My uncle came to visit for a few days over break and one night after everyone else had gone to bed, we got to talking. Given my constant worries about what the heck I am going to do with my life, I of course made him tell me his life story and how he got be where he is today (he is an actor in L.A.). I learned some very interesting stories: from the fact that he joined an ashram when he was 19 to the fact that he earned a business degree (this one surprised me the most). Anyways, it basically showed me that things may not always turn out the way I expect them to and that I should focus more on things I enjoy and hopefully something good will come out of it. That’s where the painting comes in. During my long talk with Uncle Marc, he was asking me if I still was really into art. As a kid, I was always doing something creative – painting, sewing, drawing (especially on my walls…oops), putting together really weird outfits, making up stories about my beanie babies (I was a cool kid), etc. Although my creative endeavors very rarely turned out to be masterpieces, it never really seemed to matter to me because I loved doing them anyways. I’ve recently started to realize that lately I haven’t really focused on my creative side as much as I would have liked, so this assignment inspired me to revisit that part of myself. Here’s the painting I did (like my childhood projects, not a masterpiece, but I enjoyed doing it) – some of the quotes are one’s that I really liked from the books we read.