This semester is almost over and Summer is about to start! I love Summer!
Summer is my favorite season for a variety of reasons: it’s my birthday season, it’s warm, there’s no school, and there’s so many possibilities!
This Summer, I’m going to be studying abroad in Italy, through the program ARTIS, which is very exciting! I can’t wait for Summer to start! I’m so excited!
Right now, it’s that awkward time of year where the mornings and evenings are extremely cold and windy, yet the middle of the day is warm and humid.
Every morning that I wake up, I have no idea what to wear. Mother Nature, make up your mind already! Do you want it to be cold or warm? Just pick one!
But please pick warm…I don’t like cold weather.
Photo by Susan Hanson
Last weekend my Nature & the Quest for Meaning class had a camping trip in Medina, Texas.
We spent a few hours at the river and I wore a tank top but forgot to put on some sunscreen.
Let’s just say that aloe vera is my best friend right now.
Photo by Susan Hanson
A few weeks ago, my Nature & the Quest for Meaning had a picnic during class at the Crook Park next to the San Marcos Nature Center and across the street from Herbert’s Taco Hut. That’s the same park that the Terry Scholars have adopted and that we keep clean on a regular basis through the Adopt-a-Spot program!
It’s a really lovely park and there’s an area that’s kind of hidden with picnic tables and a cool-looking bridge. There’s also a tree swing that you could use to swing into the river.
It was a pretty nice break from regular class.
Photo by Susan Hanson
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Written by Mark Twain | Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard
A few days ago, Dianne Odegard came to my Nature & the Quest for Meaning class to represent Bat Conversation International from batcon.org and present about bats and the many myths that surround them.
Diane began her presentation with an informative PowerPoint presentation. She showed an impressive amount of varieties of bats, with more in Texas, with 33 species, than anywhere else in the United States. The smallest kind of bat is the “bumblebee” bat and the largest is a “flying fox,” or fruit bat, with an impressive 7-foot wingspan.
She also showed bats in the media, including in literature such as Mark Twain’s biography illustrating Huck and Becky running from bats in the forest. She explained that Mark Twain had lived near a bat cave and was very fond of the animal so he incorporated it into his work.
She explained just about everything about bats including their reproduction. Bats are the slowest-reproducing mammals for their size and only give birth to about two or four pups at a time. Usually though, a bat will only have a single pup. Although bats will swarm together in caves, mothers only allow their own pup to feed from themselves and can recognize their pup from its distinct cry and smell.
After presenting the Powerpoint presentation, Diane asked us all to write bat haikus in groups of two. We partnered up and wrote some bat poetry. After we shared a few of our words aloud, she asked us to email them to our professor so that she could post them on the Bat Conversation International Website.
My love of foxes started when I was about 9 or 10 years old and my grandmother on my mother’s side won me a fox stuffed animal from the arcade at Sea World, San Antonio. I don’t know what it was about that stuffed animal, but he quickly became my favorite. I can’t say exactly when the fox became my favorite animal, but it was because of that stuffed animal that foxes were brought to my attention and shortly afterwards, I deemed them my favorite. I know for sure that they were my favorite animal by the time I was 12 years old.
After foxes were classified as my favorite animal I began collecting fox stuffed animals as I am a huge collector of stuffed animals and love the plush creatures. I only collected fox stuffed animals that I actually liked, and because it’s difficult to find a fox stuffed animal in the first place, I didn’t have that many.
In recent years, I’ve been desperately looking for a realistic life-size fox stuffed animal. It’s all I’ve been asking for for past Christmases and birhtdays, yet as each one passed, I never got one. As my birthday of 2012 passed and I again, did not receive a fox stuffed animal, I opened the Internet and typed in something along the lines of “realistic fox stuffed animal” into DeviantART, a website for artists. I figured that if I couldn’t find an already-made fox stuffed animal, perhaps I could find an artist that could make one for me.
