Item 1: The first item I wanted to include was my New York Mets baseball jersey. My appreciation and love for the game of baseball is something that goes way farther than just simply being a fan. Professional baseball play, specifically the art of pitching is a brilliant craft that demonstrates pure domination combined with an insane IQ of the game. I am very proud to identify myself with the New York Mets and that is something that is usually always learned within the first five minutes of meeting me so I chose the jersey to be the base of the next pieces yet to come.
Item 2: The second item I chose was my Mace Windu lightsaber. Call me a child, however, the star wars movie saga is one of the most complex and dramatic storylines of our time, and the fact that some consider it strictly for children is sad. I cannot express the enjoyment my friends and I receive watching the new movies once they come out on their respected release nights combined with the countless discussions amongst each other afterward that seem to always get dragged on for months on end.
Item 3: The third item I chose was my golden Travis Scott Astroworld key chain. As much as I appreciate the art of baseball and star wars cinematography, I would not be nearly the person I am today without Travis Scott’s music. Travis Scott is a hip/hop artist whose goal is to create more than a song to sing, but an entire full-body emotional rollercoaster experience every single time. I fell in love with his music in the 8th grade where I simultaneously met the kids that I would soon find out today would be my best friends. We all understood what Travis was trying to do and our shared love for his music, his story, and what he plans on doing next to help build our unbreakable relationships.
Item 4: The fourth item I chose was my headband. I chose to include my headband because I wear it to the gym or wherever I am going for a workout every single time. Especially since the start of the Corona pandemic and lacking my care for getting my hair cut, my headband has taken the sole role of keeping the mop that grew on my head in check while I perform my grind and get better somehow on said day.
Item 5: The fifth item I chose was a picture of my family and me during one of our trips to the Captiva Islands in southern Florida. Every Spring from when I was in 5th grade until my junior year in high school, my family would plan a trip out to Captiva along with my father’s parents as well. I chose to represent that aspect of my youth family enjoyment through this particular picture because this was the last time my grandfather was able to attend. This photo was taken outside on the beach while waiting for a table at his favorite restaurant called “The Mucky Duck.” I miss our trips out to Captiva, but I miss my pops so much more.
Item 6: The last item I chose to include was my Lehigh Rowing muscle-tee. Before attending Lehigh I was a competitive swimmer and baseball player, but I was much more talented in the pool. My desire to pursue swimming after high-school was up in the air against if I wanted a great education or to continue my athletic career. In the end, I ended up choosing to come to Lehigh as a non-athlete, but I knew I would thrive if I was involved in some form of athletics on campus. I am a person that needs a structured and disciplined day which in my eyes can be easily achieved by being on a sports team. So my decision to solve my need for discipline came by way of me attempting to walk on to the Men’s Rowing team where I now reside and cannot wait to continue my career into my new identity of being a college rower.
I think it was a good choice to rotate the items the way you did and to crop the bigger items halfway out of the frame but the composition could be stronger if you move the picture and the headband more into the frame and not so directly in the corners because they create a frame for the keychain that gives it too strong of an emphasis.