For my job this week my supervisor told me and my co-worker that we needed to write bios about each other. So we sat down and interviewed one other, and today I spent a good three hours figuring out how to depict his life and what he was all about in 500 words. It was an interesting process and it made me realize how much I didn’t know about him even though I had spent almost every day with him for the past month or so. Not so surprising since we met in a working environment and one month is not exactly a long amount of time. But this process made me think more about the people who have been in my life for a long time. So I decided that I would interview a dear friend and take on the same task of writing a bio about them. After a 2 hour interview tonight, I was able to write out this quick and brief bio about my dear friend that highlights some of their experiences and feelings. I wanted to share it, with permission, because I think it is something that other people might be able to relate to. Dear Friend – Your sense of fulfilment is through self – being able to have an individual sense of self without the burdens of obligation to your community, family – because these obligations hold you back from your passions. You pursue freedom. You find this sense of freedom through art – things that move you and speak to you. You lack a connection to being Hmong. You feel like that is a part of your identity that is missing. It is something that you don’t understand and it is something that you are also at odds with because it represents your family and you. You struggle with embracing your sense of individualism because it is at odds with your desire for community and connection. This is further emphasized by your disconnection from being Hmong – something which you feel you should have a connection to because it is a symbol for community from the experiences that you come from. You seek to find a place for art in your life and want to restore a place for art in the world. You feel that art, like you, is ostracized from the world. There is a lack of appreciation for art—it is misunderstood—because it is not fulfilling any need or function for production which is what society and the people around you value. You share this sentiment with art and for a moment almost become one with art, you as art, art as you. Art has played a great role in your life because it has moved you. Art has provided you with an experience of connection and belonging that nothing else, not even the notion of being Hmong, has provided you with. This experience has allowed you to connect your individual self with a greater sense of being in the world overall and you aspire to stay connected with this experience to find fulfilment and freedom. You aspire to be art, embodying it in the things that you produce for the world (music, poetry, photos) which is what you contribute to community.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 06:44:48 +0000
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