Olivia Persyn Portfolio 2016

OlIVia Persyn

Portfolio twenty sixteen

Self-Analytical Evaluation

I have never been one to desire praise; I suppose I had come so accustomed to the bounty residing in my parents’ love. Then I was introduced to yearbook, a class I was thrust into as none of my other choices were open. I was wary, at first; assuredly, we all were.

However, when I completed my first mod, I felt an almost alien air of pride. I soon had a deep aspiration for the encomium of my team leader, Samuel Kulliver, a man of few words (that have a positive connotation). He taught me how to style a mod, design a spread, and turn some of the worst interviews into the best. Prior to my time under Samuel’s wing I had barely touched a camera; now, I carry one with me daily. In addition to Samuel, I learned much from Korie Kerr about photography. Though she was brutally honest about my work, I enjoyed her raw candor and her ability to tell me what I should have done to improve the picture quality. From Alexa Dragone came my ability to get things done quickly, efficiently, and with quality effort; and from Sadie Thompson I learned which parts of my stories to include and which to nix. The whole yearbook team aided me in my adjustment to a new part of my life, one which I hope may become its entirety.

After deadline one, I discerned the true gravity of punctuality. Me and my teammate, Emma Povinelli, were more than a few minutes late and felt as though we had disenchanted everyone. Though that deadline I had accomplished my work, every deadline since I have pushed to make sure that my team never goes on overtime. I absolutely despise being one of the teams that is still missing work, which is why I may seem frantic at times. However, that is only because I truly desire perfection. Though illusory at times, my goals make me want to work assiduously.

Though I am not a team leader, I enjoy administering our deadline outline meetings, helping to divvy out the tasks for that deadline. I like taking a leader role as it allows me to help Samuel out when he is stressed, which is quotidian. I suppose it might be my somewhat overbearing personality, but I adore managing the work of the team. I often help my teammates with their stories and mods, and

will abet them in their editing process. I do not mind being the person someone turns to for succor, even when I am busy.

This year I witnessed a variety of journalism blunders.

From made up quotes to wrong names, our teams made more than a few mistakes. Nonetheless, it was from these brilliant women and men I learned integrity. With arduous effort, they attempt to fix any mistake, and remove all fictitious quotations. When they are incapable, the staff of the Cactus Shadows yearbook take responsibility for their mistakes, never giving blame to anyone but themselves, galvanizing me to do the same.

I am enamoured with journalism, and I always want to learn more. I have sacrificed some of my other grades for this class, though I still managed to keep them at an A average. I have missed countless outings to commit for my workload, and have taken every bit of extra free time to finish and edit my stories. Committing with the whole of my being makes me happy; when I am proud of my work I feel invigorated.

I believe my only challenge this whole year was taking on too much, biting off more than I can chew. But I figure that is not the worst thing I could do; even so, I completed all my work to the best of my ability. Though it caused me immense stress and the desire to, more than once, decimate myself, I enjoy my work. I aim to take on more in the coming months, and help Samuel design more spreads. My work is my euphoria.

Reflection one Slasher was my child during deadline two. I put so many hours into a piece of work that only amounted to 307 words in its final draft, introducing me to what seems to be the theme of yearbook: work a lot to make a little.

This story was based on the tale of John Bush, a sophomore, who severely injured himself while performing in the haunted house. I was astonished by the anecdote, overhearing reports from various students around Cactus Shadows of what had happened. When it was revealed that my team had been assigned to the haunted house spread, I immediately volunteered to write the main story on the boy who got a cut as gory as the actors’ makeup.

I started the piece as an objective observer, attempting to achieve a sinister, uncanny vibe that would give readers the feeling as though they were present during the accident. I slowly creeped my way to give the hard facts, and included quotations from Bush and Alexa Dragone, who ran the haunted house. I interviewed Bush as soon as I received the assignment, later throwing him into a mini photoshoot with Dragone.

