As I write this portfolio, graduation quickly approaches and so does the end of my MA journey. Although I don’t know precisely what industry I will be going into, I feel confident that I will be able to perform good work. I’ve learned about subfields of professional writing like User Experience, which centers human based design and focuses on the same matters I do, such as accessibility. Additionally, I can use the decolonial methodologies learned through my writing and theorizing about Puerto Rico to create documents and work environments that prioritize including a multiplicity of voices and stories instead of a single one.
There are already moments where you can see this kind of work happening in my writing and design. One example is how I used a decolonial/cultural rhetorics methodology of story telling to craft my journey map. By including my grandparents into the composition process, I was able to craft a journey map based on real experience instead of an imagined experience. I also thought about audience as I was writing my research pieces. I imagined that the people from my home would be the ones reading my writing, so I attempted to never write in such a way that would be inaccessible to them.
So, what comes next? I don’t know how to answer this question in terms of what career I will have. What I do know is that I want to use all of what all I’ve learned to create spaces where coloniality is actively resisted, where people feel like they have a voice, and where writing isn’t just an end product, but a process of resistance. Maybe I’m being too optimistic or too hopeful, but for now that’s what I believe comes next.