When I was a kid I went through several different phases of self-definition. The first was in about second grade when I decided that I would stop wearing dresses, pink, and purple because I wanted to be a tomboy. For the next three years that was exactly what I did because I wanted to be more than what girls were supposed to be. Then came the end of elementary school and into middle school when I decided to break all the stereotypes. I vividly remember coming into school in fifth grade wearing a long blue hippie skirt after five years of nothing but boy shorts and baggy pants. I was particularly fond of the pants where you could zip off the leg becUse then I could zip back on the wrong colors. When I walked into school that day a friend of mine was out in the hall. He said hello, did a double take, and ran into the classroom, whispering as loudly as he could, “Miranda’s wearing a skirt!”
It wasn’t until the end of middle school and the beginning of college that I realized that by attempting to break all stereotypes I had fallen into the stereotype of the stereotype-breakers. This felt very meta to me then. I spent the rest of my time in college and in my life since then trying to do, wear, and say what feels right rather than what is right. My out-of-the-box thinking was actually to find out what parts of me fit in which box.
This little bit of explanation of my self-exploration was brought about by an an article I was reading for graduate school: Jack Mezirow’s “Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice”(1997). On page 7 Mezirow says, “We do not make transformative changes in the way we learn as long as what we learn fits comfortably in our existing frames of reference.” Through my various and continued transformations I’ve learned quite a bit. I’ve learned to question why I do what I do, whether it makes me comfortable or uncomfortable, and why I haven’t done what I haven’t done yet. In my work as an artist and a teacher I continue to expand my frames of reference and hopefully those of the people I work with.