The Beauty of Self-Expression

Source: Judith E. Glaser

Taken from Psychology Today

A lot of people believe that the only way to express yourself is verbally, which simply isn’t the case. There are some people who have a hard time expressing themselves verbally. For example, myself. It can be difficult for me to articulate my thoughts because my brain is constantly all over the place and there’s just so much that I want to say. Therefore, some may have a hard time keeping up with me, or even understanding me at all.

For a long time, I’ve struggled with figuring out how to get people to understand what I’m trying to get across verbally (Here’s an anecdote: When I was around 3 years old, the teacher at my daycare told my parents that I should go to a speech therapist because I would rarely talk. First of all, I was a shy kid, but I knew how to speak. She clearly didn’t know what she was talking about, but anyways, that’s not the point and let’s continue). As I was growing to love art as the years went by, I soon started to realize my form of self-expression.

You guessed it, art!

(Also, a quick shoutout to my IB Lang & Lit teacher, Mrs. Cuculich. Mrs. C, did you see how I used ‘anecdote’ in a sentence?! Woot, woot!)

God, I sound like a fanatic. Maybe because I am.

Taken from Pinterest

Whenever I’m making art, whether it’s sketching or constructing origami, I know exactly what I want to express. The vision is there. As I was starting to discover my form of self-expression, I started to implement that into a myriad of things, especially math. Let me tell you something right now, when it comes to explaining math, I am the absolute worst (Ok, that sounds a little strong. I’m not that bad at explaining math, but you get the idea). During my ACT tutoring, my tutor would want me to explain my thought process to a certain math problem, and I couldn’t in a way that was easy for him to understand. So instead, I asked him if I could write out equations or draw diagrams. In the end, everything made sense to him. All in all, math can be difficult to explain. I applaud to all of the math teachers out there that do it every day (shoutout to my IB math teacher, Mr. Getzel!).

There are certain things in life that simply cannot be explained. Let’s take sketching as an example. When people see my sketches of garments, they ask me to tell the story behind them. It’s something that I completely dread because most of the time, words can never be enough to give the full perspective. I like to leave everything up to interpretation because anything can be perceived based on one’s perspective. Hearing others’ interpretations of a work can be very fascinating because it’s their personal take. There can be multiple meanings behind a work and that’s the beauty of self-expression. Self-expression consists of thoughts, feelings, and ideas that don’t have to tell a coherent story.

What’s so special about self-expression is that you don’t always have to use words to get your point across (don’t think that I’m telling you not to talk because you definitely should). You can use diagrams, sculptures, or pretty much anything that fits your comfort zone. Be creative because you are you.

Taken from Soul Realignment

Oh, and one last thing before I conclude: At the end of the day, your work will always speak louder than words. Oh my, the power of self-expression!

-Siena