Tera Thongdy

December 13, 2021

BIS300
F’21 Professor Anderson

Framing Essay

Reaching the outcome of my scrapbook process, was quite the adventure, as I am sure

many of my peers from this class could agree with that statement. With the freedom this

scrapbook allowed for, it was difficult for me to come up with the concepts I wanted to base my

artifacts from. So, in the end, I went with what I knew most about, and that is me. The idea

behind the overall scrapbook, was finding concepts that pertained to my life and what was

significant yet, would be able to relate to one another. What I hope with the intended message

I attempted to display from my scrapbook, can be received and understood by anyone that may

read it. This is important in the understanding of my scrapbook, as I made it a place where I was

able to curate a collection of archives that had great meaning and relations towards my life. For

the reader or viewer of my scrapbook being able to understand what I wanted to express, I will

know that my execution was successful. The main theme or exhibits I came up with in order

are: personal protection, mental wellness, companion animal, and self-relief.

Beginning as the first exhibit of my scrapbook, personal protection, was chosen as the

introductory concept of what later exhibits will express. I was hoping that by starting off with

this concept of personal protection and the correlation it has with my life, my hope is that as

you progress throughout the scrapbook, the following exhibits would metaphorically be layers

that you are peeling off, until the final exhibit. Going back to the idea behind personal

protection as my first exhibit, was determined through my perception I have of this world,

society, and environment that continues to evolve. Whether it is evolving for better or worse,
the only thing I can change, or influence is the safety of myself and family. The interesting and

skeptical social issues that have risen over the past couple of years or even, the social issues

that we continue to address over the course of many years, were the sole factors that shaped

my opinions and concerns into the theme of this exhibit. Specific social issues that I had in mine

when working on this exhibit are the Black Lives Matter movement, and the increased attacks

on Asian Americans due to the coronavirus. With the outrage that broke out across the nation

had for Black Lives Matter, you could imagine the disbelief I had when hearing of the first Asian

attack incident on the news. This began my question on the morals of the people in our society

that inflict hate crimes driven by racism, and the motives behind all hate crimes. With BLM

being a racial issue that we are still fighting for, people decide to attack Asian Americans.

The support and awareness brought with BLM, I personally was shocked to see that

another race was also being targeted and how that became about, given the fight on racism

and the sensitivity of the subject already at hand. My support and advocacy towards the BLM

movement did not falter when hearing the surge in Asian attacks, as it only added to the fear

and frustration I already had. The combination of the coronavirus, the emotional outrage with

BLM, and now as an Asian American knowing that we have also been targeted, you could

perhaps see why the concept of personal protection made it to this scrapbook. Whenever these

issues receive the justice, it deserves (highly unlikely given the lack of action regarding the racial

issues in this country, have now shifted to the issue of preventing women to have abortions) I

hope that the concern for racism and public safety be addressed.

Diving into mental wellness, my second exhibit is the “layer” that addresses a more,

sensitive concept? Being the concept of mental health along with, the understanding and
awareness of this issue prevalent in the United States, and throughout the world. My intention

of the placement of this second exhibit made sense to me regarding the topics that I have

chosen and the significance I had towards it. Mental health issues are a concept that has

become addressed more socially within the past couple of years, and as a result of the

progression or attention towards the issue, I took this opportunity to also have a voice at it. The

ideas behind all my exhibits are highly influenced by events that have occurred in the past

couple of years, and the impact of it all resulted in the ideas behind the concepts of my

scrapbook. As the physical safety and security of oneself is a priority, it made sense that the

next level of morality I wanted to address was the neurological aspect that also pertains to the

overall safety and security of, our minds. The abrupt change resulting in the sudden adjustment

of how we live our daily lives over the course of the pandemic, has affected my mental state

along with the social issues that arose during it all. If people were suffering from mental illness

prior to the pandemic and the questionable acts of humanity, it would be a reasonable

assumption to make that, these events influenced the mental health of individuals.

