Fair Winds and Following Seas

Emma Young

Area: Painting

Close

Thesis Statement

This display of work I’ve made tells a narrative of a shipwreck with the intention of eliciting an emotional response or a feeling. I’ve really been through my own storm and waves of emotions these past few months. I’ve learned a lot and have been hardened by what’s been thrown at me. I see myself as these sailors, struggling to fight through the merciless yet magnificent power and immensity of the sea. I’ve felt my own reality and sense of control ripped from my hands like ropes being tugged by hurricane-like winds. I’ve endured many waves of anxiety, plummeting depths of isolating depression, and the occasional bliss I reach during a rest under the sun in a cool breeze when I accept the things I can’t always control or change by myself. I’ve fought battles with these feelings and have still managed to ride them out into the calm again.

The phrase “fair winds and following seas” is something sailors would say to their shipmates, crew, and loved ones whenever they would travel or leave. It’s another way to say safe journeys, I wish you well, or a way to say goodbye that isn’t forever. I think the sentiment is beautiful yet bittersweet. This past year I’ve had to say goodbye to people I didn’t want to leave me. I’ve lost people. But you always remember those you’ve lost, who have left you, or those you end up leaving. We carry pieces of them with us on our own voyages through life. Without sounding cliché by all of this, you are the captain of your own ship, your vessel, your body, mind, soul, and choices. You have to learn how to steer yourself in the right direction and when you neglect your vessel, or make a bad choice under certain weather conditions, you must be able to repair yourself and save that damn ship. After the storm is over you either emerge stronger and grateful or you perish and move on to another form of existence. Who knows where our paths lead us or what the ultimate ending of our stories will be but all we have to do is learn how to survive, hopefully thrive, and work with what we have to live as much as we can in the present.