life’s not a paragraph

so ladies and gentlemen, i have made it to the other side! i made it through my portfolio review! i have completed my bfa degree at the new england school of art and design! wooo!

my portfolio review went really really well! i had wallace and two outside professionals on my board, which was kind of nerve wracking. (it’s funny because i was pretty laid back about the whole portfolio business, until two hours before of course…. i got so nervous!! but once i stepped into the room and started talking about my work, the nerves melted away) but they were both very nice and they really made it easy for me to present.

and apparently, i did a really great job! they told me everything looks very professional, and my presentation was very professional! yayyy! i think professional is probably the best compliment i could get at what i would consider a mock interview! so i would say that it was a great portfolio review!

i must say that this semester’s finals week has been pretty easy.

i feel bad saying that for all those thousands of other struggling college students out there… but i actually have had very little work. i’d like to contribute it to my forethought and efficiency (which definitely deserves some credit!) but i think it’s mostly that i had a relatively relaxed semester… compared to the fall anyway. although i was very busy this semester, i didn’t have a mountain of homework to climb at the end of each day.

it’s also helpful that, despite the stress and the chaos, i photographed most of my work and created a branding for myself at the end of last semester. i’ve had to tweak and refine things since, but i front-loaded all the work then, and i get to relax a bit now. i wasn’t really thinking about that in-between the tears in december, but now i know it was all worth it.

so here i am. a senior-almost-graduated graphic design major on the eve of her last portfolio review… and instead of frantically printing, i get to watch mad men.

this is it! the last week of my undergrad college classes… ever.

that’s scary. this is without a doubt the beginning of the end. twenty-seven days until graduation. a week and a half until my last portfolio review. a mere 4 days away from my last class. this is crazy.

but i am sooo incredibly excited! i’ve pushed that “real world” fear to the back of my mind, and i am just going to enjoy these last days of school, soaking up as much collegiate fun as i can get (senior week is acomin’! woo!). and i am really just looking forward to the summer time. yes, i’ll be job searching (and hopefully interviewing) and it won’t be completely work-free (i have to get myself some business cards and update my website) but i am so excited for warm weather and hanging around the city of boston. it’ll be a nice way to transition. half college life, half real life.

i’ve never really participated in marathon monday/red sox related things (although i am finally going to go to my first red sox game ever during senior week this may). all the people and tourists and red sox fans…. it just makes the city a nightmare. i guess saying that makes me cynical… the city life has finally got to me! just kidding haha but nobody really likes an enormous amount of people descending on your home town, especially when it affect your ability to move around the city. but besides my cynicism, it was a gorgeous weekend, and i chose to enjoy every second of sun instead of dwelling on the fact that it took me an hour and a half to get downtown.

every day just got warmer and warmer, so by the time 85 degree monday rolled around i was accustomed to wearing sandals again and singing a song to welcome summer. there is nothing like the summer in the city, and i am so thankful that i get to spend another summer soaking up the city of boston.

on monday afternoon,  a few of my roommates and i headed over to my friend jeff’s roof deck to enjoy our day off from school and the warm weather. getting there was painful (like i said- hour and a half) but it was worth the trek. we lounged around until about 9 pm, when the sun had finally gone down completely and the temperature dropped. it was such a perfect day, and i am glad it came at this stressful time. it was a little taste of what the summer is going to be like, and i just can’t wait!

it’s finally here! the senior show!

well, actually it’s over. it was last night. but the day finally came. it actually feels like the whole thing never really happened. it was so fast! i was looking forward to it all week. i got a new dress when i went home for easter, and then i went shoe shopping on monday and got some classy new wedges. i was so pumped to wear my outfit… and show off my work of course.

it was a really good turn out. there were so many people there. my parents, my sister, my aunt and uncle, my grandparents and my cousin came. a few of my friends from high school actually got to come into the city and see my work too! it was so exciting and so completely overwhelming. it was probably the fastest two hours of my life.

