It's a Good Start

So ends my first semester.  I am mentally exhausted.  At the end of class today, after working for a solid eight hours on my final drawing, I felt like I had just gone 13 rounds with a pro fighter, or maybe run a marathon.  I think I worked harder on that drawing than on anything else I have done in my entire life.  At the very least, that is how it feels.  I'll talk more about that in a paragraph or two, because that is the big news, and we like to disclose that last.

Last post, I promised I would publish my research paper for my History of Games class.  Well, here it is:

Leveling Up Research Paper

It was great fun to research and write.  The process and material were both edifying and inspirational.  When I presented it on Monday, the class seemed impressed, and that was satisfying, as well.  My week was off to a good start, and was only going to get better.

Today I rose from my bed at 6 AM to begin the final efforts on my portrait, the last piece in Analysis of Form, my drawing class.  You saw it in its early stages in Thursday's post.  Since then, I have worked on it for about twenty hours.  As the instructor, Mitch, watched it progress today, he told me he wanted me to submit it to the Spring Show.  You may recall from one of my previous posts that the Spring Show is a Big Deal.  It is how the best work in the school is recognized, and it was my goal at the outset to get pieces in it.  Now, not only does that stand to happen very early on in my AAU career, but upon disclosing my Semester grade, Mitch told me I got the A.  The A.  As in, the only one he gave this semester, in any of his classes.  I am crazy proud, not because it reflects my "talent," but because it acknowledges my hard work.  Hard.  Work. 

The class.  They're a smart bunch.

As I worked on the piece today, my head and body began to ache.  I felt light headed.  I kept going.  For the last hour of it, I felt as if I was doing the last push-up of an exhaustion set.  For those of you who aren't into fitness, that's the push up that feels like there's a fat man sitting on your back, but you do it anyway, even if you are ascending at fractions of an inch each second.  When my classmate, Jess, said I should take a break, I told her I couldn't.  The reason that I couldn't take a break is that despite the head pain and exhaustion, those moments were the most fulfilling thing in which I could ever imagine engaging, outside of deep love.  I told her, "For most of my life I haven't known what 'my best' really looks like.  With this piece, it feels like I can get there."  So, with no further ado, here it is:

It's a good start (Right, Scott?)

I'm going to work on it more before submitting it.  It is not flawless.  It will never be flawless.  But with more of that "hard work" stuff I keep harping on about, it may just become great.  Mitch has kindly offered to coach me on it to help me get it to Show Quality.  I am looking forward to that.

More to come.  Robin out.