preview of what's to come

The first week of classes is weird. I think it's important to go to class so I know what to expect for the rest of the semester. But, it's SO boring. Professors just talk about nonsense. Literally. One of my professors talked about his adventures at Wabash College for a good 30 minutes.

But, I do love the first week of classes because I get to set my expectations for the rest of the semester. And, usually I'm really excited. I love the feeling of being able to look at a syllabus and see how much I'm going to learn. I love sitting down in a random seat on the first day and looking around at the other people in the class, thinking about how some of us might be friends after this is all through.

It's a nerdy thing to say, but I'm excited for what will happen in my classes this semester. I'm excited to be able to redeem myself in Statistics, read British literature and pretend to be an English major, learn about how my brain works, and listen to some crazy professors who are extremely passionate about what they do.

But, most of all, I'm excited for art class. We are going through the process of creating one single work of art from brainstorming to experimentation to finally showing it to the Butler community. It's going to be a great journey, one that scares me a little bit. In class, I'm surrounded by people who seem to be professional artists. It's intimidating. They all have practice in drawing and painting and they all seem to have big ideas about things they want to create.

On the other hand, there's me; nervous, confused, and feeling like I have NO idea what I'm doing. But, I think it's going to be okay. For an ongoing project, we are all supposed to start what is called an "artist's way" journal.

We spend a few minutes each day and just write down everything that we are thinking about, everything that we are worrying about, everything that is filling up our heads. Word vomit on to the page. The only rule about this journal is that you're not allowed to look back at any previous days entries. It's supposed to be a helpful exercise to try to eliminate all of the daily worries and pains that fill our heads and try to make room for more creative and thoughtful thinking.

 At the end of the semester, we're going to look back on our journal and compare it to what we actually made our work of art about. Hopefully, we are making art that reflects the things that are the most important to us and the things that are we are the most passionate about.

I think it's going to be a great project. (Thanks for the journal, Mom!)

I need to not be scared and to just create things. Like this!