afterwards, my family and i went out to dinner at rustic kitchen, which is a few blocks away from the new england school of art and design. it was really delicious! i got a beet salad, which is kind of whimpy considering i could’ve gotten this intense butternut squash pasta dish, but i had already stuffed my face with a giant cupcake and a bunch of dried apricots (i loveeee dried apricots). so the salad was perfect, topped with goat cheese… yummmyyyyy.

it was definitely a success. i can’t believe that it’s over!!

yesterday i finally made it to first friday. i haven’t gone all year despite the fact that i have been intending to go for the past year… but all that really matters is that my roommates and i finally got our butts over to the south end. there were some really interesting shows this month. katia and i got there first (rachel got lost in her attempt to walk from her internship– she found us though!) and we be-lined it for the kayafas gallery, my personal favorite. it’s a photography gallery. they always have the most interesting collections that make me stand there and think for awhile. i actually chose my artist for design issues and processes sophomore year from an exhibit in kayafas gallery (see post about rania matar). they’ve had some really great ones that deal with gender and social stereotypes.

we hopped around some other galleries and met up with the group that had came from the new england school of art and design. nichole and molly had organized a group to walk over together from the school. i only got a chance to go to a few galleries because it was seriously bent’s last show of the year (and my boyfriend’s last show ever!) friday night too, so i left my roommates in the south end and caught the silver line to downtown crossing (but not before grabbing a pupusa at el triunfo! yummm!)

seriously bent’s show was great! so funny! not that i expected any less, but it was different than their dorm shows. they wrote sketches for this show, so it was a mixture of sketch comedy and improv. i probably got a great work-out in that hour and a half just from laughing. i am sad that i wasn’t able to go to the one tonight, which was truly the last one) but i had to go home for the easter holiday. i actually went home on thursday night for a doctors appointment on friday morning, then i drove back to boston friday afternoon and then back to new hampshire on saturday morning… yea it’s been a busy weekend, but it was worth all the traveling!

after a long and hectic week, the graphic design senior show is finally adorning the walls of the new england school of art and design.

woo, finally. i’ve been building up to this two-week period of time since i started my design classes, but really most of the work has been done in the past month or so. deciding the show theme, getting the logo down, writing and collecting senior statements and not to mention, prepping every once of decent work we’ve ever made to be put in the gallery space and in out own space. yea, that’s a lot. no easy task by anyone’s standards, but it’s finally accomplished. and it feels so good.

as much as i’d like to think that this marks the end of my career at nesad, i still have about a month to go but it’s a nice prep for portfolio reviews, which always end up sneaking up on me at the end of each semester. maybe this year, i’ll finally be prepared ahead of time… but really who am i kidding? it’s still going to be a struggle in the end.

but back to the show… it looks GREAT. i am so proud of all my classmates. everything came together so well. it’s amazing and a little saddening that all of our best work can fit on a 4×6 ft wall. four years of blood sweat and tears (ugh, so many tears) have created what i am presenting to the world. it’s awesome to see how far i have come as a designer and what elements of my aesthetic have truly remained the same. i mean i have two projects from graphic design 1 mingling with the branding/ad series i created this semester. obviously some element of myself came through in those projects, and for that reason, i am using them to represent my talent, my style and myself as a person.

putting everything together really makes your habits (known and unknown) glaringly obvious. for example, i know that most of my work has a very organic (in the freeflowing, living sense of the word) feel. what i didn’t know was that i use a variation of the color yellow in almost everything that i have designed. i don’t even like yellow that much. so bizarre. apparently, though, i love it in my design pieces.

but anyways… if you’d like to come see all of the gd seniors’ work (and the abundance of yellow in my projects in particular), the senior show will be up til April 14th. the reception will be friday april 13th from 5-7!

the graphic design senior show is almost here! and i am… almost ready. haha

this is crunch week. it’s kind of like a second portfolio week for the semester. lots of printing. lots of cutting. and lots of stressing to make sure everything is perfect. this is one of the biggest things of our college career as NESAD-ers so we have to be ready to bring our best!

