Art is an interpretation of a feeling or an emotion. It is an impulse we have to recreate something as we see it or as we feel it should be felt. Art is something that has significance in its own realm. It is something we execute to send a message, to share a pleasure or a pain, a belief or a notion. Art can be interpreted by anyone and made by anyone; it is completely accessible. Art is passion mixed with creativity; it’s what I would call a product of life as a human and everything that comes with it.

            I am an artist in many ways. I draw, I paint, I sing, I sculpt, but I’m more than a collection of melodies and materials that have been decorated. I believe I am an artist because I contribute to something, a reality that is bigger than me. I’m an artist because things inspire me, and what I do with that inspiration inspires others. I believe being an artist is sharing yourself, or lending yourself out to the world and seeing what they do with it. It being anything that is a part of you, any feeling you give off, a hello you send, a stimulating purpose in your step that is noticed by others. I am an artist because I create things that don’t exist, things that no one has seen before but the inside of my head. I am an artist because I don’t always pick up a piece of clay and know what to do with it, I just create. I let things happen and warp them as I see fit to create a product that I feel has its own life. When something resonates its own growth or verve and I know I’ve created it, that’s when I know I’m an artist.

            I know I already have a legacy. I have a sketch book that has gone missing for about two years now and I’ve been yearning to see it, to see what others have added and to find out where else it’s been left. My own legacy is knowing that I have and will inspire others, knowing that I have been acknowledged, I have been noticed, and that I have been recognized. I don’t mean recognized as an artist but as a person. That I am someone who has a heartbeat, that I am someone who has a brain and that it ticks. My legacy is my friendships with those who know who I am and with those who know I am here. I know I will leave more because I have an entire life ahead of me and I want to be a teacher. I want to let kids know that teachers are people, and I want to be remembered as someone who made a difference in a future student’s life. I want to be a teacher who doesn’t just help someone understand math, but a teacher who understands students and adolescents and how life is a mess.