Live Your Life with Compassion

Photography has interested me since sophomore year because of my friends' knack at the art. I often like having photos taken of me and posting them on social media. In my Journalism class, I got to go on Field Experiences to practice being behind the camera to tell a story. I took photos of my classmates, the train station, and the garden. I had to explain the story behind the photos in front of my class.

This Action Project had me practice my photography skills on a person that answered the question "What is the meaning of life?" I picked my mother to interview because she is an optimistic and influencial person in my life.

Eli is a Mexican 52 year old woman that grew up in the South Chicago neighborhood. She raised her three children there- Destiny (29) Savannah (22) and myself (17). Both of her parents immigrated from Mexico to Chicago in the 1940s. Her father worked in the steel mills all of his life, while her mom cooked, cleaned, and sold Avon. When she isn’t at her front desk job at Harbor Point Estates, she enjoys bike riding, grilling her famous shish-kabobs, and cuddling with her two dogs and four cats when she gets home from work. Although she has been through some tough spots in her life, she has made sure to keep a positive attitude and keep pushing through.

At 9pm, I laid next to my mom on her bed with a pet dog  on each of our laps. I was sick with a fever but I had to push through and interview her for my project. When I explained the purpose of the interview at first, she doubted that she would be suitable to answer such a daunting question. I reassured her that she would do great and started recording.

“So, what is the meaning of life to you? What are your values?” She burst into hearty laughter and tears started rolling off her cheeks. I sat there in awe, confused by the certain burst of emotion from her.

“This is too deep. This is too deep, man.” She wiped the tears off of her face, struggled forming a straight face, then immediately burst into laughter again. “Live life happily, just by doing the things you enjoy on a daily basis. Live your life with compassion and have no regrets.” I wondered what that looked like, so I asked her how she practices her meaning of life.

“I wake up at about 5, pretty early. I take my spunky chihuahua out. Surprisingly, she wakes me up every morning to go outside and pee, even though she is very old. I make my coffee, Boston style. Lots of cream and sugar. I gotta make sure the weather channel is on while I am getting ready so I can listen in on what I should wear for the day. Seeing the weather ladies on the news inspires my outfits and jewelry. I gotta put on my war paint, aka my makeup. I don’t want people to realize how old I actually am.”

We laughed about her adoration for weather ladies and continued eating candy on her bed. “The meaning of life has changed so much for me since I was your age, Jessenia.” She closed her eyes and pet her chihuahua.

I pondered about her transition from being a teenager to now, so I asked, “How has the meaning of life changed for you since?" Eli pointed to multiple prayer picture cards of her deceased friends tucked on the side of her mirror. “When I was younger, I didn’t value anything. I had everything, and then I had great losses. Losing friends at a young age really hurt me. I started valuing life more once I realized I need to be grateful in the moment.” I got up from the bed and examined her prayer cards, each symbolizing a sad year in her life.

“What was the first impactful loss in your life?”, I asked.  Eli sadly smiled and grabbed her bible from her nightstand.

“My best friend from high school and my husband got shot on the same day, and they died a week apart. I think that impacted my life because of the coincidence. It was tragic. Just the experience of having to go to the hospital and then the trip to the morgue to identify the body. I can’t really relive everything. It feels like a blur and it hurts.”

Personally, I have never been through family loss, but I have accompanied Eli to her close family friend's funerals since I was smaller. I asked her if family loss is the same as friend loss. She hesitated and said, "A different part of your heart hurts when your parent dies than when your friend dies. Until you experience it, you won’t know how it feels."

We took a moment of silence as she flipped through her bible, full of highlighted quotes, scribbled notes in the margin, and saint prayer cards stuck in the binder. “I have been trying to get into the habit of reading verses from my bible before I leave the house. I pray to have a safe journey and not bump into people I don’t like. My mom always prayed, so I try to keep up with her tradition."


Here is a picture I took of Eli while she was waiting for the J14 bus on South Chicago Avenue and 83rd St the next day. It was very early in the morning because she was on her way to work. The aperture was high in this photo, which means that I let a lot of light through my lens. I wanted the bright colors to pop out, so that is why I used high aperture. I had high shutter speed when I took this, because the windy day was blowing her hair in all different directions. I hoped her hair would look like it was in place when taking the photo. The focus was on her face because she loves making animated facial expressions to show her spunk. The most colorful part of the photo is her face with different shades of red on her glasses and hair. She is wearing a pair of heart earrings that I gifted her for her birthday. I also practiced the “Rule of Thirds” while taking this picture. Her body is in the center of the photo, which is appealing to the eye. This photo encompasses her personality because she is very goofy, stylish, and fierce.

