The Tall Madison

    "The tall Madison"...That's the only thing that separated me from all the other Madisons freshman year, and there were a lot of them. Nobody really knew anything else about me, besides the fact that I was new. Being new was never something I particularly enjoyed. One foot through the door into high school, and it seems everything else I knew went back out the door. I didn't remember who I was at all, and obviously no one else did either. To everyone else at first, I was just tall.

       I had been at the same Catholic school with the same people from the kindergarten to the eighth grade. There were eleven people in my graduating eighth grade class. Next thing I know, I'm walking into an arts high school. I look around and see people in my class with pink hair and wearing actual animal tails. "Where am I, What did I get myself in to?", were all questions I was asking myself. "I don't belong here, everyone seems weird". Little did I know then, those people with pink hair, wearing fake tails were a lot more brave than I was. I woke up that morning got dressed, and put on make up like it was the one thing I had going for me. I wish now I would have been more like them, not being afraid to show everyone who I was, but going to high school was the hardest thing I ever did. Every time I opened my mouth to try to make friends, my tongue would turn into a knot. Things I would say wouldn't even make sense to me. How was I supposed to be a theatre major if I couldn't even have normal conversations with people? I was lost throughout most of my freshman year.

     I began finding myself again. I learned more about myself than I ever really knew. Peers I used to want to be more like suddenly became less interesting to me. I lost the "friends" that were no good, and started realizing what I was really there for. I would go home and paint and things would almost figure themselves out. I wasn't a visual art major, I wasn't even half as good at drawing as the girl sitting next to me in class. I think that's one of the most important things I learned going to an arts school, you can enjoy doing something and you don't have to be the best at it. After I realized that, I grabbed every opportunity to try something new. I took dance, auditioned for the play and got a part, even though I swore I wasn't good enough. I even tried out steel drums and guitar, both of which were more fun than I ever thought they would be. All of these different aspects of art that I involved myself in seemed to all be contributing components of the real art piece in my life, and that piece is who I am. The broken glass of who I was seemed to be gathered and made into something more unique and special, with the same basic form as before, just more colorful. I am now stained glass.

    Now, what I'd like to do with my life more than anything is to help others pick up their pieces and make it into something more beautiful to them. I want others to find an artistic escape to solve things as I did, and I couldn't think of a better way to do that other than becoming an art therapist. I'm not "the tall Madison" anymore, people know who I am by my personality. I'm confident in myself now. Meeting new people and working with others are my favorite things to do. I couldn't think of anything more fulfilling and rewarding to do other than working with people and helping them create their own real art.  This job would change my life, by changing others lives.