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I was born in July of 1973. Yes, I'm 30. I'm ok with it. Really. Anyways…I grew up in Grand Isle, Vermont, a small town on an island near Burlington. You know Vermont—Killington, Stowe, skiing…blah blah blah. I grew up with my Mom, my Dad, my three older brothers and an ever-changing line of very loved family pets.
I admit I'm the baby and was very spoiled. Don’t get me wrong, I hear I was a “good” kid but my parents spoiled all of us in a very loving way (actually, they still do. Love ya, Mom and Dad). My mother tells me she could take me anywhere and as long as I had a pencil and some paper I was very well behaved. Hmmm…interesting.
I
attended Grand Isle Elementary School which although small
was nice. It included grades K through 8. When I was 5 or
6 years old the entire school was given the same art project.
I cannot remember our instructions or even being told what
was going to happen to these pictures but at that age a
picture is serious homework. A few months later I received
a prototype of a Vermont magazine in the mail. My picture
was on the cover! Woohoo! At 5 or 6—I was embarrassed.
Now however, I look back and think how cool of an opportunity
that was.
Then it was on to High School. Big scary High School. I went to Essex Junction Educational Center. Living in the Islands we did not have a high school of our own so we had a choice of high schools. Essex had a good rep and it was on the way to where my parents worked. The decision was made. It wasn’t so bad really. It was as good as high school can be, I guess. Although I filled every possible minute of my schedule with every possible type of class, I did not take any art classes. Instead I took band, chorus and AP classes thinking these would look better for college. Whatever. Art classes kind of stressed me out anyways. I liked to draw but not with someone telling me what to draw or when to draw it. No one likes to do what they are told to do—its human.
