Final Project : My Self Portrait

Eric Morales

CLQM Art Cult & Med

Professor Cacoilo

24 April 2020

My Self Portrait

My self portrait represents the characteristics of hard work and determination. This can link with other key characteristics such as perseverance, compassion, and self motivation. For me, I’ve always been a hard worker from the start. Being an only child my parents taught me discipline and what the real world was like at a young age. In order to get the things that I wanted, I would have to show my parents good grades because they were really strict with it. It has made me the man I am today and I will be forever grateful. As of now my main focus and goal for this year is to provide for my family and to improve on myself. During this quarantine I am helping my parents around the house and just relaxing with one another. My main passion is bodybuilding and improving on my body everyday. Unfortunately during this pandemic the gym is closed and I do not have weights to work with so that resulted in me turning my usual workouts into home workouts. It’s a struggle from going to the gym everyday to staying home indefinitely. Most people would stop working out during this time but I wanted to keep improving and took it upon myself to do so. The benefit to this quarantine is that I can’t eat any more cheat meals for my diet more than I usually do. I know I’m not the only one dealing with hardships during the pandemic; however, I want people to never lose hope and to stay driven everyday to complete any task they have put in front of them. Ta-Neshisi Coates’ struggles and adversities living in the United States as a African American creates a connection with me because of the hardships and struggles that my family and I are dealing with during this pandemic. I made this connection even though I am not African American because of the struggles that I am dealing with now during the pandemic occurring. I had lost my grandma last month in the hospital in Portugal and my family and I couldn’t travel over there because of the virus. So it brought me down and I was torn up from it that I couldn’t be there; however, I know that my grandma would want me to be strong and to keep pushing to be better no matter what. The beginning of this year has been the most challenging year of my life; however, I'm focusing on ending the year strong. I just want everyone to know that this year will get better and to stay strong during these times.