Welcome to arts, ink., where our student artists and writers are given a forum to illuminate the Michigan student experience through art. If you want to get a taste of of what arts, ink. has to offer, click on our 23-24 Winter Break reading List tag!
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“Maybe I just wanna fly, wanna live, I don’t wanna die,”
Welcome to the final Song Scribbles with Sydney. It’s a bittersweet time. Two days ago, I graduated from the University of Michigan. Yesterday, I moved back home for the summer. Now, as I write this blog post from my childhood bedroom, I can’t believe how time has flown by. While I’m thrilled to have had such a wonderful graduation (especially after my high school graduation being canceled due to the pandemic), I’m also feeling a sense of loss.
“Maybe I just wanna breathe, maybe I just don’t believe,”
My friends and I are going to go do great things all over the place, which is wonderful, but I’m going to miss living near all of them. I’m lucky to be headed to get my master’s degree in New York City, a city where a few of my friends will also be living, but I know it won’t be the same as Ann Arbor. I’m very excited for my next steps, but I also know that I’ll always look back fondly on my time at the University of Michigan.
“Maybe you’re the same as me,”
I’ve learned and changed so much over the past four years. I’m far more open-minded, vulnerable, and happy than I ever remember being. I’ve found friends that feel like family, and Ann Arbor feels like home. When I started college, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to form this level of friendship, but I’ve formed several friendships that I’m confident will last far beyond my college years. How fortunate am I to have such a fabulous support system? How lucky am I to have had something so great that I know I’ll miss it for years to come?
“We see things they’ll never see.”
My undergraduate years may be over, but the memories and relationships will last a lifetime. I can’t wait until the next time my friends and I get together, and I’m excited to see how gamedays feel as an alum. While I may be leaving Michigan, I know that Michigan will never leave me. As I embark on this next chapter in my life, I will do so with confidence and positivity – the same way I approach every other challenge I face. Thank you for everything, Ann Arbor. Writing these blogs and creating an archive of my college experiences through Song Scribbles is something I will be grateful for for years to come. It truly is great to be a Michigan Wolverine – Go Blue forever!
This week’s page is dedicated to be a glimpse into my life while being home in the greatest city in the world: Minneapolis! I’ve been catching up on all my favorite things to do that I haven’t been able to in Ann Arbor (sit at the lake, drive a car, relax, etc.) and it’s been a splendid week indeed.
As the first person of my friends home for the summer, I’ve spent much time basking in the freedom of being alone. My relationship with being alone has changed so much this past year and it’s been very evident in how I’ve been spending my past week. In my senior year of high school, my greatest fear was being alone at any given time. I worried that because I’d be moving by the end of that summer and losing proximity to my friends and family that I would then end up being alone forever. However, throughout my time during this first year of college I’ve had to confront that fear head on every day in an unfamiliar place surrounded by strangers. It was extremely hard at first and I’m still adjusting to these new changes in my life, but after a while I felt more and more at peace with myself. I started to learn how to take care of myself outside the pressures of my surrounding social circles. I no longer had to worry about driving my sisters to school or rearranging my work schedule so I could make it to the next hangout with friends. During my day all I had to do was decide on where I was going to study today or if I wanted to go explore a random event posted on a flyer. This past week I’ve been able to apply this college-sparked freewill in my adventures of the city streets and it’s been allowing me to appreciate my home in new lights. From vibrant inspiration for my next art pieces to a new loving familiarity for the communities I grew up in, I feel like I’m entering a new journey of understanding what home is in a place where I feel safe and loved. Although I am surely going to fill this summer to the brim with bonfires with friends and excursions with my sisters, I’m planning on making sure that I get my alone time with myself and my city in order to appreciate both in new and beautiful ways.
To take into our summer:
Ins: Reconnecting with old friends, supporting your local art scene (always), horror podcasts, going to events even if you’re going alone, drawing on your hands, Costco, re-appreciating your old art, quality time with loved ones.
Outs: Not wearing sunscreen, only believing in the worst outcomes, flat soda, letting dust pile up, immaturity, bugs on the windshield, drivers in Minneapolis, not speaking your truth, the ending of Grey’s Anatomy season 5.
Have a beautiful, fantastic summer everyone! Thank you so much for a great semester and for reading (and hopefully enjoying) these entries. Trust that I’ll be back in the fall for our regularly scheduled shenanigans of loving life and each other. Be safe, have fun, and remember to witness the small life!
Taiwan is the Sweltering Heat
where stray cats purr and street
food hisses. Stinky tofu stinks
of unassumed deliciousness,
daring the foreigner to try it.
Umbrellas are used
on sunny days but can’t
protect you from getting wet,
so changing clothes three
times a day is a must.
The clothes first stained
with sweat are then hung
up to dry on the rusty chains
crisscrossing the balcony,
a constant victim of the
perpetrator that is the weather.
- Sappy
Hello, and welcome back to Captured Moments! In this post, I include pictures from my last day in Ann Arbor until next semester!
I captured this image, and immediately loved how it turned out. Connecting to music, I reflect back on my time when I went inside the Michigan Theater and watched a performance from the Pops Orchestra. Music will always be an integral part of my life, whether I listen, play, or share.
I always think of sunsets when I play music, as they are very beautiful. Just looking at a sunset will help me feel relaxed and calm, just like when I play music. The pink hues from the sunset and the streetlights starting to light up, is such a wonderful view. When I captured this image, it serves as a reflection image to my freshman year of college.
My flight back home was the next day, and I captured this image to capture the clouds. It was a very beautiful view back home!
I hope you enjoyed reading my posts, and have a great Summer!
Velvet blue sky
Containing cotton clouds
A delicate rose
like your lips on mine
Leaping in green grass
We pluck lilacs
and yellow daisies
Beneath a row of orange trees
Xhaska’s new vs old square. As you can see, the old square has very harsh, prominent shading and highlights, and a different eye shape. That eye shape got hard to draw over and over, so I changed it to something simpler. I also simplified and softened the lighting, reserving the high-contrast highlight parts to the eye area. I prefer the way the old square did the hair and ribbon though, the new hair and ribbon look to simplistic and cartoony.
