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As I finished my final drawing class yesterday, I took time to really reflect on the past semester. Something that kind of stuck in my head is on the busride back to West after class, a classmate said to me, "You know, I really like that class now that its over". Looking back, I really enjoyed drawing, and always enjoyed going to class. Thinking over things, there are really two things that I struggled with. The first was probably true for most kids in any class, time. There were multiple assignments that I know could have been better with 6 extra hours of work, but I just found it difficult to find that time. I wish I had known in the beginning of the semester how time intensive some of these assignments were, because towards the end I was behind, and what little time I had was used to catch up on late assignments. The second thing I had trouble with was thinking of things to draw in my sketchbook. I would set aside an hour or so, just to draw in my sketchbook and just sit for an hour without drawing anything. Towards the end it was easier because the assignments all had a common theme and it was much easier to think of things that were related to that central theme. Looking through my sketchbook, it seems like I often just forced myself to pick random things in my room. When I was reading through the blog posts of other kids, I read one about losing the love and passion for art. Although I do not feel quite that way, I do understand somewhat where the author of that blog is coming from. In highschool I would sit in class and just draw and doodle all day. I think part of it has to do with a balance between freedom and requirement. Like when there is total freedom, no required drawing and no required topic, it is easy to draw. Likewise when both doing the drawing and what the drawing should be of are required, it is also easy. However I was required to do four sketchbook pages a week, but they could be of anything, it became very difficult. Overall this class served as a learning experience for me. I hope to take more art classes here at Duke, and although I am sure they will be different in some ways, the lessons I have learned in class will definitely help me.