The Deadline Deviation

On December 22nd, after having been told about the competition from my art teacher, I decided I would participate in the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers' Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. My deadline for the project was January 6th.

I wrote a short story about a man who had to make a choice between responsibility and things that he loves, set into motion by his GPS failing him. After much editing, reconstruction, and proof-reading over my winter break, on the evening of January 5th, I was finished and content with the piece of writing I had created.

I also need to point out that I went back to school on the 4th, so at this time, I was also juggling the piles of homework that was, in my opinion, quite unnecessary.

So, there I was, the night before the official deadline, my writing was completed, and I was ready to submit it. Then, by some whimsical force that remains unknown to me, I decided I wanted to submit a piece of art as well. But, I didn't want to submit one of my paintings that was already finished. I wanted to create something new. I had an idea and I wanted to try it out. So I did.

Once that was finished, I sat down with my dad to submit my work. When I initially researched the project, I thought that everything was to be submitted electronically. But, as we tried to upload my story and painting, we learned that I needed to have a teacher sign off on my work, and send the physical copies of the form to them, postmarked by January 6th.

I will admit I was relatively hysterical at this point.

My stressing wasn't a result of being worried about not receiving an award if my work wasn't accepted, rather it was frustration that I had put so much work into these two things over my winter break and that they wouldn't be accepted.

As to not bore you with the strenuous details of this endeavor, the short of it is that I ran around like crazy the next day and got the signatures I needed and then was able to give the forms to my dad and sister who made a trip to the post office and sent them off for me.

When I finally got home after school and an entire afternoon of drama-related activities, I was exhausted. My brain was simply frazzled from the stress of the past 24 hours. It was the sort of tired where I could feel it in my limbs, my head was heavy, and my eyes were constantly losing focus.

I need to point out that I don't usually leave things until the night before because I don't work well under pressure. So, with my Sketchbook Project deadline being on the 31st of this month, I intend to submit it much earlier.

Which means I need to go work on it.

Time to be inspired.

Oh, also, here is the painting I submitted.