I shut my eyes in order to see

In the second grade my elementary school class was given a project. We were instructed to pick a famous, influential person, and make a diorama and short summary of their life. The teacher even took us to the library to help us pick our person out! That's right kids, a true blue library.

Who did I pick at the ripe age of 8?

Abe Lincoln? Babe Ruth? Ben Franklin? Einstein?

Nah, I left all of those obvious picks to the un-creative little shits in my class.

I picked the artist Paul Gauguin. And after I figured out what the hell a diorama was I got to work.

Still to this day my all time favorite quote is from Paul, "I shut my eyes in order to see" -simple, but wow. I have always relied on my imagination so this quote rocks in my book.

I am sure it was loads of fun for my mom to help me find a painting this man did with out an excessive amount of native boobies showing, or writing about his life while omitting the part where the church was throwing his ass in prison, but he died before he got there from his drunken, impoverished, syphilitic lifestyle...

I must have picked him because:

-we have the same birthday

-he painted with fun colors

-I thought the booby paintings were funny

-he lived in Tahiti, and that is fun to say when you are 8

Either way, I am glad that I wasn't a complete run-of-the-mill little girl. I may have been the weird kid in class, but I sure as hell wasn't the smelly kid. You know who they were...

Needless to say, my Diorama kicked ass. It had construction paper palm trees, Mr.Gauguin himself, painting one of his non booby paintings. I even had some sea birds hanging from my cotton ball clouds.

Alas...my teacher Ms.Lynch? Gave me a B-.

B is for Bitch, or so I told myself that entire year. There is a special spot in hell for Ms. Lynch, and I was ready to pack her suitcase for her.

Even at 8 I knew that there was a reason she was a Ms. and not a Mrs. There wasn't a man in the world who would want to touch that broad with a 10 foot pole. I also figured she was not the caliber of woman Paul Gauguin would have wanted in one of his paintings. No booby pictures for you Ms. Lynch!

So here is to my imagination...may it last longer than my mind does!