Artist Statement: Learn and Profit from the Experiences in Life

Here I sit as my pen begins to romp across the paper; I look back on my life and find a notable paucity of achievements and memorable experiences. For once, I feel complete with warm feelings and heightened self-esteem. I have chosen the road of an artist, - a choice requiring hard work and dedication. While my journeys have caused me pain, it has also taught me responsibility, independence, and survival. In the course of these painful changes, I have learned that the secret to successfully achieving a goal is perseverance. I continue along my journey knowing it is worth the risk and heartache, for one day it will all be rewarded.

The most significant experience in my life has not been a single event, but my young adult years between the ages twenty and thirty which I spent working as a waitress at my mother’s restaurant. Fortunately, working as a waitress is a varied routine, with an interesting group of customers: white and black, Asian and Hispanic, doctors and lawyers.

Over the years I have watched with interest the arrival of customers’ new cars, new babies – and new dogs. Being a waitress has helped me to look beyond the surface of people who are different kinds of achievers from those I encounter every day. It gave me a true sense of what it means to make the most out of very little. While discovering the strengths of so many different kinds of people, I also discovered some of my own strengths. I discovered my ability to respond to physical as well as academic challenges. I realized that I am able to depend on my own inner resources. This discovery of my own strengths and my ability to endure came as a revelation to me. Being a waitress has taught me to be thankful for what I am, and not for what I have. That joyful and fatalistic acceptance of whatever life holds, has shaped me into the person I am today.