Mini Adult, Day 1 (pt.2)

I wake up and it's 8 in the morning. This is the earliest I've been up since summer started and it's really hitting me hard. At the same time though, I'm more excited then ever. 
It felt like that first drop on a rollercoaster when you're nervous but excited for it at the same time. 

It's now 8:30 and my class starts in half an hour. Oops. I start getting ready for the day and literally sprint to the dining hall at 8:50 hoping to at least get a nice cup of coffee. With my coffee in hand, my bag strap flouncing down my arm as I raced to class, I'd say I looked like a pretty convincing college student already.

At 8:58, I made my way to the classroom, breathless but energized. Everyone else in the class stared at me from their seats but I wasn't the last one, as one girl whose name I would never learn barged in at 9:00 exactly. As soon as our teacher finished role call, it was time to prep our canvases. 
(Side note: I actually loved how we got to work immediately every day because it was so productive and the time pressure felt more realistic.)
 
Even though I've studied art for over 7 years, I have never once prepared a canvas before. And after prepping 6 canvases, I'm not sure if I ever will again. For those of you who have never prepped a canvas, here's the basic steps:

1. Pour acrylic white gesso into a container
2. Using a palette knife, use long sweeping motions to evenly cover the canvas in the gesso
3. Wait for it to dry, then repeat 4-5 times for the best result

So yes, I prepped my canvases 30 times in about 4 hours. Pretty backbreaking labor.

That was pretty much the entire class, and by the end of it I was covered in gesso from head to toe. I had made a few friends during that, and we had made plans to visit Times square later that day. On my walk back to my dorm to freshen up, I realized that worrying about things like I had on the first day was just an unnecesary burden that I was putting on myself. It was mostly social anxiety, but because everyone was in the same situation I was in, I felt a little bit better. 
Later that night, I took the New York subway for the third time in my life and it was a pretty life-changing experience. Luckily one of my friends was used to navigating subways, and we arrived back at campus without a hitch. Except that we got on the wrong subway 2 times and had to walk back about 20 minutes before curfew. But that's a story for another time. 

Overall, I was exhausted but also very hopeful that the next few weeks would be a lot better already.

Day 2 coming up soon! xoxo

​Author: Carina Sun

---