My habitual writing process was interrupted by my grandfather’s funeral; I wrote this piece while sitting on an airplane, trying not to fall asleep. I pride myself in my ability to write while in pain, fueling it into my work. That is why I believe that this has been my greatest work. I did not trust that any one of my stories or mods was more illustrious than the others when I was reviewing them; I was proud of the conditions in which I wrote to achieve the quality of Slasher. After the rough draft, my story undertook several viewings from others in the class, receiving a lot of mending from both Sadie Thompson and Mia Gilling. However, the accolades I received from both of the girls inspired me to keep asking for main stories, to keep feeding on the rush that is writing.

I believe that my favorite part of the piece is the beginning. I love authors that achieve this style of writing, and was astonished when I was applauded for attempting it myself. Though Slasher will never be perfect in my eyes, I am overly enthused by the imagery I begun with. I am not sure if I will ever achieve another story at this level of quality; a girl can only hope.

Rough Draft

A grim-faced doorkeeper stands watch as the group enters the room. A static serenade plays as two couples come into sight; one dancing a sweet waltz, the other greeting each other in a frenzied, battle-like manner. The male approaches his partner, as if stalking his prey. Then, suddenly, he loses his footing, his weight falling towards the floor. In an attempt to save himself, he throws an arm towards the wall. The sound of shattering glass pierces the night. During the final performance of the haunted house, John Bush, a sophomore, had managed to accidentally slice his arm open, just inches away from a major vein.

“I didn’t realize what had happened until the group left. It kinda hurt, but I thought I just bruised it or something; then I looked down and it was just dripping blood. That night, I went to the hospital and had to get staples, and then I had those in for about two days until I had to go into surgery because I had cut my tendon in half,” said Bush.

Bush and his partner, Jordyn Hill, a senior, had been tasked with entertaining haunted house visitors in one of several rooms. The annual haunted house, run by drama club, gave guests an eerie and macabre look into the Seven Deadly Sins. Bush and Hill were actors in the Lust room, along with Kameron Moore and Tyler Colgan, both seniors.

“This was the hardest room to design because we had to keep it PG, so I designed it as ‘love leading you to insanity,’” said Alexa Dragone, a senior and the creator of the haunted house the past two years.

final draft

Reflection two

I will never forget the feeling I had when I finally took a picture that stood up to korie’s standards. I watched over her shoulder as she inspected my Sd card, deleting each picture one-by-one.

Her last scroll lead her to a picture of students joking around in the pool, one that I thought would never be good enough. She stopped, momentarily, as if dissecting the image, before moving on. I felt relief at first; finally one of my pictures was not trashed. Then I felt rapture, an ephemeral bliss like one would get from a pat on the back by a coach or a good grade on a quiz.

This is why I am so proud of how far my photography has come. The above pictures are from Volleyball (top), and the fall dance show (bottom right). I always brought my camera with me to volleyball games as I never saw many people taking pictures and figured that I should at least try.

I ended up providing the photography for most of the volleyball spread, a fact I pride myself on. In addition, I really enjoy this picture I took at the fall dance show tech rehersal day as it is was taken during a dance about the freedom of speach and why the dancers believe it to be important. I thought that this captured one of the moves quite perfectly, and could not believe that I had taken it. It was especially rewarding as I am writing a story on the dance, one that I became enamored with.

I was also extremely prideful of my story about Benjamin Musser, a swimmer. I interviewed two boys, Musser and Kyle Oyague, also a swimmer, in search for a story. Musser gave me an incredible interview, speaking about his being dared to swim, and how it impacted his life. In the end, I enjoyed portraying a funny tale in the yearbook, for Musser to remember.

This blurb is one I was rushed to write on deadline night. Samuel had realized that the page was nearly bare and needed something to read, so he had me write this paragraph describing the dress up days. I love that I was able to use Alice In Wonderland quotes to give it a whimsical feel. However, despite how proud of the blurb I was, it is obvious we should have scoped out the subtitle for typos.

Tear Sheets

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