About

Hi! I'm Jamie.

Before we get into the usual yada yada about who I am and what I do in life, or how I identify, I want to share this: My main preoccupation in life is the complexity of the human condition. I think people are fascinating in that everyone is thoroughly three-dimensional and multi-faceted. I believe that life is full of ironies and paradoxes that are mind-bogglingly interesting to explore. And that's what keeps life interesting to me. It's what I like to write about.

I believe that every person is a product of their life experience, and brings a unique lens to any situation, time and place. People have a rich history and lots of experiences that inform how they think deeply, evaluate arguments, enjoy humour, see beauty, and process pain. Each individual is a rich mine of thought and potential. Collectively, society is then infinitely full of possibility and tangled intellectual intricacy. There is no simple answer to anything.

Knowledge flows like a river. Any phenomenon of collective knowledge and understanding is the result of many long winding tributaries that come together at a specific moment in time, and like many rivers, eventually branch off into separate paths too.

If you read my work and you're left with more questions than when you entered, then I have achieved something. I believe that in life, everyone brings something to the table, and in my writing, I wish to tap on the collective knowledge people bring, problematize, and hope people walk away with something new and different.

This essay is the process of me trying to understand a trend in society - minimalism, and how something based on the central tenet of simplicity is actually the farthest thing from simple. It is wrapped up in difficult issues like artistic backlash, consumerism, capitalist poison, environmental degradation, wealth discrimination, classism, social needs, spiritual needs and more. It's a lot, but I hope you find it interesting. This essay is not about a central argument, but a journey of understanding.

I chose the immersion memoir and creative non-fiction genre because I wanted to share the lens that I bring to the table. I hope that my perspective is both something new, but something familiar. I am part of the fateful class of 2020, that will graduate into the massive COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant chaos and economic recession. The entire world is reeling from collective trauma, but it hits my graduating class in a specific way. Once again, human condition is central to my preoccupations as a writer. The collective trauma of this pandemic has definitely informed some of my perspectives and influenced the personal journey that I went through in the writing of this essay.

And now I can introduce myself! Hi, I'm Jamie. At this time of writing, I'm a senior at the University of Michigan. I grew up in Singapore, a tiny island in Southeast Asia, and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to pursue a college degree. I study music education and linguistics, and I really want to be a school teacher! I am part of the Sweetland Center Minor in Writing program, and this website is the portfolio for my capstone in the minor. My biggest hobby is Taekwondo, a Korean martial art that I pursue through a collegiate recreational sport club on campus. (Shoutout to UM-TKD!). Collegiate Taekwondo has been my biggest source of comfort and community, and is a big part of my identity.

The word "essay" stems from a Middle French word of the 1590s that roughly means "to attempt". This essay is my attempt to explicate even a drop of the body of knowledge out there on minimalism as a phenomenon. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Best regards,

Jamie

Acknowledgements

I would not have been able to produce this essay without the support of some incredible people.

Firstly, thank you to my capstone writing instructor Dr. Shelley Manis for your invaluable guidance, encouragement and support. Writing this capstone was incredibly challenging, even more so in the midst of a pandemic, but it ended up informing my work. I could not have made it without your support.

Secondly, thank you to Dr. Jeremiah Chamberlin of the U-M English department and my former Immersion Writing instructor for being a consultant on this project and your incredible feedback on my in-progress work.

Thank you as well to my peers in the Minor in Writing, especially those in my capstone class who helped with peer feedback.

To my friends and family who were there for me to bounce ideas off of, and who encouraged me throughout this entire journey, thank you.

Thank you as well to the people who were so kind to proofread and copy-edit my essay in its final stages.

And thank you, to anyone who believed in me, and my project.

Last but not least, thank you to you, the reader, for without an audience this work would not be what it is.