#TBT ...back to my 2009 MAEd show and graduation!

Waaaay back in May 2009 John and I were living in Greenville, NC...and we were working on our graduate degrees.  
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​For my senior show I did something kind of unique- I had a showing my my graduate work AND my elementary kids' work.  (I was teaching at Wintergreen Primary at the time)  I was able to reserve the Greenville Museum of Art for my show, which was a dream for me...a chance to see MY work in not only a gallery- but a real art museum.  

Sorry for the poor quality, I couldn't find a better pic...but I created two versions of my graduate art show poster- or I guess ONE- because one of my students created the one on the right!

There are two galleries upstairs at the museum. I displayed my student work in one gallery and then my work in the adjacent gallery.

In lieu of the traditional opening snacks I opted to have a more kid-friendly menu...a candy table! The sugar didn't hit til AFTER my show...so it was perfect.

Examples of some of my sketches and beadwork in the show...

​And then...
​I graduated with my MAEd.

This was a HUGE deal for me.  Not only because I worked SO HARD for my degree...but honestly, I worked so hard to go to college in the first place for my undergraduate degree.  When I was growing up for the early part of my life it was usually just me and momma.  She worked second, sometimes third shirt at a local factory to make sure the bills were paid.  We stayed with granny some, we stayed with friends...things got better but money was always an issue.  I lived in a three bedroom, one bath- no central heat and air.  It wasn't ideal, but we made it.  Regardless of the instability in my life the one thing that was always there was my mom's love for me and her certainty that I WOULD go to college.  I never doubted it.  I didn't know how- but I never doubted that I would go.

So I did.  I was awarded a North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship and I was able to attend ECU for my undergraduate degrees in Art Education and Textiles.  But I didn't stop there.  It took me some years later to begin the coursework and get back into it- but I pushed myself to go back and earn my graduate degree, and my National Board Certification the next year.  

So when these pictures came across on my FB timeline today, it brought me back to that time, that joy- that love for learning.  I'll never lose that, not ever.

"Hey Hey EC You Look So Good to Me!"