In order to help “keep San Marcos beautiful,” the Terry Scholars have adopted a plot of land and have vowed to keep it clean and beautiful. We’ve adopted the spot right next to the San Marcos Nature Center right across the street from Herbert’s Taco Hut on Riverside Drive and make a trip at least twice a semester to pick up trash and recycling from the grounds. We are personally involved in the preservation of this precious San Marcos resource. We want to keep San Marcos beautiful and we’re doing something about it!
Adopt-a-Spot is a part of Keep San Marcos Beautiful (KSMB)’s efforts to help raise public awareness’ educate citizens about the source of debris’ and generate public support for community involvement to Keep San Marcos San Marvelous. It’s a free and easy way for groups to help San Marcos and makes a visible impact in our community. It also helps earn some Texas Pride and shows that Texas State students care enough about the environment to take action. Because San Marcos is growing, the population is growing as well. With this surge in population, trash and litter is increasing in public areas. 90% of the litter is picked up by employees that are paid by taxes, so volunteer efforts help reduce litter cleanup costs and save taxes for better use. With the money saved, the city can direct tax dollars to city beautification rather than trash pickup. Also, by seeing volunteers at work in adopt-a-spot areas, the public responds. Research has shown that Adopt-a-Spot areas are less littered in.
I enjoy participating in this event in order to give back to the beautiful community that we live in. It’s a fairly short event, lasting only an hour or two, but it’s very rewarding to help keep and area clean and to do my part.
I’ve never been to the Austin Zoo, but I’ve been meaning to make a trip up ever since I heard that they had foxes. I finally managed to make it up one weekend after powering through a Friday and Saturday filled with nothing but Ceramics homework…literally non-stop for hours upon hours making ceramic cylinders on the potting wheel, a skill that I have no talent in. But after all that struggling, my reward was a Sunday off at the Austin Zoo!
I woke up early the morning of February 24th to meet with my boyfriend, drive to Austin, and get there right around the time they’d open. At the San Antonio Zoo, the animals are more active in the morning, so I figured that it’d be the same with these animals. Plus, I wanted to have all the time I wanted to spend at the zoo. We got a little lost trying to find our way there, but we eventually made it.
After entering through the gift shop and purchasing our tickets, we entered the actual zoo. The first animal I saw…was a prairie dog. I’ve seen many, many prairie dogs throughout my years living in North Dakota, where they are extremely common. I’ve had plenty of experiences with prairie dogs, so I moved on pretty quickly.
The woman at the gift shop had recommended that we visit the big cats first because they tend to come out in the mornings before retreating inside their shelters later in the day as the temperature rises. We began heading that way, walking past the prairie dogs and entering the primate area.
In this area, there was a lemur stretched out and enjoying the sun and some small monkeys with long fur. There were other animals in there, but I don’t remember them very well. There were canines, too, though, wolfdogs and foxes! I loved the foxes so much that I’ll be writing them their own post later.
There was one wolfdog who looked very happy as he lay in his pen. He was panting with a bright grinning expression on his face. I smiled as I looked at him until I realized that he was missing a foreleg. He only had 3 legs…The Austin Zoo is not only a zoo, but also an animal sanctuary, so I don’t know what happened to him, but I’m glad that he looks pretty happy now.
There was another wolfdog in a separate pen that looked much more solemn. This animal was pure white and lied about on the ground looking bored or tired. I’m not sure what gender the wolfdog was, but it gave off a “she” vibe to me. I enjoyed taking pictures of her. With her eyes closed, she looked relaxed and elegant in my photographs. Unfortunately, I could not avoid the bars of her cage when taking my photographs, so I couldn’t achieve that natural look that I strive for.
After staying with the wolves and foxes for a while, we moved on again, passing by several enclosures with turtles in them. Apparently it was lunch time for the turtles as each of them had a dish filled with leafy greens in their reach. The turtles looked humorous as they paraded about the leaves walking all about them and stretching their long necks from out of their shells to munch on the vegetation. Turtles look pretty funny when they eat.
