Shelves Filled

Shelves filled -- a series about the lives of strangers shown through their belongings — shelves filled. these fictional characters are inspired by facets of my own life and the paths untaken.

Rebecca

meet rebecca. rebecca is an eight-year-old born and raised in st petersburg, florida. she lives a peaceful life. she has friends at school, gets good grades, and goes to church every sunday where she sits quietly, trying her best to pay attention and not to doze off. when she isn’t busy doing homework or playing games with friends, she struggles to cope with the silence of solitude. she feels an incapability to relax, always wishing to keep her friends interested, teachers happy, family proud, and god pleased. she keeps this weight as a scribbled-out page in her diary in fear of the words coming to life- an attempt to not disrupt what she perceives as peace.

Chloe

meet chloe. she graduated college over a year ago when she took to NYC. having graduated as a design and management major, she had hopes of becoming part of the fight for climate justice in whatever capacity they would accept her. however, after months of racked up bills and countless linkedin updates from classmates— she begins to crack. she prepares to take NYC by a different kind of storm— one that puts herself first for better or worse. now it remains a question of is this new self-pursuing endeavor truly for the same girl who moved in at 22 with nothing but a few boxes and a hope for change? her once proudly displayed protest posters begin collecting dust hidden behind her shelves and her once endlessly worn backpack and pins lay covered in dirty laundry as she knows the chloe from only a year ago would fail to recognize the one standing before her in a way that aches too much to face.

Sarah

meet sarah. sarah is a 12 year old living in the suburbs of arlington, virginia. she has a strong fascination for fashion design, falling in love with classic designers and runway shows. her family finds ways to support her ambitions even at a young age, supplying her with small scale fashion design kits, fabrics, needles and thread. she feels an underlying heaviness for the financial worries her parents face however this only fuels her passion further. she loves spending her time creating mockups of designs she hopes to one day make come true