True Passion

Everyone needs some activity where they can zone out and do what they enjoy. For some people it’s running, watching TV, or reading. My real stress reducer would be art and especially painting. When I was younger, I always enjoyed coloring and when I took a junior high art class, I realized I really enjoyed everything about the subject. Even though I took a break from art for awhile, I came back and realized how talented I really am.
I took my first real art class my freshmen and everyone in my class was the same age as myself. All my projects turned out pretty good at first and by the end of the year I was an excelling student and I even won many awards at the annual end of the year art show. I figured that since I had been such a stand out, if I took another class during my sophomore year I would be just as talented. This was not the case in my class full of mostly seniors. All my new classmates were very talented and had taken years of classes as well as taking two or three per semester. I felt as if I were too far behind.
I ended the class with a decent amount of good work but I never felt this way about my pieces because the older students were so much more advanced than I was. Struggling to keep up with the seniors abilities, I often spent hours at home working on my work as well as at school. I become very stressed with it and art wasn’t much fun for me anymore. I regretted taking the class because to me, my art work did not even compare to the others. I won maybe two awards in the art show that year. Quite a difference than the year before and my confidence suffered greatly. So much that I didn’t take another art class for the next three semesters.
By the time of my senior year, I had most of my credits and only needed to take electives. I thought about taking a few art classes because I really did miss the stress relief it had been for me my freshman year. My parents remembered my trouble sophomore year and although they advised me against it, I signed up for the class anyway. It didn’t take me long to step up to how good I was and I realized I was even better. The ability to draw and paint matures over time as you do. You develop more patience which helps this ability. For me, this definitely had happened.
Art was fun for me again and I looked forward to class. I even came to work on my latest piece during my study hall and took my projects home at night but not because I was behind and stressed. I worked on it so much because I realized I really loved doing it again and it wasn’t stressful. Painting and drawing turned out to be my favorite hoppy to do in my free time. At the end of the year, I produced an art display of my pieces as did my fellow seniors. My display lacked quantity because of the semesters I had missed but it made up in the quality. I won an award for every one of my pieces with more than half of them receiving first place ribbons.
Painting really became my passion. During the summer, I continued to paint and I produced many more pieces which actually hang all over my house. Now that I am in college, I do not have much time to paint or even draw. I did not even bring any of my supplies to USI with me except a simple sketchbook which I rarely have the opportunity to draw in. My high school art teacher stated that with time, your talent matures even more so I’m hoping that even though I am not able to do any of it right now, by the time summer comes, I will still be just as talented if not more.