Data narratives: introductions
Building on last year’s success, the Data and Interactive Journalism will publish a series exploring a variety of topics through data visualization. The series takes inspiration from the book Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec.
In their book, Lupi and Posavec embarked on a creative journey, swapping hand-drawn visualizations on postcards that captured the ebbs and flows of their daily lives. Our class will use a similar method, to explore personal narratives and the data that bind our collective experiences.
Our first topic is introductions and connection.
Kicking off with the theme of introductions, we examine how our lives change and shape our interactions in the world. Personal evolution is a testament to our resilience and adaptability. It allows us to expand our horizons and deepen our relationships.
When we introduce ourselves, we reaffirm our identities and invite others to witness the journey of change. By charting our growth, we often uncover connections supporting and shaping our journey.
My life as a musician
by Ethan True
Music is like a language. It is taught and you have to learn it. Once mastered, you develop your own style and learn to make up things as you go. As a musician, I learned being good at one instrument is hard and takes time. It made me happy and helped me become a better person as I moved throughout my life. I learned that things don’t just happen all at once; they take time.
Moving forward
by Gracey Parnell
Life is about progression and growth. Triangles are a great representation of life as they always point forward– representing direction. Similarly, in my life, I have always been moving forward. Over the years, I have faced many changes and challenges that halted my growth. But, I have always powered through, and it has led me to where I am today.
Change in plans
by Jeikof Alfaro Saenz
I always thought change was bad until I started changing. I wanted to be a TV journalist and had defined how I wanted my life to be when I was 7 years old. Then, I found my passion for business in college and changed my plans completely because it’s what I feel called to do. The different experiences I’ve lived in the last few years have opened my perspective in many ways. I think that’s the whole purpose of college: to challenge your points of view and explore areas and opinions that you wouldn’t have considered otherwise. I’ve embraced that change is what challenges us and makes us grow.
Emotional retrocast
by Hannah Cron
Looking back on my life, I first think of how I felt during different times and experiences. It can be hard to quantify emotions, but they affect so much of our lives. Before spending weekends or holidays with my family, I often call my mom to get what I call “the emotional forecast” — an idea of how everyone at home is doing and what is going on in their lives so that I know what to expect when I get home. I decided to introduce myself with an “emotional retrocast.” Each of the weather icons represents one year in my life, and the icon indicates how my life felt that year. From highs like starting kindergarten and working in my dream field, to lows like surgeries, mental health struggles, and global pandemics, I have both weathered many storms and enjoyed many beautiful skies.
Life lessons in sports
by Saxon Brown
Sports were crucial in my development. Each sport I played taught me valuable lessons that will remain with me for a lifetime. Sports and my desire to improve in each one put me on the path to Lipscomb University. You cannot tell the story of me without sports. I began playing t-ball and soccer when I was 5. But those were short-lived. Next, I played basketball and football. Those sports stuck with me for quite some time. Eventually, football would become my number one sport. In order to get better at football, I took up wrestling and track to improve my strength and speed. My hope was to play football in college. I continued to improve in track far beyond my expectations. My progress in track moved me away from all other sports. I started focusing solely on running. That decision brought me to Lipscomb and sent me down a path of growth.
