Illustration

Teenage life is a progression of finding and understanding yourself while dealing with all the social distractions of friends, boyfriends, family, jobs, and manic hormonal fluctuations. This piece was created for the WonderRoot Gallerie's "The Wonder Years" event. The purpose of this piece is to share memories of high school with current high school age students. I was labeled a "goth" for my dress and truly felt depressed. I had no lust for life and a grim outlook on the future of humanity. One day, a preppy girl from student council approached me, handed me her card with contact info and exclaimed, "Smile! Be happy for life!" The moral of this is that one cannot be told how they should feel of behave. It us up to the individual to explore themselves and, in their own time, decide if they are ready to feel and see more to the world than destruction.