{Disclaimer}

I didn’t think I would actually enjoy making a website from scratch for some reason, but I’m more than glad that I did now. I’ve never really cared for most mainstream social media sites. This just feels like a nostalgic callback to the good ol’ days I spent growing up on Zelda Universe’s forum site. A callback to the blog/forum interface internet rather than the short video brainrot instant gratification that all social media sites strive for in hopes of becoming your dopamine dealer of choice.

I’ve enjoyed writing my entire life and being given free rein of my own corner of the world very quickly becomes a wall of text followed by graffiti of some sort. I’m confident that once I start to share my portfolio, I’ll be told that I write too damn much. My teachers expressed this exact sentiment very often growing up.

My seventh grade teacher in particular gave everyone in class a word minimum, before calling me out specifically to give me a word maximum. She also was my homeroom teacher who stepped in when I needed someone the most. She constantly went out of her way to buy me art supplies simply because she wanted to. She got me a set of twistable crayons, back when my idea of a sketchbook was printer paper hole-punched into a binder. She sat the crayons down on my desk and said, “I want you to draw in color.”

It genuinely and not hyperbolically changed my life forever.

As I started to draw in color with those crayons until they were well worn, she bought me a twelve pack Prismacolor art stix unprompted as well. It meant the world to me that she did so much unprompted, my family started getting me more and more art supplies starting that year. She struck the match that lit the flame over a decade ago.

As much of a hard time as she gave me over writing excessively as I am now, she encouraged my writing as well. She introduced me to her realm of knowledge of different kind of artists to look into and discover their various works, different books to read, and more.

I’ll cut off my rambling with this: thank you to the kind soul who helped a nervous wreck of a middle schooler find an outlet with writing and art. My life wouldn’t be the same vibrant array of colors it is now without those moments of genuine kindness.

Mario fanart from 7th grade lead to this poster for The Bremen Theatre in Bremen, IN.