schoolwork. More specifically, my artwork in my foundations class. My teacher that year was Ms.Polly. She let me keep the seat I liked the whole year and didn’t force me to be social because I got my work done. She made that class fun for me that way, I felt at peace in her classroom that year, my fear of failure coming into high school melted away. Sophmore year was the year I met Isabel Roberts. Not in school though. Online. She made me happy when I started slipping mentally. Somehow, no matter what the circumstances, she could make me laugh. Her personality just clicked with mine and it was just what I needed. Isabel helped me 

become a better writer and showed me how I could express myself through my writing. I’ll finally be able to meet her in person this year for graduation.

 Finally, junior year. It was kind of a null year, not a lot happened. Although, I did re-meet Danielle Chapman. I say re-meet because we met freshman year through a mutual friend, but she doesn’t remember it! I met her in conservation, needing a partner for an assignment and not knowing any other faces in the class. So I went to her, and she said yes, although not knowing me. She ended up being one of the funniest, quirkiest, and weirdest people in my life. I mean weird in a good way of course! Her spunky attitude and lack of shame has pushed me to take more risks and open up more than I ever would have if I’d never met her and I’m grateful to her for it. 

 Even better, my father when I was around one, fed me a whole bowl of eggs right before we had to leave for a road trip. My mother tried to tell him it wasn’t a good idea but he insisted that I liked them and would be fine. Cut to an hour later and my mother looks in her rearview mirror to see me making an ‘I’m going to throw up,’ face. She couldn’t even get pulled over before, “they started spewing out one by one.” All she and my father could do was sit and watch until it was finished. Sometimes I wonder if that’s the reason I don’t like eggs.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, the first curse word I ever said just so happened to be right in front both my parents after I’d gotten a bunk bed. Well, not a bunk bed, but a bed with a desk underneath, and they were trying to explain to me that I couldn’t sit up too high or the ceiling fan would hit me. So naturally, I responded with, “yeah, that would really f*ck me up!”  My mother still tells people that story sometimes.

so much more. She’ll be the my maid of honor at my wedding, the guardian of my children if something were to ever happen to me, and the person I never want to see leave my life. She’s become family throughout the years. 

We talked about everything, all day every day, and within a year, we knew everything about each other.  I still remember what led up to her asking me out. I had just begun getting into stage makeup and I’d been sending her pictures of the look I’d just done. She started getting really excited and flustered in her texts until finally she just asked. It felt like my heart had stopped and that time wasn’t real. I said yes. Time flew by after that, memories and plans made each day we spent together. We’d planned on getting two pit-bulls named Winter and Soldier, a pug named Mops, a hairless cat named Loki and all the houseplants in the world. We’d recycle, use cardboard straws instead of plastic ones, participate in trunk or treats at the end of the drive on Halloween. We had a whole future planned. I honestly thought she’d be the woman who’d become my wife. Though looking back now, we were just a couple of naive kids who didn’t understand that the real world wasn’t that simple. I was heartbroken the day she called it quits, it was like I was losing a future that hadn’t even happened yet. 

I fell deep into the rabbit hole. After spending so long being enthralled with the franchise, I decided I wanted to be a comic book artist for their comic books. That changed when I found my way into stage makeup. I still wanted to be apart of their world, but now I knew that I wanted to be a different part, I wanted to do the makeup work for their actors. Marvel was even how I met my first serious girlfriend. 

I tend to have an abrasive exterior with sarcasm and dark humor, but despite that I know I would do anything for the people I care about in my life. I try my best to help, to care, to offer support or just give them a laugh. I like to believe I get that from my mother and her side of the family. They all are very caring, emotionally mature people who I know I could always count on if need be. 

I also like to believe that I got my creative interest from my mother's side. In fact, I know I did. I grew up watching my grandmother paint and sketch and create. I would sit and watch her brush move over her canvas for as long as she could stand me. She was the one who encouraged my artistic abilities even when I thought I wasn’t any good and wanted to stop. I wouldn’t be the artist I am today if I hadn’t had her in my life. 

My first couple of years were probably just as simple as any other toddlers, eat, sleep, and having the attention span of a goldfish. As the first couple years became the first five, I started figuring out that I liked art, drawing on everything and using whatever I could to destroy our walls. Turns out I was just practicing for what I do today.