Sculpture madness.....made me stronger.

Here's the story. We had three weeks to do a sculpture for our midterm project. The armature is the most important part of any sculpture. It is everything. I learned this the hard way, because I had to start start the project over three different times due to a weak armature. So at approximately 2 am in the morning of February, 22, the early morning before the project was due, I would find out that I would have to start the entire project over for a third time. Tired, exhausted, and frustrated as hell, I was done. The class was going to get dropped, and I was just going to try to avoid sculpture for as long as I could get away with it. But wait. Then something happened. My roommate, Rick, and our friend Arnel wouldn't let that happen. They wouldn't let me give up. They strongly proposed that I start over yet again, with just hours until the deadline. At first I was going to refuse, complaining about how I couldn't build the armature. But that excuse wasn't good enough for these two. They helped me build a better armature. After the new armature was built, it was about 4am now. No sleep since the day before, and I had to start the sculpture. I was very discouraged throughout the process, running into numerous mistakes along the way. But, as the hours went by, and I worked furiously without eating or rest, with just a few very short breaks, I began to realize, maybe I could pull it off. Maybe I could finish it by 6pm. And that's exactly what happened. A full character sculpture was completed in about 14 hours straight. I couldn't believe it. It surely wasn't the best in the class by any means, but it was damn good considering the circumstances in which it was built. So with the help of my friends, determination, will, and a few red bulls, I finished it an hour before class. The greatest things I learned from this project, were one, if you don't understand how to do something, study it. And also ask for help quickly, because there are people who care, and they will help. And two, to not give up. Not just with school work, but with anything in life. In my seven quarters of being at Ai, this is one of the those experiences I'll cherish the most, because it showed me that I could look within myself to have the determination to finish something under the most excruciating circumstances. Because of this experience, I'll never make an excuse, and I'll never let myself give up on anything.