My Days in Richmond are Numbered

In two days I will be graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with my Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts. As I sit here looking at my BFA show postcards, the evidence of my last series of work here at VCU, I can't help but be a little sad. I am sad to be leaving Richmond, but I know that there are such big things in my future, so that makes me excited for the things to come. I have seen myself go through so many changes since I began my tenure at VCU, its really uncanny how far I have pushed myself and how much I have to show for my hard work. I have gone from this person who just had random projects always happening, keeping my hands busy constantly, to channeling those thought processes into something more significant; something that has made an impact with others as well as myself. Yet I think of these last 4 years as my ugly duckling years and yet my next few swan years will be so much more of an internal growth, a focus, and understanding of where I fit in this field. Speaking of future, my days in Richmond are numbered. As of today I have about 1 month left in Richmond before I pack up all my belongings and put everything in storage, then travel around Canada for the summer only to end up in Milwaukee and in graduate school in the Fall, in the midwest, in the cold I have never experienced before. I am beyond excited to be at this school and to be the very first graduate student in the jewelry/metalsmithing department at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee seems like something out of a storybook. The beginning of an era, and I am part of it. After visiting the school, I don't think I could have asked for a more interesting group of excited, committed people to the arts. Everyone seems so nice, and really with it. I know there are going to be some amazing things that will happen in the next few years and I really can't wait to see all that happens. I know I will look back at my early Richmond/VCU days as the "good old days" and knowing that, I am trying to appreciate all the Richmond time I have left. Luckily, the BFA show for my senior class opens next friday May 23rd, so I am eagerly looking forward to my last show in Richmond as an undergraduate student and I hope that success in my future will bring me back to Richmond, possibly as a visiting artist or lecturer. Anyway I look at, I know I have been lucky. lucky to be working with such a killer group of people and I hope things only get better for me as I leave my home in search of my future.