Blank Face

Flash Fiction 

I’m seen as so many people 

But I have done so little 

I try to keep to myself 

Trying to be the best me 

I’ve done all I can do 

but, still I’m 

Only what others want to see: 

”Good-hearted, one of a kind” 

”A great influence, she’s very wise” 

”Went down a totally wrong path” 

”Back-stabbing and never looks back” 

”She never gave up, I’m impressed” 

”She works until she’s overly stressed” 

”She’s always been a horrible person” 

”Is her time even worth it?” 

”I think she is pretty great” 

”Meeting her was truly by fate” 

”What is she even doing here?” 

”I wish she would just disappear” 

I’m seen as so many people 

But I have done so little 

I try to keep to myself 

Trying to be the best me 

I’ve done all I can do 

but, still I’m 

Only what others want to see.

Flash Fiction Artist Statement 

My flash fiction illuminated the meaning of my picture with words. I  

described the hardship of feeling like I have no confident identity, and what that  

looks like. It was an opening piece to the presentation of my image. They both  

describe each other, like a story book.  

Each line in my poem is a different flash fiction sentence. Each of these  

sentences can be taken into a different context as their own stories. Each of  

the quotes are stories of other people describing me, and their own perception  

of who/what I am. The point of this is to show just how easily I can be picked apart,  

and how I have created this feeling of a missing identity. The people in my life  

have picked at the pieces of my personality they want to see, rather than looking at  

me as all my own person. Their many perspectives are what have made me feel  

like several different people, instead of just myself. 

In my picture, my face is completely blank. There are no eyes or mouth  

to represent any type of expression, and this is for a very specific reason. The entire  

point of this piece is to represent that my identity is not distinct, as I seem to be so  

many different people based on others’ perspectives. Because of this, I personally  

feel that my own identity doesn’t matter, so I often feel hopeless when trying to  

express myself. I should just remain a blank face. 

I feel as though my view on perspectives is solid, as I now understand there 

is no right or wrong answer to other’s beliefs. Everything in the world is looked at in 

A different light, for we are all equally different from one another. This is something  

I have come to greatly appreciate because of what this class has taught me. 

                                                                       Part III: Reflection

Personality is based on experiences in life, as well as the genes you were  

born with. There is a balance of nature and nurture when it comes to developing  

the personality of an individual. Each human has their own set of experience in the  

world and perception of those events. Something similar may happen to different 

people and have completely different outcomes based on the perspective of the 

world each one holds. 

Identity is something seen as very important to most individuals, and  

understanding who you are on the inside and outside has become a way of life.  

There are many ways identity shapes our society today, whether it is for better  

or worse. Appearance and personality, in all their complexity, make up the identity  

of an individual and separate them from the rest of the world, which is what  

creates the importance of having this self of individuality in our world today. 

The main source I used to learn about the depths of personality in this class  

so far is the personality quiz we all took early in the school year. There are four main  

categories of personality (Analysts, Diplomats, Sentinels, and Explorers), and four  

subcategories within those, creating sixteen distinct personality types individuals  

can fit into. What was seen in my classroom was many individuals, even those who  

seemed nothing alike, were grouped into the same personality type. They speculated it  

might be because of the limited number of personality types there are. For the billions  

of people there are living in this world, they thought it was very strange that only  

sixteen different categories exist to identify personalities. 

The second source I am using from this year is the “Growing up Trans”  

documentary we watched. In this documentary, the children are suffering daily with  

identity problems from being unable to match what they feel in their head with their  

bodies. Transgender individuals have the opposite brain structure as the body they were  

born in, causing gender identity disorder and dysphoria in their minds. 

The greatest thing about personality/identity is that it cannot be perfectly  

replicated. We all see the world through different sets of eyes, so trying to group certain 

 personalities together is not the most truthful way to look at the wonders of personality.  

Earlier this semester, we all took personality tests that grouped us into sixteen different 

 personalities, which is an experiment I did not fully agree with. All of us have our own  

type of personality which cannot be grouped. We are all too different to be categorized  

so broadly into different personality types. I thought I would expand my understanding  

of overlapping aspects of personality, and how we are all very similar in many ways,  

but my growth was elsewhere. I realized that a common unconscious does not entirely  

exist in us, and that our experiences are what shape us into perfectly individual people.