I created a collage of the five places where I truly felt peace and posted it on Twitter. Here is a more detailed review of each spot.

The top left picture was taken on a pier in Amsterdam. The weather was beautiful as we waited for the ferry to bring us back mainland. The combined pleasure from the warmth of the sun and the sound of the water made us not want to leave.

The bottom left picture was taken behind the waterfall in Rangárþing eystra, Iceland. The bridge to get behind the waterfall was actually closed because of ice that day, so several of us from the tour group claimed down a rocky ledge to get behind it. I’m not sure if this was legal or not, but nobody stopped us. That was my favorite moment from the trip and honestly the most adventurous thing I have ever done.

The top right picture was taken outside of Westend in London. Our tour group had gotten us tickets to see Wicked and it was the first musical I had ever seen in person. It was and is the closest I will ever get to seeing something on Broadway. When the musical ended, I was crying because of how amazing it was. I vividly remember crying in the lobby as my mother purchased me a t-shirt to remember the night forever. I still have it with me.

The middle right picture was taken on top of a glacier in Mýrdalshreppur, Iceland. I don’t think I need to explain why being on top of a glacier was one of the coolest and most peaceful moments of my life. I CLIMBED ON TOP OF A FREAKING GLACIER.

And finally, the bottom right picture was taken in my family room. That brown lump on the leather chair our family dog, Colton. Colton is a rescue dog we adopted about three years ago. Whenever I see him all happy and relaxed, I instantly feel the same. You can’t help but be happy when you see his sleepy little face.

In this remix assignment I took an assignment I already completed and added Waldo to the picture. This is what the remix told me to do:

I put Waldo into my places of peace. To do this, I used Superimpose and got a photo of Waldo and edited it into my original assignment. This is how it turned out. Let me know if you found Waldo.

For this assignment, Places of Peace, I had to have at least 4 pictures that I considered were my places of peace. Places where I had time to myself and didn’t have to worry about anything. The biggest place of peace, as you can see, is my bed. I am there every day and always. The other places are the vocal booth at my college, the swing bed on my patio, and my workplace. The swing bed I used during the summer and in the morning I would wake up, go to the patio, sit down, and just look at nature. The vocal booth is where I do my podcast episodes and it is very peaceful(if you can get past the smell). My workplace is also my place of peace because whenever I don’t get any calls I spend time relaxing and preparing my mind for that day.

It took me a while to think of places that I have the most peace at. Once I figured out which places I took pictures of them and then uploaded them to Google photos. Once I converted them from HEIC to JPG I went to Collage Maker to put all of my pictures into a collage. They had a collage option which had four spots. As you see one was bigger than the other but I decided to use that to my advantage. I did use Studio Mode for the swing bed picture since it was dark and I wanted to bring out the bed more.

The first assignment that I chose to do this week was Places of Peace. I was really excited to be able to do this assignment and think of all the places that I love and feel at peace. I first started off by going through my photos and thinking of times that I was at peace. I collected 4 different photos that made me think of really good times, times of peace, etc. Then I put them in a collage and posted it to twitter!

The top photo, is from when I went on a hike with some of my friends last year. I love being outside and especially love hiking. It is something that brings me a ton of peace.

Then when working our way down on the left, we have the Outpost. This is the place I spent a month of my summer working. Now, sometimes this was stressful, but this place will alway bring me a sense of peace and home. This also reminds me of the experience of working at the camp in general and I love that place a lot!

To the right of that is Lake Anna. The picture is from a trip that I took with some of my friends this summer. I love any body of water (especially lakes). They always feel really peaceful and calm.

The last photo is from the Rappahannock River. Like I said before, any body of water really makes me feel calm. It is so amazing that we have our own body of water right down the street from the college. I spend a lot of my summer days here.

This assignment has been one of my favorite I have ever done!

One of the assignments I chose to do this week was to make a collage of places that bring me peace.

First, a tour of the images I picked.

