No, it's pitiful.

"I critiqued that piece last assignment."

I made the terrible mistake of saying that as I strolled down the J ground floor hall, passing a girl who sits next to me in class. She was holding a camera phone up to take a snapshot of a painting that was part of the permanant student gallery just as I said the words above. She whirled around with a grin and blurted out an enthusiactic, "no way!" I nodded, and she stepped up to me and responded so quickly, I could hardly understand what she was saying. As I slowly pulled apart the seemingly endless sentence she spewed, I suddenly stumbled upon her motive with shock.

"So, you did the critique right? Do you have it with you, because I could just reword it and turn it in since I'm going to be SO busy next week in Las Vegas and I have to... [ramble-ramble]."

I'm pretty sure I quirked an eyebrow at that point which gave her the clarity of knowing that I would not be giving her any such thing. She didn't even care about expressing an opinion about the piece which is the whole point of the critiques our professor has us complete. After a few more responces had been exchanged, we parted. She didn't get my paper, but I got the the satisfaction of turning down a cheater who would rather ask some random classmate for a paper than write it herself. Desperate, lazy, or both when someone like that couldn't even write one page on their own personal opinion? No, it's pitiful.

~

I turned in my mixed media piece to the gallery director for the student show coming up this month. Most of the time when I enter a contest, etc., I have a pretty good idea if I will place or not. This time, I'm completely uncertain, and it's stressful. Nothing big is riding on weither I get in or not, but I heard it's not easy getting in. Especially more than once, according to some of the other art majors. I'm trying to just stay focused on my other work, but once in a while my eyes creep over to the calendar. I see that little red start in the right hand corner of April 16th, knowing full well what it means and I tense up a little.