Represent!

Hello world!
So the past week in class we discussed liberal humanism and representation. The discussions on representation stuck out to me personally, and it all just clicked in my head. I never realized how many things in the world represent other things. There are universal representations and there are personal representations. The McDonald's M is an example of a universal representation of the restaurant. My name, a picture of me, a photograph of me, a picture of Thunder Bay, and the name of my school are all examples of representations of myself. In life you subconsciously see things several times every day and associate them with other things. One of my friends is a huge fan of the Calgary Flames hockey team, so whenever I see the Calgary Flames logo I think of them. I think the most common universal representations are with corporate logos because everyone knows them. Universal representations cross language barriers that nothing else can. There are very few words in the English language that are recognized universally, but there are dozens of symbols and logos that can be picked out by people of all cultures and ethnicitys.
Now to focus on personal representations. I never really thought that you could associate a person with a word, but a person can definitely be represented by their name on a piece of paper. A photograph is the most ideal representation of a person because not only does it show what the person looks like, it gives a hint about their personality or their way of life. I feel that every picture of me accurately represents myself as a person. In most of my pictures I am with my friends, my family, travelling, dancing, or just being a goofball, which are all things that make up my life. All in all, who knew that we didn't have as much control as we thought over how we are represented?

"You know you love me, xoxo"