I was surprised at just how many of these turtles the zoo had. There were several enclosures, each with about 2-4 turtles in them. Their turtles also varied in size, some an impressive “dog-like” size while others were more “rabbit-sized”.
After enjoying watching the turtles munch on their leaves, we moved on again. I was completely astounded when I saw the next animal. Resting on the ground in the middle of her enclosure was the largest pig I have ever seen in my life. I don’t know why this pig was so massive, but I was taken aback! The pig looked bigger than me! I can’t imagine how much she must weigh!
We continued walking about looking for new animals to view and were disappointed to find an empty bear cage. The bears must have been hiding in their shelters. There was a pretty cool mural of all the different kind of bear species found all across the world, though. There really aren’t that many kinds of bears, which is surprising. While there are over 300 types of bats, there are only 7 kinds of bears, the polar bear, grizzly bear (sometimes called the kodiak bear or the brown bear,) black bear, sloth bear, spectacled bear, moon bear (known as the Asiatic black bear,) and the sun bear.
Thankfully, we were able to enjoy the tigers. As I walked by an enclosure, I noticed a huge pool of water, complete with a fountain. “This must be a tiger cage,” I told my boyfriend explaining that tigers love water and that zoos always provide them with pools to swim in. We walked up to the exhibit and were disappointed not to see any animals inside. Shortly afterwards, though, a woman told us that they would be feeding the tigers in a few minutes and that it would be an entertaining event. We pressed up close to the safety bars and waited for the show to start. Soon afterwards, other people started crowding around, as well.
Some zookeepers entered the enclosure and began piling meat on some rocks. There were 3 piles spread far apart from each other. The workers also began spreading water about the ground and filled up a nearby trough with water. After a few minutes, the shelter doors opened but nothing happened. Suddenly three tigers burst from the opening and dashed to their own piles of meat. It was amazing how swiftly the tigers escaped and how elegantly they each went to their own pile without any conflict. They must do this every day and have their own designated piles.
It was pretty gruesome watching the tigers scarf down the bloody pieces of flesh. It was difficult for me to watch the tigers move the bones to the back of their mouths to allow their back teeth to polverize them. I don’t handle blood and gore well and bones really freak me out. I have trouble eating chicken off the bone because of it…so I don’t like seeing animals eat off the bone, either. Blech!
After I took quite a few pictures of the tigers eating, I couldn’t take much more and had to move on. We moved next door where a lioness was lying and licking herself clean. She had a very powerful looking jaw.
As we were watching the lioness, we suddenly started hearing a loud roaring noise. We looked about and found that the path curved around to the back of the lioness cage. In the back was another lion cage, this one with a lioness and a lion. The lion was roaring about, but just as we spotted him, he stopped. Other people had also heard the roaring and had come around to find the source of the noise. We all took our pictures and gazed at the lions for a bit before moving on again.
We continued walking through the rest of the park. Most of the animals were hiding in their shelters including the bobcat, the mountain lion, and the leopards. There were more wolfdogs in the back of the zoo, but there enclosure was huge and they were at the very back of it, way out of sight. According to the sign, they all belonged to the same pack and had come from the same owner. That was pretty cool.
We walked around a bird area for a bit and saw some parrots and cockatiels. There were signs warning against owning exotic birds as pets because of how difficult they can be to take care of. Most of the birds there were abandoned or confiscated pets. It’s sad how some people buy pets without doing research beforehand and figuring out if they really can take care of the animal.
We came across a new part of the zoo, a petting zoo. At this moment Nick pulled out a bag of food that he had purchased from the gift shop. “I knew you’d want to feed the goats,” he said.
