A burred Portrait A person is not defined by singular moments in his life. Rather, he is defined by his every experience and his every thought. There are three things that broadly define who I am today: My family, my love of magic and the art of illusionary, and my passion for what I wish to be majoring in, History. While these three portions of my life do not tell my whole life-story they do highlight three aspects of my life; where I come from, what I do, and where my heart is set. To begin, I was born the fifth of eight children in the Martin home. My two oldest siblings were girls and the two children immediately before me were boys. Three children were born after me, two girls and one boy. Being born into a large family proposed many …show more content…
At first I took little interest in what he was doing with them, twirling them about with a fairly impressive amount of finesse. Halfway through the hour he asked me to pick a card. While that choice of card meant nothing to me at the time, that chosen card altered my life. Over the course of the remaining half-hour, he amazed me with a multitude of card-tricks. Leaving me in a bit of a state of awe and wonder I went out to get myself a pack of cards after school ended that day. Day in and day out that summer I practiced my craft. I continue to practice and perform illusions to this day. Magic has had an astounding impact on my life. It has opened my mind to more complex and rigorous forms of problem-solving. Moreover, it has given me a sense of confidence when I interact with others. I consider magic to be a great ice-breaker with others I don’t know very well. I always keep a pack of cards with me when I leave my home on the off chance I will need to introduce myself to someone who otherwise would not be interested in talking to me. Before I got into magic, I was considered to be a fairly shy person, but here I am two years later, a social butterfly ready to converse with
Family, education and a person’s opportunities are significant elements that collectively define an individual, as demonstrated by both Wes Moore’s. Depending on the opportunities offered to you and whether you decide to take advantage of them through hard work and persistence will result in your success or failure in the end. Wes Moore explains “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his” goes to show that certain factors affect how you will be as an adult regardless of similar or differentiating backgrounds. (Moore xi).
Glamour photography is a genre in photography that creates a sensual picture through creative nudity to emphasize the charm of the female body. With the male audience as its main target, the breast and the buttocks are given with much exposure to capture its erotic nature. Body shape and size are the primary assets of the glamour models. The projection of their ideal body creates an imagery of eroticism and seduction that is surely enticing and captivating. Ranging from full-clothed to nude, glamour photography finds means to emphasize the flawlessness and perfection hidden in the female body—an iconic figure and a ideal of the time.
A person does not experience many events that shape their life in a large way, whether it be for better or worse. I have had just one major situation that has sculpted me into the person that I am today. In February of 2008, I was diagnosed with a life changing disease; it would relieve me of the agony I had been experiencing for as long as I could remember, but also restrict my diet for the rest of my life.
Many can remember a point in their life when they were a small child, carefree and happy with dirt on their knees and a smile on their face, but how can one know that he is the same person now as he was then? This is a question concerning personal identity; which addresses why someone at one point in life is identical with someone later in life. When it comes to personal identity and it’s persistence through time, many theories exist to explain what makes a person a person. One view is John Locke’s theory of personal identity. He stated that identity was not dependent on any material substance, such as one’s body, instead Locke maintained that personal identity is tied to consciousness and perceptions.
Eight children. All just a little bit different from the rest. All with different parents and different genes and completely different deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that traces back to completely different parts of the world. Broken branches grafted onto a different family tree, as Shane Koyczan would say. They are all a part of the same family, though; all held together, to each other, by the same bond. They are now and forever linked together. They are brothers, sisters, and friends. My mother’s parents adopted Tim, Mary, Carolyn, Paul, Helen, Patrick, Maureen, and, my mother, Amy into a part of their family and they wouldn’t want it any other way.
Starting from the very moment we are brought into this world, we begin to shape ourselves into the people we will one day become. The people that surround us; family, friends, peers, teachers, authority figures, and others, influence our thoughts, actions, and motivations. The people we become, physically, and the person we let others see or not see, is all dependent on who significantly influenced our lives.
oil on canvas and was painted early on in his career. It is a head to
Like a movie, every decision leads to a new scene or part of life. A person’s life can often be broken down the different choices they made in life. The choices are what build character and reputations. Like a movie, if you put it all a person’s choices together you begin to see their story. A great quote from Professor Dumbledore says, "It is our choices that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities."
Stephen Dedalus is born of a woman, created of the earth; pure in his childhood innocence. From this beginning stems the birth of an artist, and from this the novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce recounts Stephen's story. His journey is followed from childhood to maturity, and thus his transformation from secular to saintly to an awakening of what he truly is. The novel evolves from simple, childlike diction, to sophisticated, higher ideas and thoughts as Dedalus completes his transition into an artist. In the beginning, Dedalus sees the world in an almost sing-song nursery rhyme sense, with a "moocow" coming down the road. By the end of the novel, Dedalus is mature and worldly; a man who stands tall and who feels confident with "Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead." (238). Through the use of the symbols of woman and earth, and white and purification, Joyce gives his novel depth and wonder. These symbols follow an array of transformations, changing throughout the novel much like Stephen himself.
A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and surrounding environments are all factors that tend to help shape a person’s identity. Some factors may have more of an influence than others and some may not have any influence at all. As a person grows up in a family, they are influenced by many aspects of their life. Family and culture may influence a person’s sense of responsibilities, ethics and morals, tastes in music, humor and sports, and many other aspects of life. Friends and surrounding environments may influence a person’s taste in clothing, music, speech, and social activities. Personal interests are what truly set individuals apart. An individual is not a puppet on the string of their puppet-master, nor a chess piece on their master’s game board, individuals choose their own paths in life. They accomplish, or strive to accomplish, goals that they have set for themselves throughout their lifetime. Individuals are different from any other individual in the world because they live their own life rather than following a crowd of puppets. A person’s identity is defined by what shaped it in the first place, why they chose to be who they are, and what makes them different from everybody else in the world. I feel that I have developed most of my identity from my own dreams, fantasies, friends, and idols.
At one point in life, at a young age or as a resident in an elderly home, the question of who am I will arise. It is a convoluted mesh of thoughts and feelings that a person will go through before coming up with an answer. Some people may even experience cognitive dissonance in trying to explain different stages of life, while others will be comfortable in responding instantaneously with minimal cognition. In going through this process and drawing up the ‘who am I’ and individual is further confronted with others people’s perception. Where does this lead, when presented with other’s opinion, and what is it based it on? Response from outside sources is mainly based on perspective concerning an individual’s personality.
It can also be argued that it is a conscious effort to choose one’s path. Whichever, one wants to believe, I know that if I had not proceeded through the four stages of identity development, I would not be the person I am today, flawed and happy, with regrets and accomplishments, but most importantly with the love and support of those who mean the most to me.
James Joyce in his novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” says “The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful.” (134) For Stephen Dedalus after the reoccuring stream of consciousness throughout his youth, one of the factors of his creation into the artist is women. Indeed it is the women throughout the novel that shape Stephen into the man he finds himself becoming toward the end. Six women in particular that form specific functions in Stephens life are: Stephen’s mother, Eileen, Mercedes, the Virgin Mary, the prostitute, the birdlike woman by the water. These women affect and shape his character by loving him, inspiring him, and fascinating him.
Ultimately, my life is an intricate combination of my past, present, and future. At all times my life is being affected by my past experiences, present situations, and future aspiration. My past experiences shape how I react in present situations, while my future aspirations influence the present situations that I take on. My past experiences also influence the future path they my life takes. Move over, the path of my life is not linear progression of events, but a complex journey of self-reflection and I experience, reflect, and act in my present