Lose it in a Minute

It was another late-ish night on campus again. A pretty hefty part of a project is due tomorrow, and I didn't quite have it beat yet. So after today's class was wrapped up, I headed upstairs to a studio, commandeered a desk, and got setup.

A few hours in, I broke out some instant noodles that I carry around in the scariest depths of my backpack for just this sort of occasion. Ah, good ol' cuppa noodles. Not nutritious or delicious. It's only redeeming value is that it's cheap. Which, when you think about it, means that it's most valuable characteristic is that it isn't very valuable.

Alas, while I was there slurping my craptacular noodle-based soup substance, tick-ticking with the mouse and klackity-klacking with the keyboard, I experienced a peculiar epiphany. This post-secondary education thing is pretty badass.

Don't get me wrong - I still am not a fan of it. I can't deny the ways it's improved my work eithic and time management skills, but I don't think it's positively adding to my general well-roundness or mental health. If it were possible to land a decent job without it, I'd love to do without my 4 year internment. For whatever reason, though, I still find myself spending late evenings such as these in barren quarters, working on projects I'd rather not do.

[Look at all these short, disjointed paragraphs. I need to learn how to write half-competently]

You know what, though? This is probably going to be one of the cooler things I'll do with my life. Think about it - I'm spending 40hrs a week in a building devoted solely to learning and practicing the visual language. That's dedication, yo. And not in the "Look at how much time and effort I'm putting into this" kind of way, but the "I'm spending this entire time thoroughly learning every nook and cranny of this discipline". And this probably goes for all post-secondary pursuits, but, because it's something I'm personally inclined towards, I'm somehow under the notion that this particular field is special. I'm attending an art school. Full time.

I know that since I've started attending, 'Art School' has lost a lot of its magic and mystique. But, really, it's still pretty darn neat. Trades and technical schools are all around the place, but an institution focused on visual language across multiple mediums is a lot less common. I don't think nearly as many people out there experience art school versus a university or college. Not to put either of those down - their fields of expertise is just as, if not more, legitimate pursuits of knowledge and ability. There's a very strong case to be made that they are way more legitimate, given the nature of many Fine Arts pursuits.

Where was I? I'm not even sure. But it's neat to step back and realize how lucky and privileged I am to be where I am. I don't even enjoy school that much. Here I am, though. Doing my four years dedicated to one particular corner of one out of a bajillion disciplines. Heck - most graphic design students will probably only attend a 1 or 2 year program, just long enough to learn the tools and basic concepts. Will they ever learn about the unseen beauty of negative space? Will they get to spend an entire month working on how to modernize an older design style? Will they come to know colour with the same intimacy of an entire course devoted to creating painted charts with each cell painted in a hue specifically mixed by hand? Will they understand how little the technical skill is important, and how it's all about how elements are balanced?

Hell, I don't even know if I'll truly know all those things. I'm not even remotely gifted at what I do. I'm not sure if I'm particularly talented or clever. Most days it's all I can do to hold on by my fingernails, as fatigue and stress tug at the corners. But one thing is for sure - what I'm doing here, now, and for the next couple of years... Is nothing short of hardcore.
-Cril

Lung of love leaves me breathless
Tongue of fool lap me in enmity
Four walled secret lies among the hessian
And a flicker of the future could've saved the cindered sister
And I'm motioning still they stand inside me
And moments until the one I leave
Colourless I kiss her cold forehead I feel life
Lose it in a minute and the ones to come feel too far to care
And I'm motioning still they stand inside me
And moments until the one I leave
People concertina to my private magic lantern move for me
With the senses all inclusive in the theatre of triggered memories

Frou Frou - Flicks