On the top left is a photo I took during a UMW study abroad trip in the south of France. Although the experience of living in France by itself was an incredible one, I specifically remember taking this photo at a moment where I felt happy and peaceful. The weather was perfect and the landscape was poetic in its beauty. The sea in the distance, which I was walking toward, made me excited for a day at the beach.

Below that is a photo I took of my dog, Millie. She’s the sweetest dog I have ever known, and always bring so much joy to my life. Although the place where I took that photo is peaceful as well, my reason for picking the photo is more so because I feel at peace wherever and whenever I am with Millie.

The top right photo is from one of my favorite coffee shops. Although the Carytown coffee shop is now out of business [rest in peace :'( ], I recall such happiness and peacefulness from being there with my boyfriend. Many a time, we have explored Carytown together, and stopping at the coffee shop was one of my favorite memories.

Below the coffee is a photo from my hometown – Charlottesville. More specifically, this photo was taken early in the morning when I went for a walk with my dog, Millie, and my mom. The fog made everything quiet and peaceful.

Finally, the bottom right photo is a photo from a restaurant in Lithuania. My mom is from Lithuania, and during my upbringing, I visited Lithuania many a time. It is like a second home to me, in large part because my mom’s family still lives there. I always enjoy exploring restaurants like the one in the photo.

The work behind this was fairly straight-forward for me. I used Layout, an Instagram-recommended app that helps create collages for you. Perhaps the most demanding part was searching for the images that held the meaning to me. Searching through my photos brought back so many memories. Anyways, I chose a layout that looked nice, and voilà !

Furthermore, this post requires a little explanation of my thought process in linking this to our 80s theme. Although at first, these photos seemingly have nothing in common with the course theme, it is rather the mental process that accompanied this assignment that make the connection:

What would these places be like in the 80s? Would they exist? Would they still bring me peace?

It’s hard to say. For the photos of France and Charlottesville, I think the locations would be pretty much the same in the 80s. Lithuania, on the other hand, was still under the control of the Soviet Union at the time. I probably wouldn’t be able to go at all! But in terms of the coffee shop with my boyfriend, and the walk with my dog, it made me realize that a lot of peace comes from the people (and creatures) I value the most. If they weren’t travelling back in time with me, I probably wouldn’t enjoy my time in the 80s as much as I’d like to.

Personal peace can be found in a variety of places, people, actions and things. My personal peace comes from such a variety of sources.

I’m at peace when I’m with my family and my dog. They are the people who know me best and help me work out some of my inner struggles. They are there for me no matter what and they love me unconditionally. An activity that brings me a different kind of peace is watching my friends play rugby. I’ve known the Men’s Rugby team since my first week of freshman year and they provide a lot of comfort and security in my life. They are all so sweet and we all care about each other and we all know that we have each other’s backs. The bottom photo is part of dinner that I would have every night in France. We would always have a cheese course before dessert. The cake in the photo is called Tarte Tropezienne and its the best thing I’ve ever eaten and its only a South of France treat. I will always associate my time in Aix en Provence with this cake. I also included this photo because I love food. I love the stories behind different recipes and how food brings people together.

My last two photos are physical places that bring me peace. The first is my cabin in Vermont. My mom is from Vermont and we go there every year for vacation. Our cabin is completely solar and gas powered and it allows me to escape from the world and spend some time self-reflecting. We have a pond that is completely spring fed (so it stays around 60 degrees) that is one of the most peaceful places on earth. My Vermont vacation is how I recharge for the upcoming year. The last picture is by a lake in Peyrolles en Provence. When I studied abroad, my host family took me along with my other roommates to this lake for a relaxing day. We went there the first day I was in France and my French speaking skills weren’t the greatest and on the last day. It provided me peace because its just so pretty, but also because I was able to see how far along my French speaking skills had come.

In order to make this collage I used Canva which I have used a lot for my job on campus so I’m very familiar with the interface. I struggled deciding what images to include because there are a lot of people and places that create a peaceful atmosphere in my life. I wanted to include meaningful places that I have a big attachment to instead of this post being all about where I have traveled and have a minimal connection. This assignment was more rewarding than I originally thought. I took some time to self-reflect on what connections I have as well as whether those connections created peace in my life.