A sneak peek at my current project

Now that I'm on Christmas Break from school, I've returned to one of my personal projects: a short comic based on the first chapter of my fantasy novel, Bluewillow. (Read an excerpt)  I've been working on the thumbnails/layouts for each page and designing the characters. Here's a work-in-progress of one of the panels I've been working on.

(Click to view larger)

The World is My Classroom, Part 2

As I sit at my desk amidst the mess of my clothes, books, and art supplies, anticipation rises for tomorrow, when my college classes resume. I attend Northwestern College in Minnesota, where I am in my second year of studying art and animation.

In this previous post from 2010, I gave my reasons for not going to college, and what that meant for my education. But since I’ve now been in college for a year and a half, I’ve decided that it’s time to add to the record of my unusual educational journey.

I loved growing up homeschooled, and my “2 years off” after high school were packed with even more fantastic learning opportunites. I attended the Florida Christian Writers Conference, wrote two more novels and started a couple of screenplays, practiced my drawing, studied story structure, read voraciously, took over ten thousand photos, earned some money, performed a piano solo at the State Fair, and dissected my favorite movie plots.

However, despite all of this, I eventually realized that God had something more in store for me. (Isn’t that a common theme?)

Some of the reasons I finally decided to go to college:

-I finally figured out what career path I wanted to pursue (pre-production for animated films), and I needed to learn and improve my skills a lot before I was ready for it. I know there are a lot of great online schools out there, but a traditional college seemed like the best environment for me.

-I began to feel lonely spending all day at home, since everyone in my family either worked during the day or went to school themselves. Despite my severe introverted tendencies, I wanted to be a part of a community that fosters faith, learning, and fellowship.

-College can be a fantastic place to make important connections, find opportunities and new experiences, and become a well-rounded human being. At home I was so wrapped up in my own little world, and I wanted to break out of my self-inflicted shell of comfort.

-I felt like God wanted me to go to college for his own reasons. He’s omnicient, so of course he’d know what’s best for my life. I decided to trust him and go.

-Last, but not least, I was intensely curious about the whole thing.

I looked at several colleges, and after praying a lot about it, I found myself here.

Many of my peers have a like-minded passion for learning, which is both exciting and inspiring for me. Some, however, simply float through college and aren't even sure what it means to learn. I try to enjoy every day (even the challenges), and embrace each door that God places before me in my path to knowing more about Him and His incredible creation.