I was an art student who inspired to be a professional working artist. However, that wasn’t the plan for one of my college professors. Part of the program required volunteering on Saturdays to teach art lessons through the VCU School of the Arts. I dreaded it, but Dr. Burton saw it otherwise. He saw the teacher in me and I went kicking and screaming. I was quickly hired in a local school district and 30 years later I wouldn’t change a thing.

Well….. no. Teaching is not all sunshine and daisies. Many teaching moments can rip your heart out. Those are not memories you want to share. Some of the shareable ones...... when you see the light bulb go off, that ah ha moment. It could also be the moment when you realized where the student is and you meet them right there. Not only do we teach, we guide, counsel and love each student that walks in to the school and sometimes it is just not our classroom students.

Well, I would hope that I could win the lottery to change how our students are fed. School lunches are awful …..But otherwise, I would use some of the money to put back into teaching the arts in my community. Art connects people to their community. It allows us to be creative, to view and solve problems more openly, and broadens our perspective of our world.