I did enjoy feeding and petting the goats, though there was one very greedy goat that would stick his muzzle through the bars and stick out his tongue. He was a pretty ugly goat, too. The children enjoyed his enthusiasm and continued giving him pellets. In a split second the goat would gobble everything from the child’s hand, then begin immediately demanding more again. I fed him a little bit, but I saved my pellets for the goats who weren’t so greedy and demanding.
There were also sheep that you could feed and pet, but I tried to avoid them because wool makes my skin itch. I think that sheep are adorable, but I just can’t pet them. My mom is also allergic to wool, but other than us, I haven’t met anyone else who is.
The zoo not only had goats and sheep that you could pet and feed, but also llamas and deer in a separate area. The llama was incredibly ugly with crooked teeth sticking out from the front of his mouth. Just like the greedy goat, he was eager to be fed and was right up against the bars asking for food.
After the crowds around him spread, I walked up to him and spread out my hand with a few pellets on it. “Here you go, llama,” I welcomed. The llama quickly gulped down my pellets and left me his own, disgusting gift. Not only were his teeth and face disgusting, but the inside of his mouth was, as well, as he left a gloppy mess of spit and saliva all over my hand. It was wet, sticky, and slimy and made me want to gag. To get back at him and to clean my hand, I wiped the mess all over the side of his neck. His fur wasn’t much better as it was matted and curled, but at least it got most of the spit off!
Right next door the llama was a completely opposite animal, a beautiful and elegant spotted deer. Her grace greatly contrasted the llama’s goofy and scruffy appearance. I don’t particularly love llamas, but I love deer, so I was pretty excited to get to pet and feed her! I was a little bias and gave the remainder of my food all to the deer in the agreement that she let me stroke her and take her photo. She was impatient, as she really only wanted my food, but I got a pretty good close-up of her and was able to pet her a few times. As soon as my hand was empty, though, she would begin to back away until I replenished the food supply. I guess you could say that the deer was pretty shallow. It took a lot of food to keep her occupied enough to pet her and get her photograph!
It seemed that the deer didn’t like the llama, either. Whenever he would draw near, she would scamper off. It took quite a bit of bribing to get her to return to me after she had run off. Unlike the llama and the greedy goat, she tended to stay further away from the edge of the enclosure. After I fed her and got a few photographs of her, she dashed off into the more wooded area of her pen and wouldn’t come up for anyone else.
There were many other deer in the area, as well, but all of them were in the back of the pen resting in the leaves. None of them were interested in any of our whistles, calls, or offerings of food.
After I had given away all of my food, we continued on and found a train. It was only a couple of dollars to ride and the staff member said that we would see animals that you couldn’t see otherwise, so we waited for the next train to roll up. Once it did, we bought some tickets and sat in the front seat. The train was small and meant for children, but I was comfortable as it had been a long day already and my feet were beginning to hurt. The train started and passed by enclosures of kangaroos, cows, and a few other animals, but then it left the zoo and started circling the nearby surroundings. There were wooden cutouts of mushrooms, spaceships, and pirate ships…nothing having anything to do with animals. This train definitely was meant for children, but it was still a nice break.
After the ride, we began to make our way to the park exit. All throughout the park there were roaming peacocks and as we were walking a peacock dashed past us with a group of kids shortly behind him. I felt bad for the bird as he ran, frightened by the children, but it did allow me to get a really great photo of him.
Overall, it was a pretty good visit at the Austin Zoo & Animal Sanctuary. It got my mind off of schoolwork for a day and allowed me to spend some time with my boyfriend. I also got some good photographs and saw some foxes, which I’ll write about it in a different post. The Austin Zoo isn’t nearly as big or nice as the San Antonio Zoo, but they’re more an animal sanctuary than they are a zoo. They are a non-profit organization and all of their animals are rescues. Most of their animals also have their stories posted on their informational plaques telling you where they came from and how they ended up in the zoo. It was all very interesting, I just wish they had a restaurant so I didn’t have to leave as early as I did! I do plan on returning again some day, though.
