When I Became a Designer.

I was six years old living in Norfolk, Virginia, and it was the first day of school – first grade. The moment I sat down in my new classroom I noticed a brand new box of colored chalk placed on the ledge of the chalkboard. Colored chalk? Wow. No one’s ever told me such a thing exists! There’s blue chalk? Red? Green? They even have purple chalk? I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And why doesn’t every teacher use them? The whole day I kept staring at that box, just mesmerized. Well, things get a little fuzzy but the next thing I remember is that I’m outside… with my new box of colored chalk, drawing a huge mural of Superman on the back wall of the school.

The school was made of brick. I quickly learned that it’s not a friendly surface for chalk. You have to press very hard to get good coverage. And I need good coverage. I also quickly learned that when you press very hard and need good coverage you use up a whole lot of chalk. Time just flew by. When I took a few steps back to check out the progress of my masterpiece, I heard my teacher calling everyone inside. I quickly ran around the corner to join the rest of the class. I guess chalk isn’t the neatest of mediums. With a missing box of colored chalk and multi-colored dust all over my hair and clothes, it took 8 seconds to figure out who got to be the first student that year to visit the principal’s office.

My dad hates leaving work for non-work-related things. I remember having to show my teacher, the principal, and my dad what I did with the colored chalk. At the crime scene, there was the box… empty. Little chalk nubs were scattered all over. While my dad, dressed to the nines in his Navy uniform, was explaining to anyone within a two-mile radius what his plans were for me when we got home, I distinctly remember looking at my unfinished artwork. I thought… if I just had more time, and of course, more chalk… I would change these strokes over here and maybe add more color over there.

And I’m pretty sure that’s when I became a designer.