define my personal identity

Summer 2009 – In-house design job

Fall 2009 – Study Japanese, work hard in class, complete a freelance project, apply for study abroad

Spring/Summer 2010 – Study abroad in Japan

Fall 2010 – Internship

Spring 2011 – Senior Thesis/Graduation

Summer 2011 – Finish working in-house, Design Camp

Fall 2011 – in-house/art center fellowship, external design internship

Spring 2012 – internship hunting/travel

Summer 2012 – internship hunting/international design workshop

Fall 2012 – in-house/art center fellowship

Spring 2013 – Job hunting

found an article recently about left and right brain functionality.

it presents an image of a silhouette spinning in circles. depending on the direction you perceive that it is spinning determines the region of your primary brain functionality.

i invariably see it spinning clockwise (apparently i am a minority) thus i primarily use the right hemisphere of my brain. from their definition, here is a list of right brain qualities:

uses feeling
“big picture” oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can “get it” (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

few i can agree with, big picture, imagination, future focused, philosophy, sees possibilities. yet many others i do not find apparent.

to me it seems that it is impossible to lump people into two categories base upon their perception. it is presented as if i only had one half of a brain, which is most definitely untrue. (yet how do i know? maybe nothing is there) thus we are all an amalgamation of lists and of brain function.

in the next few years this is what i want to do.

take a course in japanese over the summer.
go to japan this time next year.
graduate from undergrad.
do a series of internships around the states, europe, and japan.
go to grad school to research design technology and human interaction.
start my own business catering to freelancers.
apply my knowledge to science and education.
place my experimental design and art in an exhibition.
set off to do my own directed design, starting a personal design studio.
possibly teach.

everything i do is culminating towards this direction.

another question from said peer.

What’s the point to learning if everyone is eventually going to die?
to attempt to know ourselves.

what is known lives beyond death, as collective human knowledge. the unknown will transpire, the known will become unfounded; each development is a step closer to understanding.

do we know ourselves?
no, and we never will.

as a project, a student in a previous course, created childish fortunetellers with a series of self-investigative questions posted on their innards. i told him i would someday answer the questions and one day i would like to see if my answers change.

1. what kind of person could you fall in love with?
intelligently, genuinely, compassionately, altruistic.

2. what would it take for you life to have meaning?
other people finding value in the actions i’ve committed and objects i’ve created.

3. do you need your parents more than they need you?
we need each other more then we allow by acting like we don’t need each other.

4. aren’t religious people just as delusional as “spiritual” people?
faith in anything is irrational.

5. when is the soonest you’d agree to war?
never, yet the action often seems necessary for revolution. although, violence has yet to solve humanity’s problems and will never cease being the wrong solution.

6. would you be happier with a new ipod or with the one you have?
if i had in iphone, my life would be great. do i need it? no. do i have one? no.

7. do you know yourself?
no, and i never will.

8. whose fault is britney spears
everybody’s.

in one of my courses last semester, our professor has us write notes to ourselves, one for mid-semester, another for the end of the semester, during finals.

mid-semester:
stay focused, step back; take control of the situation.

finals:
apply gained knowledge to continued development.

i laugh when i read these; it is just like me to write some generic non-personal sentiments. yet, at the same moment, whilst chuckling, i find these statement of value.

if i succumb to the stresses of the situation, do nothing, the moment and subsequent reward is lost. thus, upon achievement, taking the accomplishments into the whole of my amalgamated knowledge, i am able to draw from and apply that which was learned to solutions in the present.