There were over 4,000 Bobcat Build volunteers this year!
Here at Texas State University, we take pride in our close-knit community. Texas State and San Marcos have a symbiotic relationship, just as the San Marcos River and the animals that call it home do. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish off-campus from on-campus as the campus likes to inhibit random buildings around the city, even far away from central campus. Because of this close relationship with our surrounding town, we like to give back and dedicate a day of service to the residents of San Marcos. This day is known as Bobcat Build.
Bobcat Build was started in 2002 and was inspired by Texas A&M University’s Big Event. Today, Bobcat Build is the second largest one-day community service project in the state of Texas, only shadowed by A&M’s service day. Bobcat Build continues to grow each year and had over 4,000 volunteers this past year.
I participate in Bobcat Build every year as a Terry Scholar. This year was no different and I arrived at the Strahan Coliseum Parking Lot before 8:00am, ready to work.
“I am allergic to nature.”
Although I love nature and enjoy being outdoors, there is something that will always remain a barrier standing between myself and my full enjoyment of nature. Though I may love nature and mostly everything within it, that doesn’t stop nature from watering and irritating my eyes, running and itching my nose, and causing me to live each day in a cloudy, stuffed-up fog.
Sandy
Back at home, my family, like many others, has an animal companion to keep us company and make our days brighter. My common family of four is even more common in the fact that we have a family pet, a dog. Though, our dog is a little unusual. We have a dog named Sandy, a golden-white German shepherd. Sandy’s had quite a past, transferring from shelter to shelter. For a time, she even lived with a foster family, but from now on, Sandy has our house to call her home.
With an interesting coat color for the breed, we constantly receive comments on Sandy’s unique golden-white color. German shepherds are known to be almost any color including brown, black, white, liver, red, blue, and gray, yet German shepherds are not known to be golden-colored. Believed to be a mix, Sandy is figured to be either half yellow lab, due to her love of swimming and water, and her “soft bite”. Labs were bred to swim across lakes to retrieve fowl, bringing the birds back with their “soft bites” to prevent damaging the meat further. Sandy also sports a pair of “angel wings” a white marking common in labs. “Angel wings” are white stripes located right behind the shoulder blades. Maintaining the German shepherd body and characteristics, it’s difficult to identify Sandy’s past genetics. Although her specific breed may be a mystery, we are happy to include Sandy in our family.
Back in October of 2008, my family had just moved cross-country, back to our hometown in Texas. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas all went by…The house, although unpacked and filled with all the possessions that make it home, still bore an empty presence. A loving family, we’re rarely without pets. From a stray cat, named Hobbes, who we loved for about nine years; seven goldfish, each with his its own name; frogs and crickets that were given the best; and two, white rabbits who still clutch a corner of my heart after occupying four years of my life; we’ve shared our home with a diverse collection of animals. But, through all sixteen years of my life, we’ve never had the most common pet: a dog.
On January 17, 2009 my family gathered in our car and drove across town to the Animal Defense League. My mom had been carefully studying each animal they displayed on their website and had read up on all the rules, regulations, and information listed on the Internet. We wanted to be well-informed and fully prepared to adopt our first dog.
After arriving at the shelter, we asked to look around at all of the animals available. We literally looked at every single animal they had. It was quite an experience. I was bitten at one point.=
After hours of looking, one dog had stuck in our mind, but we still hadn’t looked at all of the animals. An employee saw us wandering and brought us to one particular pen. “This is Sandy,” the employee said, “She dances.” The dog in the pen quickly dashed up to the fence to greet us with a happy expression. The woman spun her finger in a circle in the air and Sandy immediately jumped up on two legs and spun around in a circle.
“Oh, wow!” we all exclaimed, surprised by her training.
Majestic Sandy
“Can we walk her?” my dad asked. After getting a leash, we were headed to the large meadow they use to allow animals to run about. We were surprised how easily Sandy walked on the leash. She seemed pretty excited to walk about, but she had good manners, as well. Pretty soon, all of us had fallen in love with her.
