My Game of Life

My Game Board of Life

In “My Game Board of Life,” the main subject throughout the board is about myself and my pathway in life. Throughout the game board, you will notice a few pictures of myself growing up. There is a picture of myself in elementary school in New York, a picture of myself graduating from middle school, and a current picture of myself used as a stick figure walking across the board as continue to go through the events in reality.

            As shown above, my game board consists of 3 levels, indicating beginning, middle, and end. The first level represents my life in New York, East Harlem. In the top right corner of the board, there is a small image of New York. In my path through New York, I went to P.S. 96 Joseph Lanzetta, which was, at first, an all-girl school but was later changed to a regular public school. In one of the boxes there is a school picture of myself in my uniform when I attended P.S. 96. In a couple other boxes, viewers will point out an image of a part of Harlem that shows the poverty people had gone through when living there around the year 2003 or 2005.

Around the middle of the board there is a transition of New York to New Jersey. This was when my family decided to move and start a “brand new life.” My view has definitely changed as shown in the image at the middle to the right. My view went from seeing buildings to seeing nature. When living in New Jersey, I have entered a new school district which was distinctly different from New York. I graduated from Lincoln Community School (middle school) and Bayonne High School (BHS). I became the first person to go to college in my family, I received scholarships, and graduated with a good GPA, bought a car, and continue to walk down my path of success.

In the last level is where I am heading towards and that is what I am soon planning to achieve. I plan on going into a PA program at Rutgers and then after go to Medical school to become a Pediatrician. As soon as I have my dream job everything else becomes easier, such as traveling and buying a house.

            The reason I chose a game board is because I feel as if life is a game. We have to play the game right in order to win. If you notice, I did not add any slides or latters to skip from one level to the next. I chose to do this with my game board because I feel the best way to succeed is by taking baby steps and work your way up to mastering your skills. This is like solving a complicated problem in math. In order to get the right answer, one must solve it step by step rather than skipping around and missing a negative sign or multiplying wrong. This image conveys to the viewers the dream of any other person who is trying to succeed in their life choices. We all face struggles and difficulties that makes it hard to achieve a goal. You can always change the path but not the goal. Artists who have influenced my portraits would be Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman. The way Frida dressed represented her culture. In my project, I represent where I come from also, which is in level one. And Cindy Sherman’s shifting from one person to another inspired me to shift from one life time to another by starting from where I come from to where I am to where I want to be.

In a way, I am an organized person. Since I was in middle school I started becoming competitive, ambitious, and prepared. This game board did not only become my game of life but also my path in life. This includes no skipping around or cheating. I take it step by step because I feel as if I need to go through the whole experience. Without going through the experience, I do not discovery myself nor do I learn from any mistakes to prevent in further down the line. So in order to achieve my goals I created a path, treated it as a game, and continue to walk one step at a time.