The Future Is Now

Written by Karl Hennen

It would be hard to argue against how significant our hands are. Fingers grip desired objects and point out new discoveries. Palms, when not examined for their lines, offer physical support. Hands make applause during important life events; they hold or shake other hands as symbolic gestures showing community, friendship, and love. Through their hands a person’s inner being touches the external world. For UH Hilo students participating in the Office of Applied Learning (ALEX)’s Fast Forward Fifty Wall event earlier this semester, handprints were used in tandem with reflections on the future.The literal hands-on activity, envisioned by ALEX Director and associate professor of marketing, Dr. Tom DeWitt, offered his own helping hand to pupils contemplating life impressions they aspire to impart.

In the early morning of October 8, 2014, a movable wall was set up by UH Hilo’s ALEX Office outside the Edwin H. Mookini Library. The wall featured a gigantic sheet of white paper wrapped around boards on wheels. ALEX members invited passing students to “make their mark” by tracing handprints upon the blank, homemade canvas using colored markers and crayons. Then in the silhouettes produced, pupils were encouraged to illustrate or write descriptions of how they desired to be remembered fifty years into the future—whether in academics, the community, their personal lives, or the workforce. Later, the ALEX staff asked students to consider local volunteer opportunities to achieve the legacy they outlined.

“The goal was to get students to transport themselves to the twilight years of their lives when most people reflect upon their lives and what they've achieved,” DeWitt writes of the successful project’s motivations. “The source of inspiration was my own life and consideration of my mortality following the death of my mother. [The Wall’s] purpose was to get students to begin thinking about their own personal legacy and how they hope to be remembered and what they want to be proudest of in living their lives.”

DeWitt’s Fast Forward Fifty Wall drew several pupils across different majors and year levels. They were able to ruminate on their current life experiences in relation to embers of future accomplishments glowing within their hearts. DeWitt believes the event facilitated self-inquiries most college-going young people might not conduct at their age, besides a potential mindfulness and encouragement of community participation.

Amber Manini, a reporter for ALEX, was one voice among many raised by students at the Wall. Originally from Oahu, Manini attended the Hilo campus for its small classes and proximity to home. After some soul-searching, the senior found that the Communication field clicked with her personality, and presently intends to graduate with a Baccalaureate degree in the subject and Hawaiian Studies next spring. With the help of the Wall, she explained her reflections on where she is and where she is going.

“At this stage in my life I think that I would be remembered as both a hard worker and a person with a friendly and sweet disposition,” a contemplative Manini posits. “Fifty years from now I would like to be remembered as someone who brought smiles, laughter and sunshine to those around me who need it. People take happiness for granted and I think sometimes as adults we think too much about the money, our families, bills, school and forget to smell the roses along the way. I want to be remembered as that one friend or person in your life who pushed you to do what made you happy and pushed you to stop and dance or smell the roses.”

Working for ALEX gave Manini an opportunity to witness the success of the Fast Forward Fifty Wall event firsthand.

“Some of us joke about where we are going to be in 50 years or maybe even ten,” she opines. “But the truth of the matter is once [you’re] a senior or junior, the Fast Forward 50 wall gets you to think about after graduation and all the things that could possibly happen in 10-20 or 50 years. I think for many of us we [lose sight] of the images or goals we have for ourselves in simply living day-to-day. The students’ reactions were positive and one in which I believe they walked away from the wall thinking about their future and how they would want to make a change.”

Tiana Wai, a senior planning to graduate with a Baccalaureate degree in Communication with a Certificate in Business, agrees the Wall offered her a concrete means of reflection. Wai enjoyed its hands-on nature. According to her, the Wall was a significant learning tool because it was “an actual application. It took you out of the classroom and was a very quick example of thinking on your feet, but also sharing your vision because a lot of people don’t realize they paint their own picture. We are the paintbrush and the canvas is our story, so whatever strokes we do on it – some may be bigger, some may be smaller – [is] our own flow. For me, that ties into diversity. There are people of different colors and different backgrounds [and] some have different techniques.”

Wai, who is also the Office Manager at the UH Hilo Women’s Center, described the artistic choices behind her contribution on the Fast Forward Fifty Wall—a contribution which included employing not only her hand but a foot.

“I started thinking leaving your mark could also be your footprint,” she explains. Your hand points you in the right direction but your feet take you there: one action leading to the reaction.” She elaborates on her reasoning behind the rest of her contribution to the Wall:

“In the different fingers, I wrote ‘empower’, ‘dedicated’, ‘charismatic’, ‘supportive’, ‘LGBTQ’, and in the palm I wrote ‘leader’. All of [those character traits are] at our grasp I would like to be a gesture of a hand sharing that with everybody. The symbol of a rainbow means peace and happiness. For me, right now, for this year, they’ve legalized gay marriage and most people identify [the rainbow] as the LGBT community. But for me, looking at it for the theme of [the Fast Forward Fifty Wall], I thought from the past to the present you still see a rainbow as a symbol wherever you go. The rainbow means, to me, diversity. It also defines equality. Wherever you are in the world, that (location) doesn’t discourage you from seeing its beauty.”

Manini felt her participatory experiences with the Wall solidified her perspectives on accomplishments. She is someone who has optimized her experiences, big and small, for their learning opportunities affirming her direction in life.

“I am proud of everything I have accomplished, whether it [is] simply getting up in the morning on a day I didn’t get much sleep or being the first-time college student in my family,” Manini writes. “I am proud to simply have been given the gift to live. As far as the future is concerned, I am excited to graduate with my Bachelor’s degree as well to continue on to graduate school. I don’t think I have very many tangible goals other than your simple ‘Buy a house, raise a good family, and make a living’. But I do hope to keep my personality intact and to not lose myself and forget the struggle of my past that has brought me to today. I hope to always keep a positive outlook and remember to stop, enjoy the sunset and the smell of the roses along the way.”

Wai has also used the Wall to think about what she has done and will do. The daughter of parents who told her not to be self-restricted by anything, including gender, Wai has risen above outside perceptions to succeed across several aspects of her life. She acknowledges the power of giving back after setting her mind towards achievement.

“I know for me, right now, I would like to be remembered as supportive, culturally sensitive because ‘culture’ is defined in many aspects, and dedicated,” Wai muses. “A lot of times I find myself thinking of others more than myself. I definitely want to be that supportive foundation for other people. I would like to be a very strong female leader who empowers others to write their own story.”

Manini and Wai wholeheartedly recommend that fellow students participate in subsequent Fast Forward Fifty Wall events on campus. They believe a majority of people learn best through direct action. As their unique stories testify, Professor DeWitt’s project inspires UH Hilo pupils to celebrate fulfilled goals, plan ahead, and make positive choices speaking to diverse backgrounds and values while constructing a meaningful present and future reality. The future is now.

#life #karlhennen