Student leaders with stories written on their skin lined up Park Hall Aug. 31 to be photographed for Dear World.
Dear World is “an interactive, award-winning portrait project that unites people through pictures in their distinct message-on-skin style,” according to a press release. Students wrote these messages on each other’s arms, faces and chests in black, chisel-tip Expo markers.
“I think the message [of Dear World] is: learn to listen to other people,” said junior telecommunications major Gabby Lloyd. “You might not necessarily agree with what other people have to say but understand and be open to what other people’s are and what makes a person a person.”
Bringing Dear World to Ball State is part of a diversity initiative during welcome week to show students that diversity is a priority on campus, said Abby Haworth, senior assistant director of the Office of Admissions and Orientation.
Lloyd wrote "beginning to love myself" on her arm.
“It kind of defines who I am," she said. "In my life, I remember being younger and thinking, to my mom, like, ‘Mommy, I wish I was white. I wish I was like the pretty girls at school,’ because I was the only person of color at school.”
Lloyd now says that she loves being herself and her story, which seemed to be a common theme among participants of Dear World, including volunteer Nicole Carlen who is a survivor of sexual assault.
"For the longest time, I didn’t tell my story," Carlen said. "I was one of those people that, if I don’t think about it, it didn’t happen to me, so I repress, I repress, I repress it. Finally one day, like, it hit me. I can’t keep doing that. It’s not healthy. I shared my story and during the phase where I was going through and accepting it, I realized that God wouldn’t have put me through it if He didn’t think I was strong enough to handle it. And so now I love to share my story."
Katie Greenman, a photographer and storyteller with Dear World, said that she’s seen mostly stories of love on campus so far.
One such story came through with Allison Cizmar, a junior marketing and logistics and supply chain management major, and her love of her faith.
“On my left arm, it says ‘Christ,’ and on my right arm, it says ‘determined,’ and on my left arm it’s supposed to pose as like, Christ is my foundation, and on my right, ... determination holds me up as well and holds me up as a person,” Cizmar said. “Christ is my life but determination keeps me up and going.”
Christopher Canady senior telecommunications major shared a lesson that his dad taught him.
“My dad, growing up, kind of made me erase the word can’t from my vocabulary," Canady said. "I remember, he was teaching me how to swim, and I would always want to give up. All the times I ran cross country, I would usually want to say 'I give up' and that 'I can’t' as a last resort, and he just really pushed me to my limit and told me to just take that out and just remember that you can."
Hannah Nunn, a junior criminal justice criminology major, thinks Dear World’s message of diversity is important for everyone to learn.
“If anybody has the opportunity to do this...you definitely should, because a lot of people don’t understand that everyone has their backstory and everyone has gone through their own events and their own tragedies and their own happiness to be who they are today,” Nunn said. “I think trying to understand everybody else will make you a better person overall.”
Dear World held another photo shoot Sept 1. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Letterman Building. They concluded their visit to campus with a storytelling event and photo reveal that night from 7-8 p.m.
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