Well last week was a first. I made a light using a gourd… I honestly never would have thought you could use a gourd for a light. Essentially, we used a dried gourd and drilled holes into it so that the light could come out of it in a design of your choice. It’s quite remarkable how drilling in holes into an object that I would have just thrown away can actually be turned into something quite beautiful.

I usually do my Rose Scholar events on weekends. This one happened to be on a weekday. I usually find art relaxing and that I’m not focused on schoolwork when I’m doing it. But, this time I felt really distracted while I was creating my light. Everyone kept commenting on how they feel so much better and how drilling the holes felt relaxing to them. I could not relate. I just kept thinking about how I need to be doing homework and studying. Maybe because it was a busy week, in which I had projects and papers due. When I reflect back on that day and how I felt incredibly stressed out when I should have been distressing through the art, I wish that I had honestly just “chilled out.” Since I ended up getting everything done that week in an efficient manner. What I learned is that I need to calm down about my work a little. This is because I have proven to myself time and time again that I can get all my work done.