Final Project Reflection

  Over the course of this class, I have learned many things about the power of positivity. Both of my topics helped me in some way. During first quarter my topic was romance novels. This topic really spoke to me as a reader because all of the books that I chose for the class were books that I would normally read outside of school. I have always viewed love as the key to life and reading about it consistently throughout the quarter gave me a sense of hope. For second quarter my topic was happiness. Around the start of the second quarter, I decided that I wanted to improve my lifestyle in a positive way. I planned to read about meditation, healthy eating, and self-improvement. The books from this semester have taught me a lot about life and I can honestly say that since the start of the semester, I feel a lot better.
During the planning process for my project, I had many ideas. I wanted to do something related to my quarter one topic involving interviews with couples. I did one of the interviews and decided that I no longer liked that idea. Eventually, I forged up the idea to make a bulletin board. I thought it would be nice to spread some positivity in the community. Many people struggle to stay positive especially during stressful times, for example, midterm week. Anxiety and depression are common in teenagers which, of course, the high school consists of. Sometimes a simple happy image can mean the world to someone in need and I hoped to share the techniques I learned this semester with the school.
After deciding on my idea, I made a plan for the board. I knew that my first step would be to speak with Mr. Seymour. I got permission to use one of the school's bulletin boards but eventually decided that a poster would give me more artistic freedom than just a standard board. I was originally going to use sticky notes to display positive messages that students could take when they needed positivity but instead decided quotes would be a neater way to spread positivity. To add to my poster, I decided that I wanted to include a few book recommendations, from the quarter, that would help people to improve their own lifestyles. I also wanted to include other tips on meditation and healthy eating as well.  I planned to use a variety of colors to make the poster stand out and attract viewers. I wanted the display to be informative and helpful for anyone who is in need of positivity.
Making the poster took a lot longer than I thought it would. I stayed after school multiple days in order to complete the display. My biggest struggle was with the quotes. I wanted to have plenty of quotes and fill the poster so that people could pull one off the poster when they are in need of inspiration. After selecting the quotes I wanted to use, I had a little bit more than a hundred quotes. When I was planning the project, I did not realize how time-consuming the quotes would be. It took me a long time to cut them out individually but ended up not using all of them because I thought they might distract from the rest of the project. I used the colors yellow and orange because they both have very good connotations behind them. The color orange symbolizes warmth, joy, balance, and sunshine. I thought that orange would fit in with the poster's theme of positivity. The color yellow symbolizes happiness, positivity, clarity, and energy. Yellow and orange are definitely the most obvious happy colors and I feel like overall they really helped contribute to the design of the poster.
Overall I am very happy with how the poster turned out. I think that it will spread the message of positivity around the school. I feel like some students may not get the message and instead joke about it but I think it is still beneficial. I know some kids will get the message and it might just make them think about how they want to improve their lifestyles. My goal for my project was to spread positivity so as long as my work affected one individual then I am satisfied.