My personal item is a framed charcoal sketch of my dog, Colt. The sketch was created by a friend of mine in an art class. I chose this item because my dog is extremely important and dear to me. Colt has been a member of my family since I was in 4th grade, and brings a smile to my face every time I see him. He possesses a happy-go-lucky disposition, and brightens the day of everyone he meets. My personal item is a constant reminder of my love for one of my best friends. 

Cameron Wolff

I enjoy the MLB in the spring and my favorite baseball team is the St. Louis Cardinals. I love to watch the games with my dad. The Cardinals are important to me because I have always love watching the games on TV or in person at the ballpark. I grew up a Cardinals fan because my dad was also, so I became one as well. I am always pumped when they beat their rivals like the Chicago Cubs because our family is not a big fan of the Cubs. The past two seasons, the St. Louis Cardinals have not been very good and haven’t made the playoffs since 2015. But I believe this year’s team will be a better team from last year and the year before that. I just hope they can make a deep run into the playoffs and their NL Central race for the top spot. Especially in front of the Chicago Cubs. Go Cards

Nick Hoppel

There are many objects I could have chosen to describe myself, and yet I find that the most disposable thing I own is what defines me the most. My earbuds aren’t special, they weren’t given to me at a young age, they didn’t save my life in some miraculous way. As a matter of fact, they came free with my ipod. But it's not what my earbuds are, it's what they do. Earbuds deliver the thing that keeps me sane, music. When I’m feeling down,I have “Sunshine” by Atmosphere. When I need to cry, I have “Hurt” by Johnny Cash. When I’m dancing by myself, I have “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe. There is a song for every situation, and when I’m raging against the machine, or clapping and stomping to “Lip Gloss” by Lil Mama, I’ll have my earbuds to thank.

David Hindman

Yellow to me is more than just a color. At first, yellow meant her. And when we went separate ways, yellow was all I had left of her. As time went on, the color yellow became more and more present within my daily life. I use to tie the color back to her because although she wasn’t in my life anymore, at least I had a piece of her, at least I had a little bit of yellow. But as much as I loved yellow, yellow hurt, because to me yellow was what she was, it was who she was. Over the years, I’ve learned to not hold onto things that don’t want to be held. Therefore, I had to let go of her, but I didn’t have to let go of yellow. Yellow became something different to me, it became a way to spread happiness. It was something that stood out compared to a plain white tee. Naturally, our eyes are more drawn to things that are bright and pop and yellow does just that. So not only does yellow make me stand out, but it makes me feel like I can brighten up people’s day. And if I can make someone feel yellow the way I once did and now do, then that’s all that matters. When it comes to the end of the day, yellow is more than just a color, it is the embodiment of happiness, it is a feeling, and sometimes, it can even be a person too. 

Jordan Allen

Although my great grandma would frequently visit, I never got to know her very well growing up. She had a stroke a few years before I was born and had lost a lot of her language capability. I, as a young child, didn’t try my best to learn to communicate, either. But it’s still important to me to wear her jewelry from time to time. My mom and her parents all tell me how similar she was to me. I hear stories of when my mom was young and would go over to her house for a visit. They just ate desserts if they wanted to. They were the same size of clothing once my mom got older and would have “fashion shows” around the house. They were close. When I wear the necklace and watch that belonged to my great grandma, I not only feel closer to her but closer to my mom. They were such good friends and now I am best friends with my mom the way that she was friends with her grandma.

Rose Johnston

I chose to bring a cookbook for my portrait object. My family and I first heard of this cookbook, The Kimchi Chronicles, after watching a television cooking show of the same name. Not only do I like to cook, but this type of food has been very important to my family and me. All three of my siblings and I were adopted from South Korea. My parents always incorporated Korean culture into our lives and we have visited several times. The cookbook also represents us, Korean but growing up in an American society.

Ellie Wigginton

When I think about my red sweater, I think of the run in my friends and I had with the law.It was a cool autumn day when Ethan, Chase, andI decided to explore the Greyhound Park to test out my new camera. All went well at first, we were all dressed up to get decent pictures of each other and got shot of the decaying interior. As we explored the roof, we heard footsteps below. When we came around the corner, we saw… a police officer, gun drawn. He yelled at us to approach him slowly, as we continuously told him that we were simply taking photos. As he led us outside, three other cars were parked outside. The officer attempted to intimidate us with jail time and massive fees. In the end, he took our information and kicked us off the property. As we walked back, we began to crack up over the situation. If we had gotten arrested, I would have at least looked good in my red sweater.

Kwan Williams

Nature is everything to me, it's what we are at our core.  We as people, historically, have lived around nature as a source of life and prosperity.  For most people today, however, that is not the case.  We live encased in concrete and wooden structures that detach us from any sign of life, a manifestation of an idea of what the perfect life is.

 

This leaf represents the life that has been on our planet millions of years before humans even formed, we have really lost touch with our roots.  We often disassociate ourselves from nature, leaving our natural bodies in the back of our minds, and give into the ideology that we are meant to work in an office building void of happiness and natural life in itself.  In life, we are everything that we interact with whether it be the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the computer you're staring at right now. 

 

I enjoy thinking about I discussed above because it's very important to me that our history is not forgotten, we need to be able to understand where we come from and make sure we are preserving the very place our species was conceptualized.  

Corey Behrens

Growing up, I always had a football in my hands. To this day, my life is still centered around the sport and the game that I love. Playing football is an escape for me. It’s an opportunity to leave the rest of the world behind for a little bit and just have fun. The game of football is something that I have cherished all of my life and will continue to cherish for many years to come.

Christian Ellsworth

Some of the greatest tools that I are my cameras. I absolutely love using them. Although I share them with my dad, I get the most use out of them because I use them so much. I have won many awards with my cameras. I use them all the time for a wide variety of tasks. I can get paid to take photos with my cameras. This type of photography is pretty fun and it really pushes me to try and produce my best content for my customer or employer. I also take quite a bit of photos on my own for my own keeping. When I am able to do this type of photography I can really take away all the barriers of the outside world and really try something different. I may fail to use my camera right at times and the photos may not always turn out as expected, but one thing is for certain; I feel so fulfilled with myself when I am using my favorite thing I own.

John Dunlop

Welcome to the invention of motion pictures!