Photo Cred: Dorothy Attakora-Gyan

Image Description: A turquoise green arched plate on greyish floors and white walls.

YouTube video and Soundcloud audio are available.

October 7th marks the anniversary of my first blog post in 2020.

This is a reflection on why I decided to study emotions in the first place. It was an inquiry into a business I was looking to launch at the time with some old friends. We had all traveled as part of credits for our degrees at school. We continued traveling for volunteer work after graduating. During those trips, I noticed patterns: emotions and trauma, they would get in the way of our interpersonal relationships and attempt to ruin the trip somehow. Over and over, conflict was fueled by underlying issues that we couldn't unpack in a single trip (4-weeks).

If we were going to be a successful business, if we were going to claim to sell positive travel experiences, we would have to address the things that would create a poor user experience, including emotions. That is why I went back to school. To study how emotions like shame and fear got in our way. I wanted to know what trauma was doing to us, and why. Essentially, I did user experience research. I invested in myself and my business ventures. That makes it feel more worth it. I did this for me. For Dee'Archives. I just didn't know it at the time. This post gets into some of those topics.

Until next time, in solidarity.