Self-suppression is the art of keeping parts of yourself buried—cutting, hiding, or drowning the unsightly bits until what remains fits the mold.

Sometimes it starts with a whisper: a desire to fit in, a flicker of doubt. Other times, it presses in all at once, wearing you down from the outside.

Either way, same result: a fractured existence (to be fair, a completely reasonable effect of hacking off parts of yourself.)

In this multi-format project, we will be exploring the theme of self-suppression—and what happens when these parts we’ve suppressed come back to the surface. Through a mix of written narratives, visual reconstructions, and digital traces, this project unfolds a narrator’s journey to reclaim her whole self. It is a one-women effort rooted in fragments of old sketches, scattered notes, and moments of clarity (and chaos).

The story begins with me.