ORIGAMI

Sofia Sanchez Manni

When I was little I used to run a small “business” in my 2nd grade class where I would make these origami pets and give them out to people. It became so popular that I made a “catalogue” for people to point out their orders and even got friends to help me make them. I remember how happy and proud I was of my success. Years passed and I hadn’t thought much about that time. I would still make the little origami animals from time to time for fun, as a way to reminisce but it never really crossed my mind for too long outside of a brief moment of pride. However, this year while in our workshops I was reminded once again of the tiny animals I made. This time however, I felt different. I missed how that moment felt. Ever since college started I have been really lonely. It is not anyone else's fault, and I don’t want to guilt trip other people so I have mostly kept these feelings to myself. The first year was pretty brutal when it came to how isolated I was from everyone else. I would spend almost 23 hours each day not talking to another living person and only ever really talking to my twin, who I saw once a day (if at all) for an hour. This was hard for me but then this year I moved in with my siblings. While this definitely improved my situation I still missed being able to hang out with friends. Then the quarantine came, and my one chance at finally being able to hang out with friends was stolen away from me. When I’m alone I think a lot about the past. I couldn’t stop thinking about the origami I made, and how it felt like I was so connected with people back then. Which is why I felt it was necessary to do something about it.

            The plan for my final project was to make origami pets again, like I often did when I was little. However, this time they were going to be for me. I have been the only person who has stuck by myself all this time and I am the one who picked myself up over and over and over and over again that first year of college when I was at my rock bottom. And yet, I never do anything kind for myself. I create and I make things that I want to see but I never really give myself credit for the things that I have done for myself. So I took papers that I originally printed out schoolwork on (that I no longer needed) and made 4 animals. On the back of each animal, I wrote my younger self a message. My hang ups with the past make it feel like I’m clinging on to a younger version of myself constantly so I wanted to speak directly to that. Quarantine has left me with little art supplies and a lot of stress from the work so a simple task like this really helps relieve some of that stress. It was a form of therapy not only in its mindless stress relief but also in its emotional release.