Assignment 1 - Introduction

            My name is Harveen Sandhu and I was born and raised in the United Kingdom where I have lived for the past eighteen years. This past June I moved to the state of Illinois where I live in the suburbs and commute to Columbia College three days a week. People tend to ask me why I chose to move to Chicago and attend such a school as Columbia, and all I can say to them is that it was time for a fresh start and a new change. Having lived in England for so long, it was a huge adjustment for me when I first moved to the states, as neither places felt like “home”. Well they still don’t, to be honest, but I believe there was a reason for me to move to Chicago at this age, a chance to experience a new way of living.

            I have various interests that range from reading novels, drawing and photography, to hanging out with friends and watching movies. I am highly interested in the media, and so most of the activities and hobbies I have, revolve around this aspect, such as watching tv, reading magazines, surfing the internet.

            My favorite artist would have to be Beyoncé, as she has become a figure that I not necessarily look to as a significant role model, but when I see her perform, act or when I go to the stores and see her clothing line, I see the success in life that I also strive to have. On another note, I do enjoy listening to her songs too.

            For fun I love to spend time with family or friends, just hanging out, ,watching tv, playing games. I value the small, humble moments in life and its what makes life fun for me.

            I chose to come to Columbia as I pictured it as the one place of opportunity for the field that I want to work in. My major is interactive arts and media and so being in a known college, studying media, is all that I could ask for at this very moment. But when it comes to expressing myself through a particular type of medium, I am torn. I associate my emotions and feelings of the day towards a medium, as some days I want to express myself with photos, or other days with drawing or film. But if I had to pick one medium as a way of portraying myself,, it would have to be photography, as I love the way a picture can reveal many stories and can present my life in different ways.

            From this course I hope to become more confident in expressing my ideas to a collective. Also I hope to broaden my knowledge and view on various topics and aspects in the world that people bring forth for discussion. I also want to fully understand the whole idea of ethnography and how many media could create one final project.

But I do have some fears about this course, and particularly it has to do with the idea of expressing myself in the written word such as narrative in contrast to a media form, as I feel when it comes to writing I doubt myself in how much I can write upon a subject. I fear that my ideas that I come up with may not be good, or that it will take me much longer to come up with ideas compared to peers in the class. But this is something that I feel throughout the time in the class, I will overcome.