This week I am thankful I survived middle school and don’t ever have to repeat that stage in life again. Hallelujah! Think about it…. we should all saying a little prayer on that.
Luckily (or not) when you’re that age you’re basically oblivious to life’s potential. I was fortunate to get a little reminder when I started volunteering in the middle school art room. Last week I got the opportunity to teach my very own art lesson to the 6th and 7th graders. I was so excited I actually prepared for it! For this procrastinator that flies by the seat of her pants, that is a BIG deal. I have never thought of myself as a teacher or had any desire to be a teacher so the thought of planning out a lesson was definitely odd for me. But I was really looking forward to sharing my knowledge and lending my insight to help these kids “get out of the box” so to speak. Overall the lesson went good. I introduced them to abstraction and expressionism. I showed them some of my own work and examples of another famous expressionist Wassily Kandinsky. The following are the examples of mine I used for the class…… I loved hearing all the inquiring questions about them, some funny, some serious. Kids are honest.
I really enjoyed seeing where each kid went in their abstraction. I could see how difficult it was for them to think about painting… nothing essentially. At that age they are all about recreating what they see and if it is good or not, by judge of their peers of course. I have been asked multiples times, “But are you a good artist?” So for them to just paint, that was hard to grasp. Some of them took off, others struggled to not paint a scene. A couple ended up with a thick brown mess. At one point I could see one little gentleman struggling, he finally asked if he could add white to his palette, I asked why he needed white. He responded that he needed some clouds. The look on his face after I showed him how to manipulate his paint to get the white of the paper to show through and create the look of clouds was priceless. It’s those moments of “out of boxness” that I love about this new little venture. To top off my day in the classroom I got to work one on one with a young guy who had some special needs and he got to come work in the art room for the very first time. He was very nervous at first but after painting for 30 minutes he was radiating with joy. Art can change lives. It’s true. I have just barely dipped my toe and I am ready to dive in!
Don’t we all want a perfect score in life? A figurative ‘300’. Sometimes, maybe more often then not, we have to give ourselves the score. Give yourself permission to make your life perfect.
Start by giving yourself permission to be yourself. Being authentically ‘you’ can get lost in the expectations and impressions of others. It happens to everyone at some point and at some level or another. Whether we realize it or not we let others dictate how we express ourselves, often out of fear of judgement or want of acceptance. Stop.
The time is now. Give yourself the acceptance and permission to be who you are regardless of others reactions or judgements. Whether it be a t-shirt you have been dying to wear but think it just wouldn’t fit in or a blog you’re not sure anyone would care to read, you have to go for it. Put it out there. Don’t hesitate. Be who YOU are. Smile about it.
Oh and if you decide to bust out your sweet t-shirt or a hot pair of leg warmers there’s a good possibility people are staring because they are insanely jealous. Jealous that you don’t care what they think. Jealous that you smile while being incredibly awesome. Unknowingly jealous that you’re bowling a 300 right in front of them and they can’t stop staring at your fabulousness.
March is here! One of my very favorite months. Not just because the best day of the year is in March but also because that means it is almost spring. March is like a bridge between winter and spring, today is a perfect example. Gorgeous blanket of snow and brilliant sunshine. I am excited for today!
It is my first day of volunteering in a middle school art room. I am excited and a little nervous. I keeping a positive attitude and my expectations high. I really hope to learn something from my time in the classroom. I would love to leave feeling like I had a positive impact on the children or at least their time there. Either in the art realm or just in general. I worry about middle school attitude but I am truly trying to keep it positive and keep the four agreements in mind going into this. I think positive is my biggest push in this. I need to keep that present the whole time.
The next excitement of the day is that today I am going to start a “Radical Self Love Bootcamp” (http://galadarling.com/article/radical-self-love-bootcamp-is-live). One of my very favorite people is Gala Darling of www.galadarling.com. She is amazing! Just go to her blog and see. I love her unique sense of confidence and style. She is her own. She has developed the bootcamp to help people get to a higher level of “self love” and appreciation. I am looking forward to furthering my mind and heart through her daily readings!
I am working on a new business card design. How many business cards does one person need? Especially when they don’t have much of a business at all. This new one is more of a personal one. It is not for sareck Design. It is just for me! So I guess once you have a business card the point would be to start getting them out there and get rid of them right? I’ll work on that! For now I’ll just keep designing them. Go!
So here I am. Living. Designing the life I want. Sort of. Somedays it’s hard to stay on the design track. I feel I move so quickly and often get lost in the shuffle. I have found the more I talk about my life and things that help make it great the more I stay on track. Maybe sharing experiences is key. New perspectives are always helpful and expanding your audience can never hurt. Going into this I don’t really have a clear direction other than I want to share things. So that is what I am going to start with. Whether anyone happening upon this platform cares or not maybe at some point it will make sense not to mention in the meantime keep me on track. Enjoy what you will!