Now, I don't even want to own to how many years of college I already have under the belt, but lets just say I'm a veteran. After spending the last school year at a fancy pants private university, I "decided" (aka had to admit) I couldn't afford to attend said university for another, oh, one anna half to two years' tuition. Alors, I am returning to my ol' Alma mater, Gee-Dub.
I have been a bit concerned, knowing that I am going to be with a bunch of newly graduated nervous teenagers (teenagers! I feel old). I feel like I'm regressing, as if I were returning to High School. However, I am (trying to be) of mind that as long as I am learning and trying to apply myself, even at GDub, then I cannot possibly regress.
Courage!
(In french this little word has the meaning of 'take heart!')
So today I had Basic Floral Design. (Yes.)
Today started well because I had enough time in the morning to make coffee, and it's a Monday, so I was able to put dairy in my coffee. This is always a good influence on the morning's direction. Looking for my class in room 119, I was walking around the building and saw a sign posted in a window, "Basic Floral Design -->" and I got the feeling that this was going to be a teacher who cared. Knowing how students are nervous and lost on the first day, and that a sign of direction may be needed and highly encouraging was a key indicator that Gail would be a fine lady. And fine indeed! Arriving in class, I was happy to see bright colored "silk" daises strung along the walls, with bright paper backgrounds. Sappy posters with sayings and pictures of roses covered a third of the walls, and smooth jazz (eh) was flowing from hidden speakers. Our instructor, Gail, was very welcoming and lighthearted, cracking jokes here and there. It was a cheerful environment.
My only first-class-sinking-feeling came when our teach gave a small schpiel about how this class was really needed before taking any of the other classes. She highly suggests waiting on completing this class before taking any others. Unfortunately, I am already concurrently registered for the Event Design class on Thursdays. Uh oh. :/
After going over the regular class stuff, she taught us how to make bows. Since it's the first day we weren't working with flowers yet. Bows are a basic skill that are good for starting off with on a shorter day. Gail demonstrated a couple bows, showing how to move which fingers and so on, and then it was our turn to attempt the Dread Bow. Who woulda thunk that twisting a bunch of ribbon could make you feel so weak in the thumb! I'm definitely gonna need to build up those bow muscles. So with hands shaking and ribbon tails flying, the majority of us women-folk (oddly, only women signed up for this class) produced a bow. I thought mine turned out a bit flimsy, but the nice woman next to me said "Wow! Look at your bow!" I was fidgeting with it, trying to round out the loops, and she was trying to re-loop her own, still not satisfied enough to tie it off with wire. "Oh, you think?Heh heh. Thanks."
After class I went up to talk with Teach and see if I should keep the Thursday class, which she also teaches. "Well, I'll leave that up to you." Oh. Well that's not too helpful. "I'll have to say, some people who take these classes without the Basics course feel overwhelmed. Do you want to just sit in on Thursday and see how it goes?"
"Yeah, I suppose that's best." It didn't sound too promising.
"Lemme ask, are you very artsy or creative?"
"Well, I try to be!" I said, imagining myself crocheting rag rugs in my office at work.
"Let me see your bow. Oh! That's a nice bow!"
"Oh, well, it's ok."
"No. That's a nice bow," she said, implying that for one's first bow, I had done better than many others on their first tries. "It lets me know you have good hand-eye coordination."
"Ha, it's like a gateway to the floral world," I joked.
So, she encouraged me to come to class and give it a try, and seemed to imply that I just might be ok. And that is very exciting for me. She seems nice and I know I can learn a lot in these classes and do something creative that I can enjoy and share with others! After every week's project we get to take home our finished design. So, for vases and displays, I can take them to church--but I'm guessing I'll leave the corsages at home. I know creating flower art isn't really going to help me save the world, but I do truly appreciate reminding others of the glory of God in even the smallest things. Sometimes I am wowed at the beauty of a sliced avocado or ripe banana. Filling the world with beauty through love and through art, I think, is a worthy endeavor.
Satin bows aren't even 'in' right now, in most cases. And if flowers don't save the world, tacky bows most certainly will not. Still, producing a decent bow on my first day of school, and with cream in my morning coffee, makes me very hopeful and optimistic for this school year, as well as excited for beautiful things in the world.
Love.
No comments:
Post a Comment