Mental Evolution, What Good Can We Do?

When I look at a photo of myself, I see a different me each time. Maybe that because I am never the same as the day, hour or minute before. I am constantly changing. As we all are constantly changing. That being said, I do agree that these images do not represent who I am, but who I hope to be. Each selfie taken is a step to a better me. At the same time, it is a photographic memoir of where I came from.

In this photo, my parents had driven for an hour and half to spend quality time with me. My mother, who is among the parents who love to take photos of scenery and their children, implored me to sit on the bench and model for her.

When I look at this photo, I see a young middle-class Filipino girl enjoying a seat on a bench. She is elegant, has good posture, and knows how to act in front of a camera. Yes, that is me. Haha. This image is a perfect example of sharing my given identities. I have nice clothes and accessories, look relatively young and feminine, and seem wealthy because of the camera quality. If there was some known background knowledge of me, it could reflect my core values of community service and service learning. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show much about my chosen identity.

In this photo, my friends decided to explore downtown San Rafael together.

This photo is a great depiction of my personal life and core values. Being around others and their company, while being myself is a satisfactory experience. My facial expressions are more than just a smile; My clothes are very comfy-looking; And the fact that I enjoy the company of people with different ethnicities show that I do not discriminate.

This was the first time I tried a different flavor of a Disney churro.

I like to see that I am dressed comfortably in this photo because that matches who I am. It’s a core value for me to be comfortable and enjoy the World Wonders of Food as much as possible. It depicts a time when I was genuinely happy, surrounded by amazing people, amazing atmosphere, and amazing food. Who would as for more?

In this photo, my sister and I are at the hairstylist. We are preparing to chop 16" of my hair to donate to Locks of Love.

I really enjoy looking at this photo, because this reflects our Big Sister — Little Sister relationship. We are so different, nearly opposites. However, we can at least come together to take a photo. This shows my love for giving to others and the bonds, though difficult to build, can be made in very subtle ways.

After 7 hours of community service at my local church, serving donuts to the community, I finally got my maple donuts.

I like to take photos of myself with food and look very comfortable with the food. Most of the time in my daily life, I seldom look this happy, mainly because I have a hard time expressing my emotions. But when food gets involved, I go crazy. If there was a food club on campus, I would be their president.

Sabrina/Lorena, the Real World, and I

If I saw a selfie of Lorena, I would probably see Sabrina, not Lorena. She would most likely be in her business outfit in the office under Sabrina’s name. She would probably just look like a Latina working in an office, depicting her wealth and professionalism in a work place. Just by reading and discovering that Lorena was borrowing Sabrina’s identity shocked me. It made me feel betrayed. I thought I knew a person, but really I barely know anything about them. She must have not felt herself, having to work without her actually name on record.

A few aspects that are not visible in any selfie are your emotions at the time, how your day was in general, or the reason you decided to post the selfie. Definitely for Lorena, her real name was not as a part of the selfie nor her financial and citizenship status. If no one ever knew these aspects of the other, we would most likely have a closed-minded opinion about the other. I wouldn’t feel proud constructing and sharing a selfie that seldom reflected me at that time.

In Lorena’s story, it moved me that her parents and even her sacrificed their safety to find work and provide for each other and their future. Sacrifice, is something that not everyone appreciates right away until a dilemma or higher issue occurs and directly affects them; and the value of self-sacrifice for the greater good is a very important value for me. Considering both Lorena and I are first-generation minorities, I definitely understand her need to sacrifice a lot to get this far in her life. In fact, I am immensely impressed with her aspiration to become a physician. She has experienced so much, especially during that internship where her “experience opened her eyes to a lot of injustice that [she] didn’t want to know before”, that it is preparing her to become an amazing physician. I don’t feel like I have learned enough about the world to be where she was when she wrote that story. My selfies may seem simple, but depict my very privileged lifestyle. I get so many donuts, I can go to a hairstylist whenever I want, I can take professional photos, and so much more. Sometimes, it makes me believe that I may have lived too privileged of a life to really grasp the big picture of aiding other who really need quality health care like how Lorena has.

Overall, Lorena has really opened my eyes to a greater understanding of my limited understanding of the world. I hope that by continuing to delve into community service and service-learning, I will be able to really understand the bigger picture, just as Lorena has done through her story.