigate them. Memorization came most handy for the panel, which I should write about a moment of grief. In comparison to joy, I do not have routine hobbies or practices that make me blue. So, I decided to call a mournful memory of mine when I once got terribly misunderstood. By memorizing that moment, I got a chance to re-experience all the feelings I felt and watch all the hallucinations I envisioned.
Observation: I specifically used the technique of observation to investigate the present moments or to examine things I do on a regular basis. When preparing the panel about joy, I only used this research method. By observation, I managed to analyze my feelings, vision, and surroundings during meditating. This system also came in handy when I had to examine my bedroom without any scenarios.
Drawing: Through the process of sketching my room, I encountered some realities where I paid special importance to specific objects. I decided to select my crystal as my main object when I found myself drawing it over and over. My perfectionist behavior towards this object made me realize our spiritual connection.
Writing: Writing is an excellent type of investigation when it comes to finding new ideas. As I was writing, I observed myself deriving new points of view and elements to evaluate my final draft. I came up with the metaphor of the Salem witch trials as I was writing about the feeling of being misunderstood.
4) From this point onward, how would you like to improve as a creator, writer, and researcher over the course of the semester?
I think that I have vast room to grow and need to adopt new skills over the course of the semester. As a creator, I would like to improve my brainstorming skills and train myself to think more outside of the box. It is no secret that I have a pretty controversial nature. However, when it comes to working on new topics, I should force myself to step out of my comfort zone. As a writer, I would like to step out of the traditional academic writing style and step into a more experimental style. Also, I would like to engage with more advanced vocabulary. Besides, I would like to write more pieces and learn new terms regarding my major. Focusing on metaphors and symbols would be a great skill to evaluate my role as a writer. As a researcher, I would like to learn unique techniques of researching. Instead of the methods of memorizing and observing, I would like to experiment with researching from the sources of the school’s library. Also, I would like to learn how to find and work with scholarly resources. Adopting these skills will develop my style and support me through the path of being a great creator, writer, and a researcher.
