Freedom though release

Think about the expectations you are faced with — from your family, your culture, yourself, your peers — on how you should dress, act, dream, love etc. There is a distinction to be made between which of these expectations uplift you and empower you, and which ones hold you back and diminish your perception of yourself. Separating who you are, who you aim to be, and who you are expected to be can be helpful in prioritizing your goals and staying true to your own aspirations instead of trying to please others. Ultimately, I hope you’ll be able to recognize what is holding you back from becoming the best and happiest version of yourself.

1. Take a piece of paper (the bigger the better but a printer sized piece will work). Draw a rough representation of yourself- it doesn’t need to be perfect. Draw on a pair of butterfly wings behind you that take up plenty of space but not the entire piece of paper.
2. Take another piece of paper and write on it all of the expectations you feel from those around you, yourself, your culture, your identity, your peers, your school, etc. Use different colored pens/markers to separate those categories.
3. Cut out each of these expectations and begin arranging them on your drawing. Place the expectations that empower, affirm, and challenge you in positive ways in the wings. Place the expectations that you feel hold you back and stop you from becoming who YOU want to be in the space all around you, outside of the wings.
4. Feel free to glue these in and color, decorate, and bedazzle to weave them into the drawing. Think of it as a collage- you can use magazine clippings, printout outs, doodles, etc to represent these expectations and sentiments. Take a picture of your work at this point.
5. Finally, grab a pair of scissors and cut out each of the expectations around you one by one until all that you have left are you and your pair of wings. Congrats! You are now free of harmful and limiting expectations and can take flight.
6. To submit your piece, take a picture of the final work and send it to your teacher along with the picture of the work before Step 5 and a small paragraph summarizing your takeaways from the project.