every major at the new england school of art & design gets a week or two when they can take over the gallery space and show off their work to the rest of the school. the foundation department has the space now, but come friday, the seniors of the graphic design dept. are going to take over! it’s really exciting for me, having seen all the shows that have come before it, to have my work and my friends’ work displayed in the school. every time i walk by it for those two weeks, i get to go, “wow, i did all of that.” haha it really is kind of the pinnacle of our senior year because after that, it’s a race towards the finish line.

because of holidays, the reception this year isn’t going be until the last night of the show, which is april 13th. if you are in the area, you should stop by and take a look at all the amazing work! that’s the fun time. this friday, though, is the work time. we have to paint and prep the gallery, bring in all of our work to be selected for the gallery and then when the staff is through picking the gallery pieces, we each have our own space in the hallways that we need to design and arrange. not to mention all the themed decorations that have to be put together. this year’s show name is  dui: designing under the influence. obviously a little play on the acronym, it’s about how, as soon-to-be graduates, all of our influences from family to college have contributed to the creation of us. who we are today would not be who we are without the influences and inspirations in our lives. it’s kind of a weighty idea, but we are going to have fun with it (ie, everyone will have a mug shot).

i am very excited, nervous and overwhelmed at the moment, but i know it will turn out to be amazing. because no matter what happens, our work will stand out on it’s own!

when i graduated high school, i thought this moment so far away… but here i am writing about it.
it’s the last two months of college. actually it’s probably less than two months… maybe even closer to one month. holy crap. this is scary.

this year has gone by the fastest out of all of them, i think. it’s because i have had so many great things (new roommates, el salvador, etc) and a few bad things (stress, homework piles, etc.) that have filled my plate. every month was filled with fun and different things, so i am grateful for that. and as much as i am happy about school ending, it’s still very sad. hearing everyone talk about their post-grad plans, i realize that this is the branching-off point. after may 20th everyone starts going their separate ways, and who knows when we will see each other again?

okay, well i painted that a little more doomsday-like than necessary, but i’m sure you understand what i mean. we are entering the great beyond, that unknown universe called the real world. (dun dun dun) just think, before social media, people you once knew could become easily lost. if we can be thankful to facebook for one thing, it’s that we are going to know where everyone we once knew is now (and probably, depending on how much  of a status-updater/check-in-er, where they will be in the very near future).

i guess i can take comfort in that. we are all going to be separating, but we really won’t be that far apart unless we want to be. it doesn’t really lessen my fear of jumping out into the post-grad world in a few weeks, but it certainly helps to know that i won’t be alone.

so far my spring break has been awesome. halfway through and i have absolutely no complaints.

i got back to boston from visiting home on monday evening. being home was nice. my sister has the same break as me, so we were just able to be together as a family. per usual, i bought too much stuff (but for the record, most of it was necessities like shampoo and mascara!). but it was really nice to just hang out, go to bed early and not really have anything to do in the morning. i am so thankful that it’s been so nice out. on monday, my sister and i were able to go for a run on the rail trail, a paved path through the woods that used to be a railroad. it was gorgeous out, so we were looking for any excuse to be outside.

i didn’t spend much time in boston when i got back because yesterday afternoon a bunch of my friends and i went down to foxwoods for the night. one of our friends nikole got an amazing deal, so we were able to go down there for really cheap and celebrate spring break and my roommate hope’s birthday! it was so much fun! i’d never been to a casino and, come to find out, i am awful at gambling so i probably won’t be back any time soon, but i had an awesome time roaming the place with my friends. there are actually a few dance clubs in the place (who knew? they had bowling too…?) and so hope and i got to dance for awhile, which is one of my favorite things. overall, it was pretty darn perfect.

… and now, as a complete shock to me, i am going to miami tomorrow morning! wooo! just a few days ago– literally, it was sunday– my boyfriend christian’s mom offered to use her points to get us tickets down there!! it’s so generous of her!! i am very excited!! i have never been to miami before so i am pumped for some sun, some beach and tons of cuban food. haha we are staying with some of christian’s friends who live down there so they will tell us where are the great places to go are and they will show us around! gah! i am so excited! don’t worry– i’ll post some photos when i get back!