Will VS. Ceramics

During the second quarter of my sophomore year I was registering for my classes for my upcoming junior year. I signed up for ceramics having no idea what it  would be about. “Are you sure you want to take this?” my dad asked. I shrugged.  What else did I know as a sophomore signing up for an elective for my upcoming junior year. We later agreed to sign up for ceramics. If we could have seen a fortune teller in that moment, things might have been different. But it is what is. I was currently enrolled in sculpture and I liked the class so I considered taking a similar class again.

Fast forward to fourth quarter of that school year, I did a project with some clay and completely hated it. My piece was dull as heck. I simply didn’t like it so I put it in the side pocket of my backpack. I later found out the piece was utterly destroyed due to my backpack dropping.  Not only didn’t I like my piece that day, the side pocket was completely filled with clay dust. Other than that, no harm done. I was sure that I would have destroyed that “work of art” anyway and blame the destruction on my little sister. I quickly complained to my aide and told her I didn’t want to join ceramics next year and wanted to join yearbook instead. So we went up to see my counselor and told her my request to change my soon-to-be schedule for my upcoming junior year.

“Sorry Will, the yearbook class is all full,” said my counselor at the time.

I was mouthing and thinking swear words, wondering what I was going to do with ceramics. My aide might have been wondering what I was saying at that time.

After my summer vacation, I met all my teachers. On my first day of ceramics, I met Mr. Toyama and started practicing clay techniques. I was thinking to myself, “This is not as bad as I thought it would be,” so I decided to hold off changing my schedule.

I began creating my coil bowl project on the second day. Due to good gut instinct, I stuck with Mr. Toyama’s ceramics class. Mr. Toyama is a very, very nice man. I decided I could never leave my in-process coil bowl undone. I quickly wondered what it would be like if my bowl turns out to be great and knew I was going to give it my all. I would never know what would have happened if I had retreated back to the counselor and demanded to break loose out of ceramics. Creating my coil bowl was easier than I thought it would be. We all used an unclaimed bowl as a template. All I had to do was roll the clay to my liking and put it in the bowl. Rolling the clay is like making cinnamon rolls except that it’s not edible. There were three pieces I needed to do for the quarter: the coil bowl, a pinch pot, and a five-sided container. Working throughout study hall was great for me. In fact, I got my pinch pot done in two class periods, or four if you count study hall.

Working during study hall can be good and bad because I quickly learned you can be in sync and in focus of what you are doing and once the bell rings, you are rushing to clean everything up in five minutes. Yes, I do that almost every class. Recently, Mrs. Lawther (Mrs. L) has been setting up an alarm ten minutes before the end of the 2nd period, in case I have to work on other things or I get called in during study hall to another class. She sets a  twenty minute timer before the end of study hall to remind me to clean up. This definitely helps me to clean my workplace up without rushing around the classroom. I would set up an alarm on my own phone if I had one, but my parents are super hesitant of getting me a phone. Mrs. L, my aide, helps me to put my ideas into reality. I am like the DJ who makes the beat or in my case, come up with all the ideas for my ceramic pieces and Mrs. L is the singer/artist, helps me to put it all together in that aspect. But she pushes me to the best of my ability and I sometimes joke with her, “Can I call you Mrs. Law because you lay down the law with me?” I have to admit there were times I was frustrated and had to deal with my anger because I was not able to create what I imagined in my mind. Mrs. L helps me during these times. She lets me take a break outside on the bench or by taking a stroll down E building, while she encourages me to have positive vibes and not have my mind running wild with negativity.

There was one time there was no breeze whatsoever, when I became so hot with my braces I was sweating like crazy. Mrs. L had a great idea to do our clay work (yes, she does her clay pieces too) in Mrs. Potterton’s class, an air-conditioned room nearby Mr. Toyama’s classroom. I was quickly relieved and I could quickly refocus with the cool A/C chilling the room.  At that moment I wished that every classroom could be  blessed with A/C.

In ceramics, I quickly learned that being challenged is  a good thing. I was killed by kindness by Mr. Toyama. Ceramics is a really nice class because once you get done with your three pieces, you are basically done for the quarter and because you can express creativity besides hitting the books in your core classes. In ceramics, our brain is having fun by building whatever that comes to mind. Many people believe that Albert Einstein once said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun,” and ceramics captures that meaning entirely. I discovered something in ceramics class: an optimist is someone who figures out that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it’s more like a cha-cha.