I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Clay Sculpting event that the Johnson Museum helped sponsor. I had worked with clay a little as a child, but that was in a classroom setting, where we were focused on learning different techniques. The environment this time was very different — in a cozy downstairs room in the Johnson Museum, I felt very far away from the stressful, academic side of Cornell.

The clay container that I made was much less attractive than I had hoped, since I didn’t take much time smoothing out the sides. Nonetheless, whenever I see my malformed mug in my room, I remember how relaxing I felt while making it and remember that I should take breaks and take time to just enjoy being myself.