
I was gifted this faux black leather journal in my first year. I don’t remember the exact details, but Sterling Library was holding some event and they sent me this little engraved journal straight to my home for free. I love free things and paper. I am one of a few students on campus holding out on getting an iPad for my schoolwork and routinely use notebooks. This journal, however, has been sparsely used. I’m particular with journals; each entry should be intentional and intriguing. That is a lot of pressure! I’ve somewhat abandoned this thinking, but everything I’ve written is interesting. Because of the limited entries, I thought it would be cool to show the contents of a Yale Student’s Journal.
One time I left my math notebook in my dorm and the only paper I had to write on was this journal. Therefore, this was the first time I wrote in this journal… and it was for ordinary differential equations. This was a one-time event. Things get a little cooler from here.
For my Writing Dance course, we would attend live dance performances in NYC and write an essay about the shows due a few days later. Our professor warned us early on that writing about performances from memory was not doable. Being a dance critic for the New York Times, he suggested from his experiences that we take notes during the performance. Given that we were in dark theaters, I had to blindly write in my journal as I was experiencing the performance in real-time. I tried my best to write straight across, but I could not see the page and I was just happy I didn’t accidentally write over my own words. I know nothing about professional dance but I grew quite opinionated about dance performances the more I observed, evident in some of my notes.
I make art for the Yale Scientific Magazine. Select articles receive accompanying student art pieces, and I’ve made art for at least the last ten issues. For this particular issue, I found it helpful to brainstorm on paper and then make my art in Illustrator. I present the initial concepts for the art pieces and the final products.
This was for my History of Science and Medicine (HSHM) course: Visualizing the Invisible. I attended office hours and spoke to my professor about my vision for my final project looking at Guatemalan contemporary scientific and medical history. We had the option of either writing an essay or completing a creative project for our final assignment. I chose the creative option and took it as an opportunity to paint. However, this approach poses a unique challenge—it’s harder to quantify the work involved and capture the nuances of a research subject compared to a straightforward essay. After discussing with my professor, we agreed that I should create three paintings, each representing a distinct section of an essay, effectively translating the structure of a written paper into visual art. I prepped for the meeting and wrote notes during our talk in this entry.
I am taking a sociology course this semester: Visual Sociology. The premise of the course was interesting for someone who knew virtually nothing about sociology beforehand. From the syllabus: “Themes include the decoding of visual information; the analysis of interpersonal interaction among strangers; observing the design and use of public objects and spaces; the uses of photographs and photography.” I was not sure I would take the class given my inexperience, but sitting in on the first class encouraged me to continue with the course. Professor Smith (the most eccentric professor I’ve ever had—sincerely meant as a compliment) provides reading guides with pointed questions, making the readings easier to tackle. It only seemed right to take handwritten notes for the course. Here is a glimpse at my notes for the readings for Week 6.
Continuing with the sociology course, we have to conduct our own empirical research projects. For my second project, I am studying jaywalkers and how visual indicators (hand signals, cars, other pedestrians) correlate to jaywalking patterns. I observed intersections and made note of total pedestrians, jaywalkers, etc. for an hour at various intersections across New Haven. Essentially, it was my homework to people-watch and take notes, pictured here before and after an observation. One of my many observations was that people walking in groups tend to jaywalk less than the average single pedestrian!
This is the most random entry, and probably my favorite. Fun fact: I have very vivid dreams, and they have only grown in vividness while in college. In one of my dreams, I had a Japanese-style tiger tattoo on my ribs, but instead of having its black stripes the tiger had lace in place of its stripes. The lace was representative of the lacing adorning the edges of trajes tipicos (traditional clothing) from Latin America. Once I got that visual in my brain, I needed to capture it on paper and see if it looked as cool as it did in my dream. I think it looks pretty cool and I might get this tattooed, but maybe I’ll let an actual tattoo artist tamper with the drawing details.