Reflective Summary – Stage 2
This stage of the course has been a journey through memory, identity, and language — and, in many ways, a journey back to myself. When I look at the work I produced for Relations, Perspectives, and Language, I realise that each unit opened a different door inside me, helping me understand not only my creative voice but my place in the world.
In 2.1 (Relations), I began to understand how my experiences — Greece, China, the Isle of Man, my family, my childhood, the factories, the travel — all form an interconnected map of meaning. I discovered that my work always begins with lived experience, and that the relationships between place, memory, and emotion give my poems and images their strength. China especially became a huge source of inspiration: the factories, the isolation, the cultural contrasts, the Opium War Museum in Dongguan, the people working like honeybees. All of it made me see the world differently.
In 2.2 (Perspectives), I learned to look again — to reflect on distance, exile, belonging, and how my personal Odyssey shapes everything I create. I realised that I write like a storyteller walking between two worlds: the external world of travel and the internal world of emotion. My drawings, my poems, and my photographs all became tools for shifting perspective.
In 2.3 (Language), I found my voice. I wrote poems that weave mythology with autobiography: Kanenas, Leucothea, The Land of Lotus Eaters, Aeolus and Nausika, Penelope in Me. I learned that simple language can carry profound truths — and that my work often aims to offer a moral, a reflection, a small lantern for the reader.
Overall, Stage 2 helped me understand who I am as a creative practitioner: a traveller, a storyteller, and someone who turns lived experience into meaning. It made me realise that my journey matters — and that my voice is finally becoming my own.
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