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Being friends with someone who embodies so much joy and brightness, has implication's upon me and those who perceive her. Quinby Rainey has a strong handle on who she is and what she believes in. And every time I'm with her I always feel warm and fuzzy and full of laughter, so much laughter with this wonderful woman. Yet, what if these layers that protect her from the cold, could be seen similar to the goo in Jennifer Wooford's drawings, which explore, "into something deeper and stranger: multiple narratives of gender, subservience, power, care-giving, and immigration inform this project" (1). The hand motion that Quinby gives, is one of ease, and pride in her outfit, which is elaborate and colorful. Yet, her coat is covers her completely, just like she has the pressures that other female students encounter. Specifically, women can be objectified and critiqued in their outfits, it can be a result from a well intended of a great compliment, or also disparaging words. This image serves to show the fight against normativity in fashion, and instead the utilization of it for practical yet, wonderful depiction of her joy of life. She uses the covering of her coat to uncover the abundance of happiness she has in many circumstances of life.

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Unveiling the Joy of Childhood, Girlhood, Womanhood

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Unveiling the Joy of Childhood, Girlhood, Womanhood

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Unveiling the Joy of Childhood, Girlhood, Womanhood

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A friend that truly embraces the joy of life is that of Jianna Polluck. When she speaks, she emanates all that is good and beautiful in the world. One time she told me, that what she looks for in people is to have passions that benefit the whole of society, that serve a greater purpose outside of oneself. Her, myself and Quinby once went to a hotel somewhere in a rural Wisconsin town for a cross country meet. In this image she reconnects with the inner joy of childhood antics. She decided to somersault all along the hotel floor. This was not for any specific reason, just for plain, good fun! Similar to how as the section on "Girl," from Karishma Desai, the idea of girlhood is "Girlhood is queered in this account as willful girlhood entails being without normative heterosexual demands and limits" (104). In this way, although mayhaps somersaulting down a hotel hallway as an adult would not be a very typical everyday occurrence for a majority of folks, Jianna uncovers and embraces her inner child longing for merriment and is not afraid of how those around her perceive her actions.

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Exploring the Erotic in a Capitalist Society

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Exploring the Gaze in a Capitalist Society

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Exploring the Gaze in a Capitalist Society

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Structure and routine are important factors in Abigail Boice's life. She and I often will study in the HSSC, but the studying we do is loose, and fluid, we often talk freely and take mini breaks from our work. Yet still, times like the day when she was simultaneously reading and eating her lunch relates to a capitalist society, wherein she must continue to work. The erotic subsists as a deep emotional connection, yet the capitalist world we reside in, conflicts with the erotic, as such the erotic is anti-capitalist. However, the fact that Abigail reads while simultaneously eating, and studying with me, indicates the tension between the erotic and capitalism. The book she reads is one for enjoyment, a dystopian novel, yet the only time she gets to read it is during a small lunch break. The idea that we explore friendship and togetherness of being in a space existing together relates to how Audre Lorde talks about the power in the erotic: "The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire" (88). Meanwhile, the time we spend together is often time we study—so the warring sides of capitalism and the erotic coalesce into a complicated dynamic, yet Abigail remains the picture of calm. The conflicting concepts within this image cover the lines of any one right answer.

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The smile of Alyvia Bunkowski never fails to brighten my day. On another note, similar to how Cleófilas received help from Felice, who was very strong and independent and unafraid to show her true self, my dear friend helped. This was when I had a car wreck last year and had to go get all of my belongings out of my car because it was going to be totalled; she drove 1 hour with me to go get my stuff, and it was before she even knew me. In Sandra Cisnera's "Woman Hollering Creek" Cleófilas remarks that Felice was like no woman she'd ever me. Can you imagine, when we crossed the aroyo she just started yeling like a crazy" (56). Although Alyvia does not yell like crazy, she is one of the most kindest yet also most authentic and honest people I know. She is unafraid of people hearing what she has to say, and she is without a doubt one of the bravest people I know. Now we are friends, and it is in this friendship that she sometimes recommends books to me, but this book in particular that she holds up, is about a teenage girl who in the end gets her happily ever after with the perfect guy; thus romanticizing this unreal standard of a love story, similar to Cleófilas's telenovellas. This brings up the question, as Alyvia smiles and holds a book up, does she and other women understand the depth to which media warps our minds?

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I am so glad to be friends with Grace Charron. She is one of kindest people I know, and she befriends everyone she meets. She's one of those people who you talk to and immediately you have tons of things to talk about. In this instance she is helping move all the balloons from my room to Quinby's room, because she is such a good friend. You cannot tell, but she actually has at least a dozen ballons in her hand and in the laundry backpack. The exploration of friendship within this photo essay is enmeshed with the narratives these pictures tell: of Quinby's fashion statement that calls back to the goo in drawings, the unknown forces that encircle us, Jianna's capturing of childhood and rejection of normativity, the idea of capitalism and eroticism in our daily lives as Abigail simply eats her lunch, and Alyvia's kindness similar to Felice and how romance novels create unreal expectations, and finally Grace. Grace embodies these concepts that the goo of the pressures of the world, and the joy of a balloon that harkens back to childhood, and refusing to be daunted by normativity, and that the erotic lives on, in our lives. It is her friendship to Quinby and I that put Grace in this position: we were helping Quinby with her birthday party. This camaraderie empowered us in our lives then, and it dwells in each and everyone us now, as a vibrant fluent entity that is friendship.

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How are our every day lives covered and uncovered, like leaves in this bush and where is the root of who we are?