A major aspect of this mental wellness exhibit was to address the various ontological

areas mental health has and the depth of the areas I delved into. From the significance of

prescription medication, normalizing the stigma behind mental health, and honestly—just

educating people on emotional literacy. An issue that affects so many individuals in this world

yet, many their lives not knowing about it or even how to recognize, is the result of many

walking around aimlessly suffering, and they do not even know it. A common theme presented

in these artifacts is the idea of the lack of emotional understanding as young children, and

nature versus nurture is a major factor that shapes who you are as a person if not, the main
factor. How we handle one another and the issues we face in our life, stems from the influence

of the environment in which you are raised thus, shaping your ideas and perceptions you have

in the world. If emotional literacy were to be a subject taught in school, many would be able to

understand emotions and how to identify it in others, and what causes these emotions, would

promote a broader sense of self and others. Such an understanding is important especially

during times of uncertainty since those who are struggling and are unable to express such

emotions, if you have good people reading skills you could see the distraught in others.

Peeling into the layers of the last two exhibits, it is important to address that they are

ones that hold the greatest significance regarding the values and outlook of how I view life, and

the goals I set myself to better understand myself. You could view it as the resolution layers or

problem-solving exhibits, in conjunction to the concerns I expressed in the first two. The theme

I hope to enumerate in this exhibit and the collection of archives chosen are the relationship of

human and animal. As addressed in the previous exhibit on mental wellness, it was important

that I show the connection the companion animals have on mental health. As the scrapbook

exhibits were formed on the concepts that pertains to myself, a companion animal will not only

improve the quality of my life, it also will provide the sense of security that I am looking for. A

major goal in my life, is improving my mental health. The experiences in my life and my

interpretation of it all, have allowed me to understand the needs of it and what would help

fulfill it. Which is why the layers to this exhibit, I find difficult to express the level of meaning it

has in my life though, with the specific dog breed that I want, the Doberman Pinscher, and the

archives I chose for this exhibit, I hope the relationship companion animals have with the first

two exhibits can be seen.

 “Self-relief” being the fourth exhibit, was the most meaningful exhibit with how specific

I was about what archives I wanted to display. As mentioned throughout this essay on the idea

of how my scrapbook is organized, this final layer consists of archives that were carefully

curated in a way that ties in all three of the exhibits, while also providing the sense of “self” and

how I perceive the world within the exhibit. The interdisciplinary consensus of exhibit four,

“self-relief” are a collection of artifacts that were chosen to specifically show the relationships

of how they all connect to this last exhibit where I define, myself and the priorities I value.

Finding artifacts that related to one another and why I chose these artifacts made sense to me,

however, showcasing such relationships and its relevance to my life, is where I struggled the

most during this scrapbooking process. With my struggle in perfectionism regarding various

aspects of my life, when it comes to sharing what I feel or think beneath the surface, is where

my perfectionism is at an all time high as translating what I am thinking into words, often gets

lost in translation. As to why the interdisciplinary understanding I have with the archives I

curated, are shared with significance and reasoning behind every one of them.

A fine representation of what I mean behind my intricate idea that I want to express

from my scrapbook (though unsure if it will be perceived in the way that I intend for it to be), is

the reading of Antonio Gramsci, where he explains how philosophy and one’s conception of the

world is the result of understanding from many dimensions, to say the least. The various points

Gramsci makes to explain the thinking of oneself being complex as it is, is the same idea I had

when creating this scrapbook. I suppose if I were to classify the type of scrapbook or portfolio I

created based on the reading, From Becoming Interdisciplinary by Rosenburg, it would be that I

have created a combination portfolio as the artifacts that I curated within my scrapbook, were
collected of not only from personal discoveries that I had with myself but also, relates to my

morals and perceptions of the world. What helped my gain a sense a greater sense of

understanding on what is considered an artifact, the discussion and website of ‘Follow the

Things’, helped me realize on what I could use towards my scrapbook and that, not all archives

are just long, lengthy documents.

Works Cited

Augsburg, Tanya. Becoming Interdisciplinary: An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies (2nd

Ed.). Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2005.

Cook, Ian. “Follow the Things.” Follow the Things, http://www.followthethings.com/.

Gramsci, Antonio, and David Forgacs. The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916-
1935. New York University Press, 2000.

Lowe, Charles, et al. “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources.” Writing
Spaces 2: Readings on Writing, Volume 2, Parlor Press, Anderson, 2010.