Wedging

Like most teenagers in high school, I treated art class like an easy A blow off class.

From doodling instead of drawing, smearing instead of painting. I never took it seriously. And the day we started with clay, I remember thinking “how hard could this be?”

You roll it. Squish it. Pick pieces off and throw at your friends. Completely ignoring the overall project that others in class were working diligently on. And when it came time to put our final crafts into the kiln, the teacher warned us time and time again to be sure we rolled our clay properly. To remove any air bubbles that may exist in the clay if it wasn’t handled correctly.

And naturally, I ignored these warnings.

To no one’s surprise, my project exploded in the kiln. But that isn’t what ended up upsetting me.

No, that honor belongs to the faces of my classmates whose projects were collateral damage. Whose weeks of hard work were broken to bits by a peer’s ignorance. I had never considered how my lack of caring could impact those around me.

So please, take care of yourself.

You may not have any interest in your wellbeing. You may have already given up.

But for what it’s worth,

When you ignore what’s best for you, and ignore the warning signs

When you forget to roll out the bubbles

You’re not just destroying yourself,

But you’re damaging those around you who have spent so much of their time caring.

Use their kiln to strengthen yourself

Mold yourself to be someone

To be proud of