This photo is objective because I think others would agree with the adjectives I pulled out from her personality shown in the photo. Her meaning of life, living life happily and with compassion, is very bright in this picture.

Curating My Future Life Choices

Life beyond high school is exciting to plan for because I want to live the happiest life possible. I hope to study Anthropology/Sociology and Art History in my college career. 
Outside of the classroom, my internship at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) sparked my interest in the intersection of art and culture in non-anglo societies. My supervisor taught my co-workers and I the importance of accurate representation of indigenous communities in museums. Many indigenous artifacts at museums have been removed from their countries without permission, which leads to false descriptions and carelessly curated galleries. After research, I co-led a discussion panel with other AIC teens about how this affects visitors' impressions of indigenous art. We decided to advocate for change, which was difficult because the museum followed traditional practices that have never been examined by young people of color. We shared our frustrations and solutions for accurately representing indigenous culture to the curator of the African galleries at AIC, resulting in a recurated African gallery. This experience has inspired me to change how museums acquire art on a larger scale by becoming a museum curator as my future career, especially because minorities are underrepresented in the art world.
But the question is, what does that look like? So many big decisions have to be made, such as picking a college to attend, what major to pursue, what jobs to apply to during and after college, and ways of budgeting money. I learned how to make educated guesses and assumptions and use existing data to create a plan for my life after high school in my Economics class. My most favorite take away from this class was becoming comfortable with Google Sheets. I learned how to do calculations and organize data in Google Sheets. Practicing this skill will be beneficial to me in the future. 

JMP, Lifetime Earnings of a Museum Curator, (2019)

I calculated the lifetime earnings of a museum curator. A museum curator's salary ranges, depending on how much experience they have. I calculated how much I would make if I started working right when I graduate from college ,until retirement in 2063. Since I will earn more money with the more experience I gain, I have predicted that I will make around $2,030,839 in my lifetime. I interviewed Ayana Chavis, Program Coordinator of Youth and Family Programs at the Art Institute of Chicago, about her experience in Museum Education. She has been my supervisor at both internships I have been part of since junior year. 

1. What is your career? 

"My job encompasses planning, implementing and supporting our programs for family audiences which include everyday, seasonal and annual programming, such as our festivals and some offsite programming. I am also a manager of teen programs here in our division and department, where I mentor the teens in our internships here at the museum."

2. What college did you attend? Why did you decide to go to college? Why did you decide to attend your college?

"I decided to go to college, because really it was the only way I had ever been taught that I could sustain a life for myself as an independent woman. My mom was the person in my family that really pushed me to obtain a higher education and to always do well in school. In the fall of 2011, I attended Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), in Richmond, Virginia where I would graduate with a Bachelors of Science degree in Anthropology and African American Studies. I decided to go there, because I liked the environment of the school. Mostly I felt as if I could see myself there and indulge in the culture of the university and of the city. The school also had the major I was considering initially, which was journalism. I also liked that Richmond wasn’t too far from home, but I got to have a sense of newness by going to college out of state since I’m from North Carolina."

3. Was college a worthwhile time and money investment for you? Does your career right now make up for the investment during college?

"College was worthwhile of my time, because I felt that I experienced so many new things, learned so much about myself and how to critically think about the world, especially as a black person and woman living in the United States. I met so many new people and built amazing connections. I have to say that besides receiving a full scholarship during graduate school, the money I invested in my undergraduate degree at VCU was not worth the debt I would take on considering that the career I am currently in does not pay enough to maintain a comfortable standard of living in Chicago and allow me to pay my student loans without sacrifice. I like what I do, but I don’t think that a passion for something makes up for being underpaid. The field of education is highly undervalued in terms of the hard work that we do and how it is decided how much that is worth in terms of salary and wages."

4. What advice do you have for me on the value of my college education?

"The advice I would offer to you Jessenia, is to follow your heart and make good decisions in the moment. Always know that there are so many possibilities to the way you can achieve what you want. Know that while your education is important, it does not solely make up who you are or say everything about your worth as a person. Who you are is not about what you do, it is about the content of your character. And if you lead yourself into your college experience being sure about that, what you want and advocating for yourself first, you cannot go wrong."

After conducting my extended research about the pros and cons of Pitzer College and Amherst College, how long it would take to pay off college loans, and hearing from a museum professional’s experience, I have decided that I would like to attend Pitzer College. I think the openness of the community and colleges around it, combination of the majors I want, and warm weather area is worth the investment. I am excited to find out which school I get admitted to, which will slightly alter my predicted plan.