Photojournalism Assignment #3

This weekend I drove up to Howard County to take photos of Centennial High School's Girl Up club fundraising event. The event was a leadership summit hosted by Howard County Girl Up where students from all across the county got to hear from female leaders in the community as well other Girl Up leaders.

Claire Pratt, senior International Relations major at Georgetown University and Girl Up leader talks to high school students about what it means to be a feminist.

"We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back"- Malala Yousafzai, one of the attendees shirt reads as the panelists discuss what it means to support feminism and equal rights.

Charissa Zhu, Centennial High School junior, prepares to take a photo with one of the fundraising event attendees at the Photo Booth. 

Centennial High School Girl Up club board members try on props for their group picture. Courtney Tse sports one of the props. 

Emily, a board member for Centennial High School's Girl Up club, takes the group photo of the attendees. Boys and girls were in attendance for the fundraising event.

The attendees split up for the break out sessions to learn more about fundraising, starting a Girl Up club, and more. Here one of the attendees shares what ideas her group came up to help start their own Girl Up Club.

Claire Pratt shares some ideas with her group on different ways to get their Girl Up group up and running in their schools.

Allison shows Jisoo Cho and Gesna Aggarwal the photo that she just took of the board members.

Amy Guo joins to view the group photo they took.

We Back, to School

This winter break has hands-down been the most relaxing break I've ever had while in college and I am sad to say the least that it is over. I've been in such a peaceful and relaxing space without the cloud of school responsibilities hovering over my head. It's only been one week since school started and I already feel like I am trying to catch up while still transitioning back into grind mode.

Brand New

Nandos Mural @ College Park. Mural painted by Kilmany-Jo Liversage. 

Hello March. I like new things; a new month, a new journal, a new idea. I am not really into drastic changes though, but I feel like new things is a perfect way to start fresh. The quote that says something like "Don't wait until tomorrow to do something you can do today" always convicts me. It just does not work for me, I'm a little OCD when it comes to needing the perfect time to do things. If I, like many other college students, say we are going to start our work/studying at 7:15, and we miss it by a minute we have to wait until like 7:30 or something because...we just do. That's how it works. Is there ever a 'perfect' time? Did any of this make sense?

That awkward moment when your cousin walks past a wall art and it looks just like her. 

I say all this to say, new posts every Friday. Hopefully.

Fall Semester: Closing Thoughts

This semester was honestly a "what the?" semester. I know I said before that I just want to pass my classes with dignity, but sheesh, I did not expect this type of outcome. I can list a whole bunch of reasons why I had such a complicated semester but I don't want to. But simply put; Priorities. My priorities were all out of whack this semester, and soon everything starting going out of order and not going my way. Balance was an issue too; bank account balance, health balance, work, school, social life. Everything was just off.

I know that if I say, "next semester will be better. I will start strong and end strong" rather than doing what I did this semester, I will still fall short of my expectations in some way. I cannot say that I've tried my absolute best but I can say that I do try. Waves of fear and loss of determination crush me often and I find myself either becoming idle or moving with no direction. I look back at the semester and try to reflect on all the things I could've done to change my current outcome, but at this point...why?

Semesters do not need to be 15 weeks. Do not let me go on about this flawed education system and the way they make it seem like our GPA is apart of our identity. We all work very hard and continuously put the effort in so its not always us that is the issue. We can give ourselves a decent amount of credit for that.

Some takeaways I've gotten from this semester is to never forget your goals. If you have to write them done every day every where in every color until you can recite every single goal you've made, do it. Speaking things into existence is important, but it doesn't do much if you don't take action. Don't start off with the intent that you will fail, stay optimistic. Be active. Be a person of your word.

More importantly, don't go looking for the strength on your own, in yourself. Constant, renewed strength comes from God. Having a relationship with Him is literally what has kept me sane. His grace is so sufficient, He got me through this semester, but I know I could do sooo much better if I continue to look to Him as my source. I could mention how many times I depended on my own abilities to get stuff done and failed, but I won't.

My friends are awesome, my roommate is especially awesome. Shout out to her, God made her my suite mate for a reason for sure. She has helped me study for my exams, keep track of my grades, and reminded me of how cool I am. I would've definitely have given up if it was not for her constant push to do better.

Farewell Fall. We've both fought a good fight, and you have showed me my strengths and weaknesses.