Growth

Self Portrait Project

By Shelby Olson

Flash Fiction

Spread love as flowers do seeds…

Artist Statement

Both my flash fiction piece and portrait express putting kindness into the world: through the words that come out of my mouth (represented by the flowers), and the positive impact they can “spread” to others. The absence of clothing in the photo portrays the world’s obsession with material items; your worth is measured in your words and actions, not how much money you spent on your outfit. Our society today is more self serving than ever, and we have forgotten the importance of treating other people with kindness.

I remember being told from a young age, “if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.”( I’m certain my kindergarten teacher was the most inspirational figure of my childhood). Being an older sister, i learned early on that everything i said would end up in her vocabulary. I always had motivation for treating people with kindness, not just because i knew it was morally right, but because i needed my little sister to know that too.Today this saying has become part of my core beliefs. Little instances of kindness sometimes seem less meaningful in that moment, but they all add up in the long run. Being thoughtful and understanding of others could not only help their attitude, but my own as well. I believe kindness is contagious.

Reflection (they say/ I say)

So far this year i have learned about personality from many different perspectives. I was introduced to ideas such as unconscious bias, people's personality ‘types’, and the big theories as to how our personalities ‘work’ from Freud, Maslow, and Jung. I’ve also come to some conclusions regarding personality- especially about myself. Although personalities can sometimes fall into categories, i feel as though we are all much more complex, and our personalities are always changing throughout our lives.

It is often said, “we are who we are”  and people never change. However it is unimaginable that the person we will be ten or twenty years from now will be the same as who we are today. A combination of all the places, people, and experiences of our lives are what makes us...well, ‘us’. If we are constantly learning and experiencing things, our personalities are bound to evolve in one way or another.There are many quizzes and questionnaires today that claim to show you who you truly are and the details of your personality.

One personality test stands out though, It's called the Marshmallow personality test, created by Walter Mischel. Its premise is that by giving a child one task- to wait before eating the mallow- you could then decipher how they will behave and think in school, in a future career, and for the rest of their lives. One moment could show the concrete personality one would have in all aspects of their life. Experiments like Mischel's are interesting theoretically, but certainly not proven facts, and they leave quite a few holes. In an Invisibilia Podcast titled ‘The Personality Myth’, Lee Ross, a famous Stanford psychologist who read Walter Mischel's book about personality, explains his own theory. According to Ross, ‘consistency in everyday life is because of the power of the situation’, he believes that people's behavior is due to their current circumstances, rather than a reflection of who they are on the inside.

Before this year, i had a fixed idea of what personality was. I assumed that everyone was exactly who they’d always be, no two ways about it. But from my perspectives class and the sources we've read and listened to about personality and bias, i now see differently. I agree mostly with Ross, and actually find more examples that point toward his fluctuating personality theory. Peoples thoughts and emotions are constantly developing, and our minds are always absorbing new information. I believe anyone can relate this to their own lives: whether it be from a bad breakup or possibly a small random act of kindness, something we experienced changed our personality a bit, which overtime makes a new person (metaphorically).

The fact that people have many changeable layers to their personality, instead of one fixed identity is a hard pill to swallow. Many in our culture choose to reject this possibility because it isn't as secure as theories like Mischel's. But, as long as we have even the slightest control of our current surroundings, we have the ability to change parts of our personality for the better, as we should. By transforming ourselves little by little, the kindness you spread will inevitably reach others.