A Specimen of Nostalgia

Nearly a full month of summer has passed, and I know a lot of you are going to think I'm crazy for saying this, but I'm ready to get back to school. Seriously. I am so ready to be working on artwork (not the math) and growing as an artist/designer. That's what school is for me at this point, and I'm sure for anyone who is working toward a specific career/life goal they feel passionately about.

College has been the place where my pursuit to be an artist has truly began. In high school I was not presented with the opportunities to start this development. Wait, I suppose that could be considered a lie. I took two classes (8th grade art & a photoshop class as a sophomore) and served as yearbook editor (which was virtually a living hell). These three brief opportunities, especially yearbook, had a great deal to do with my choosing of graphic design as a path to follow. However, when I say I was not presented with the opportunities to begin this, it must be understood that outside of those classes there were not any other art education opportunities that I could have seized. By the time I had the liberties to choose to take an art class our art teacher had retired (he had been there since my mom was in school so kudos to him) and we simply lost our art program. It's tragic really, but you all know that's been happening for years.

Anywho, I digress. It's been a little more than one whole month since I was stressed beyond reason, working on projects til two, waking up at five or six to write a paper, and then going to class at nine to kick some typography/digital design ass with a room full of my friends and one awesome instructor. How could a person not miss that? The learning that I had the privilege of partaking in this past year was at the very least inspiring. As a class we would learn from June (our instructor), she would learn from us, and everyday I learned something new from one of my peers. The environment in which we were learning was one of the most productive that I have yet to see and be a part of. So of course I only want to get back to it. Especially since I don't have the Adobe programming on my computer that would allow me to keep working and playing with type and design this summer (super sad face).

I am somewhat nervous about getting back to this classroom, however. We'll be meeting a new instructor, an entirely new perspective and set of expectations that first day of class. I'm not too happy about this, but what do you do? Hopefully I'll be able to maintain a positive attitude and it won't be so bad. I just want to get back to creating things like my Specimen Book  (click link to view Specimen Book via Google Docs) and my social cause poster.