The End of the Longest Summer

dino racers - july's CDC

I've now reached the end of what has been my longest and last summer break ever. (And I'm counting March, April, and May as part of this summer, because my mind was totally on summer break the second I was sent home from school.) It was wonderful to spend so much time with my family, work on personal improvement, and play a delightfully large amount of badminton games under the sunset. Of course, Covid sucked, the news was bad, and I've lived in constant threat of my senior year being cancelled. But I'm tried my darnedest to make lemonade out of Covid-lemons. (you should probably not drink that lemonade, by the way.) 

This has actually been one of my most productive summer breaks ever, perhaps because I set weekly and monthly goals rather than summer long ones (which gave me much less time to procrastinate). I had the time to read a few books (last two Lord of the Rings, Adorning the Dark, Desert Solitaire, and the Wind in the Willows). I'm actually quite happy to look back on the three online classes, five character design challenges, sundry fanarts, and various portfolio pieces I was able to do. Maybe I'm becoming more adult? Or better at keeping deadlines? Or maybe it's just the benefit of being given a few extra months and being forced to spend them at home without friends? Who knows. But as someone who places a lot of value on achievement and doing and progression, it's nice to see that I didn't just sit on my bum all this summer.

In fact, I went to the opposite extreme. Being stuck at home produced very strong urge to get OUT and live life in a way that was full, exciting, and fulfilling. This was satisfied in small ways by running and biking and exploring new areas of my rural neighborhood before it becomes fully developed and paved over by actual neighborhoods. And also in big ways, like driving across the United States and seeing the beauty of the desert for the first time. Which, ironically, involved a lot of sitting on my bum. 

It's strange in such a dark time to see so many pinpricks of light. Lots of little wins, and happy days amidst the general chaos and frustration of this present era. I've been featured two more times on the Character Design Challenge site (and once on their Insta!), been offered a freelance story position, won an ASIFA scholarship, and got to try out for a very exciting super secret opportunity! 

I say all this not to brag, but to log God's faithfulness while in the middle of a very dark time. Perhaps I've been able to to see these evidences of God's faithfulness more clearly because the world has felt more crappy recently. Either way, God has been faithful, both in good times and bad. Praise Him! And if/when more bad times come, times when my work is seen by no one or I barely feel like working at all, I'd like to be able to look back at this post, remember, and hope. And rest in the assurance that my worth is not found in how much I do or create or win, but in Christ. Which is something that I tend to forget :P

Cause the future is very uncertain, and success is not guaranteed! I'm about to go into my senior year of school, and as if the question of where I will go after graduation wasn't uncertain enough, now there's Covid-world I have to deal with! But God has been faithful this summer, providing opportunities where there seemingly was none, and I'll have to see what He has in store for this next exciting stage of my life. It's sure to be an adventure, and after this summer, I'm ready for it!

But for the time being, I'm excited to go back to school and attempt to establish some level of community. That's probably what I've missed most about being at Lipscomb. I was thankful to find an online community to be a part of this summer (Nicholas Kole's Jellybots Crew), and would be remiss to end this article without talking about them. They've become my at-home-studio-mates, providing friendly advice and banter, and it's been refreshing to be part of an art community even while so distanced from my physical art community at Lipscomb. I hope to stay a part of this community even while reconnecting with my Lipscomb one. But I'm also very excited to get burgers and see faces and maybe even get a little annoyed when someone plays their music too loud in the art lab - you know, all the good things that come with a physical, in-person community. 

And to that note, I should probably go- I'm moving in today and I'm not going to take even moving boxes in the Nashville heat for granted. If this year is any example, nothing is guaranteed to us except God's grace, so I'm going to try to enjoy every second of it and every bite of cafeteria food. 

May you continue to weather these times with grace, courage, and creativity. Until next time!

-dh 

Music Recommendations: Most of Cory Wong's recent work has been fantastic, but I particularly like Bluebird. If you ever wanted to hear mandolin funk, here it is! I also listened to his breakdown video for the song, where he talks about his reluctance to follow up an incredible mandolin solo with a guitar solo of his own which (tangent time) is really similar to how I felt on my recent storyboarding job! Working alongside Naomi and Tim, both incredible artists and story people, I quickly started feeling like my scratchy, rather off model boards failed to live up to the appeal and charm of the rest of the storyboards. This may have been mostly in my head, since Tim and the director seemed fine with the quality of my boards (hard to tell exactly over email), but I couldn't help but feel a little out of my league. But as Cory says in the video, "it's not a competish." As long as my boards or his solo are contributing successfully to the impact of overall piece, it doesn't really matter whose particular parts looked a little bit better. They're all serving the same goal.