Senior Thesis Statement
Noelle Cha Control and Autonomy What does it mean to be your own person? My thesis explores the all-consuming pursuit of autonomy. To me, personal autonomy means living according to my desires, choosing my path without apology, and finding independence. It is the ache to live freely. I’ve always been called a stubborn child, refusing to follow any order I didn’t already agree with. Ultimately, this stubborn and resistant nature led me to my conflict with autonomy. Everywhere I go, I feel under constant surveillance, scrutinized by the public eye. Their perceptive gaze follows me, and the weight of their expectations crushes me. My work grapples with the conflict between the public and private worlds. It's a high-stakes, high-pressure environment. Do you mindlessly follow what others dictate to you? Or do you risk being lost to stay true? Somewhere in the journey, the struggle with “autonomy” became a battle for “control”. Autonomy feels impossible when the fear of los...