Welcome to my Humanities Portfolio for the 2019 Fall semester and 2021 Spring semester! My name is Erica Harris, and I am a sophomore at Davidson College. I am from Wilmington, NC and am an Anthropology major on the premed track. I was in Humanities during my freshman year; however, I took the spring semester off and am back finishing up the course.
Introduction
Remembrance, anger, grief.
These topics have come up for me in the past year more than I think I have ever experienced. One thing I never considered myself is angry, but it is very hard not to be looking at the state of the world. Last year, my portfolio’s theme was the ocean and how it can act like the stages of revolution, but like my mind it has evolved into something else for this year. I chose remembrance because it comes up in every unit and because people in America have forgotten or choose to ignore.
3 million lives. 3 million stories. 3 million hearts.
3 million is the number of recorded deaths from COVID-19 in just over a year, but it is probably much more than this. It makes me so upset and angry how this virus has become politicised in America. People are more upset about things being shut down than they are about the lives that are lost. They are more worried about themselves than the wellbeing of others. When we reached 1 million and 2 million dead worldwide, there were events to remember those who were lost, but nothing occurred at 3 million. Why? Is it because of the vaccine even though cases are rising in parts of the world? America has always been in this little bubble where only it exists. We have forgotten the millions of loved ones currently mourning, and for what? So we can get back to “normal” life and ignore what is occurring in the rest of the world?
This picture I drew is how I wanted to show these emotions, which are different for everyone. Drawing and writing are always how I express myself, and I wanted this drawing to invoke different feelings in every viewer. For me, it envelopes remembrance of people and feelings long lost, of the anger at everything this year, and of the grief that is experienced.
One thing that I am is optimistic, which does not come through much in this statement or in my portfolio. I do not want viewers to come away from my website feeling pessimistic about the world because I think we have had enough of it for one lifetime. These feelings have become more intense for me this past year, but I want people to look at my portfolio and feel hope in that they are not alone in their feelings and that it is okay to feel these emotions.
