Dear portfolio reader,

For my cover letter, I decided to be a bit creative, and make an Instagram feed that would highlight my struggles, weaknesses, and most importantly, improvements throughout this semester. Instagram: “notabvstander” (https://www.instagram.com/notabvstander/?hl=en). This name represents my newly-found will to start taking actions this semester in order to take control of my academic learning, rather than sitting back, complaining, and reacting to my grades. The profile picture is Gordon Ramsay looking angry and frustrated, but from a distance, it looks like he’s relieved by something—that’s how I see myself right now, relieved that this semester is over, and I made it to the end.

I suggest looking at the feed from bottom to top, and to scroll upward. The pictures (the first 6) at the bottom are filtered black and white to symbolize my past struggles and weaknesses when starting my first semester as a college student. Once you start to scroll up, you will notice that each post is a specific crop that is part of a larger picture with color. This is meant to symbolize my improvements and academic/personal growth. Furthermore, each bigger picture has a description further explaining what that picture means to me. You can find the descriptions at the starting (bottom right corner) post of every bigger picture. Essentially, I wanted the black and white filtered pictures at the bottom to also symbolize “wallet-sized” moments, and the literal bigger pictures at the top to also symbolize the metaphorical “bigger” picture—meaning that you should not get caught up in the little moments and focus on the bigger pictures—the future—self-improving and constantly evolving.

The work in this portfolio are a Greenbook and my media project components. I specifically chose those two because they represent the amount of effort and pride, I took in making them. The media project was my biggest challenge this semester because my group and I weren’t even sure what we were talking about. I have completely rewritten my paper at least three times. You will see the amount of progress made on this project through many written critiques on my rough drafts and revisions. Lastly, the Green Book. Inside the Green Book is a timed-write essay about why perspective matters. I wanted to include my last Green Book, with some revisions, that I wrote because it is a fusion of all the things I have learned from my professor.

As for the future, it is uncertain for me. But I plan to use these valuable skills that I learned from my professor, such as writing out my thoughts on a memo or a piece of paper, using practical/concrete language, being more concise, asking more and more questions, taking advantage of the resources that I have such as the LRC, personal tutoring, and especially office hours. But, most importantly for me, I will continue to learn as much as I can and improve as a student and especially as a person outside of school. The toughest and biggest lesson I learned from my English professor is that grades will never matter, it is the growth and learning experiences you get from your struggles that matter. Which I hold true because failure is success in the making. I will keep that mentality until the day I stop growing. And the day I stop growing is the day I stop learning, and the day I start dying. I will never settle.