Smile
Each of these works was created based on personal feelings I was having about myself and the society we live in at the time of creation. There have been a lot of times where I have felt like I was going crazy during the pandemic. As my mental health got worse and people around me starting getting sick or dying, it seemed like the world around me wasn’t concerned at all. My educational institutions continued on with courses as normal, expecting attendance, expecting greatness even during a time period where no one felt like those were things they could deliver. I have felt trapped in my own mind, trapped in negativity, trapped in emptiness—but I can’t show it. I have to act the way I am expected to, or else I won’t survive in this world with the way it has been built to function. I have always felt this way, but the pandemic has only increased the intensity of these feelings for me.