After the walk, we returned to her pen and gave back the leash. Still making up our minds, we decided to visit the dog that had stuck in our minds before, but as soon as we saw that dog, we knew that Sandy was the dog for us. All of us immediately wanted to go back to Sandy’s pen.
We spoke with an employee and pretty soon we were in the Main Office filling out paperwork. While we were waiting for the forms to pass, we used a dog tag-making machine to craft Sandy a brand new gold dog bone-shaped tag for her collar. She still wears that tag to this day.
Within the hour, we were walking out of the animal shelter with Sandy on a leash. Sandy was very excited to hop in our car and go for a ride. To this day, she is excited to ride in a car.
Once we got home, we allowed Sandy to explore our home. She was very excited and happy as she quickly darted from one side of the house to the other. She never stopped moving as she dragged her nose around the floor and discovered her new home’s quirks. After a while, we led her upstairs to explore the second half of the house.
When Sandy entered my room, she was given quite the scare. Resting on my floor is a large male lion stuffed animal that is almost life-size. Sandy entered my room and turned the corner coming face-to-face with the lion. She jumped in shock, turned, and ran away. For about a half hour afterwards, she still would not come into my room. After coaxing her in, she cautiously sniffed the lion until she found out that it wasn’t real. After that scary incident, she was back to her active self, running about the house and beaming with excitement.
It’s now over three years later and Sandy has become a permanent part of our family. Now completely comfortable in our house, Sandy has actually found my room to be her favorite room in the house. With my bed resting right up next to the window, my room offers Sandy the perfect spot to perch and watch “Dog Television.” She especially loves barking at passing dogs and watching birds fly by. Also, she spends each night in my room with me, having her own bed next to mine, though she usually prefers to sleep on the floor.
Sandy is a wonderful, loving dog and I love her dearly. From time to time I come to miss her as I spend my time in college over an hour and a half away. I enjoy coming home to a happy, jumpy dog who’s just as excited to see me. I love Sandy and I believe that she loves me just as much.
“…and here’s poor Sandy at the shelter before her rescue “
October 29, 2007
Sandy is a sweet dog who quickly steals hearts. It’s easy to see that she was once loved and cared for, but the poor girl went through some rough times, coming out of the shelter at a mere 33 lbs. In just a few days’ time, Sandy was back to her “old self,” though, eating heartily and with no food issues. She will be packing on the weight in no time, though she’ll always be petite. Apart from her weight (soon to be a non-issue), she appears to be happy and healthy, sweet and loving. She truly has a beautiful disposition!
Sandy runs and plays in her foster’s acre-plus yard several times a day. She would enjoy a large yard and lots of interactive play. She loves walks and would undoubtedly love a jogging partner. Sandy does great in the car and thinks trips to the park and lake are the best! Though she has only been allowed to wade into the water, she sure likes it! In every activity, Sandy is energetic but well-behaved. (She would benefit from formal training and may get that with her foster or adopter, but she is naturally responsive, so we think she will learn easily.)
Sandy also loves sitting on a rug or blanket next to the couch and chewing on her bone, especially after a nice long walk. (She LOVES chew toys and bones but has not bothered shoes or other people possessions.) Other pastimes include following her fosters around wherever they go and observing their every activity. (Note: The kitchen is another place she has displayed good manners).
Sandy has met other dogs and we think she would enjoy the company of other dogs/playmates, but seems to get along better with males.
Her fosters have lovebirds and she barely notices them.
Sandy has only lived with cats for 5 days. Her foster’s cats were initially terrified (of all dogs) and then one of them attacked her, so it’s not really fair to judge her yet, but the current prognosis is no cats. If you have cats, check back to see if this changes.
Golden German Shepherd
January 23, 2008
Single, White, Female seeks ACTIVE partner (owner or dog sibling!). