Ambitions

Everyone has ambitions. One way or another, everyone wants to change their life in some way. Be it to become rich or to just achieve the next meal. I lump myself into this group of "everyone", naturally. When I was younger, I had a creative mind and took to art as a hobby. I always wanted to draw and paint random stuff, but superheroes were my favorite. Luckily I had great art teachers that let me express what I wanted. Also, my mother should get a lot of credit for encouragement and for buying me what I needed. Everything was set in place for me to grow with my art.

My art was always a leisure activity, and I hated doing it by a deadline. This often happened in art classes throughout school. It made something that I like into a sort of job. I hated that. But I rolled with the punches, because I enjoyed the adventure of presenting my creativity in physical form. Art class was definitely my favorite class in elementary and middle school.

During elementary school came a pivotal decision in my life. My first participation in an art show. I was in fourth grade, and everyone in my class had to choose one piece of artwork to enter into a contest at Washington Square Mall. I knew exactly which one that I wanted to enter. However, when my friend saw the one I was entering, he said that I would win too easily with it. He convinced me to enter another piece to make it fair for everyone. So I did.

He ended up using his artwork that was similar to the one he talked me out of. The day came to go to Washington Square Mall and view the results. His piece won first place, and mine won nothing. This was a big reality check for me as a fourth grader. I felt that I could have won first place if I entered my original choice. I realized that I didn't really know that for sure.

The only thing I did know for sure was that I liked all my artworks, and enjoyed making them. This reminded me that my art was for me. Nobody else. Just me. I am very happy this experience happened to me. I think I would have disliked art if I was seeking glory. It would have sucked all the life out of me and my works, from that point on. The only goal that I had from that point on, with my art, was to just enjoy and have fun with it. That is one of my greatest achievements in life, because it applies to many aspects of me.

On a side note, I am finding that writing is much more of an art than I have thought. There is the ability to place key words in certain positions, just as to place key colors in focal positions in an artwork. This is new to me, because I have been trained to write in a business style. Straight to the point with no fillers or unnecessary clutter, that is the business style. It is a bit difficult from going from trimming writings to having a minimum word limit. I guess it is time to get creative.