3.6, Fears About New Things

 

It was a day that I knew was coming... And I was very nervous for a few good reasons. 

One of the days that I felt was important to me was participating in Chalkfest of roughy...2016. Let me explain some things first. 

Chalkfest is a yearly event that takes place in UW-EC's campus, and you pick a section of sidewalk to work with, and you work on a mural of what you wish to create, just as long as it's isn't offensive or provocative, stuff like that. You can walk up to the registration booth and buy a spot there and then if a section isn't sold out, you're free to work on it, or you can pre-register, which is what I end up doing every year (until COVID came along, so I didn't participate this year. Hopefully I can go back to physically being out there, that was one of the highlights for me, but that's beside the point), and you work from 7am all the way up to 5 or 6pm, it's revealed who got the most amount of votes, they get prizes. 

Why was I so nervous about this...? It was something so simple! 

Regardless, most of my life, I was made to do things my mother wanted to do, so essentially, she tried living out the childhood she wanted, on me and my siblings. Doing something like this...was unheard of. It had always been my mom, and what she wanted. There was little to no consideration from her when I wanted to do my own thing, except drawing cute things, which I still hated from time to time. 

Going to the event prior when it was still located in a small park somewhere in downtown Eau Claire, yes I did visit it, sure, but doing it myself? How would I even go about trying...well...anything about this whole event? Was I even capable of doing good...? 

There was only one way to find out. 

How did it go? 

I can surely say that while I was very nervous about going, trying something new, something different; I had an idea, and I sketched it out two days early for me to reference. Mistakes where made, I used way too much blue sticks I suppose, I'm not sure if they have a term, it was bright, warm, I was slowly frying myself out there and forgot to bring sunscreen as the sun beat down, but something about it...was in a strange way, calming. I plugged in my headphones, and with the music, I put myself in a trance and drew. By the end, I thought it looked pretty good, even though I was covered in blue from itching my nose, my face, and whatever else. 

I didn't get voted for, but overall, I enjoyed my experience greatly, and I won't forget it for sure.