We Were All Doing it in High School

A few weeks ago, some random high school memories popped up in my head when I was drawing something, waiting to meet with my advisor about Otterbein's switch to semesters next year. I remembered being afraid to draw during school hours a lot of times if preps and jocks were looking my way for fear they would automatically stamp me with the geek label. After all, showing an interest in art wasn't the best way to hint that I was actually a pretty friendly and outgoing person. In both elementary and middle school, I felt comfortable drawing whenever I wanted to because everyone thought it was cool that I was into art. A lot of kids loved to watch me draw and constantly bragged about how good of an artist I was, asking me if I would draw them something that they would later show all their friends. The transition from middle school to high school definitely wasn't something I knew I would be looking back on in the future with fond memories. Most of the popular people in high school  looked down on anyone who liked to draw like they were introverted freaks with no real social lives, and mentioning anything art-related around them was just asking for a rude, slap-in-the-face comment. I never thought to say anything to them while I was still in high school, but most of them were also into art in one way or another. I just couldn't figure out why they never realized that at any point. Preppy girls always scribbled all over their notebooks, drawing hearts and flowers around the names of their crushes during class. The guys were practically obsessed with drawing boobs and other goofy stuff on the chalkboards before teachers could come into the room and bitch them out about it. They might not have been focused on creating amazing works of art or anything for everyone to appreciate and admire, but obviously they were still drawing, and they enjoyed what they were doing. Of course though, they could draw whenever they wanted to without worrying about being judged by their peers like people outside the popularity circle. I guess it's mainly what types of things you choose to draw that determines people's opinions about you.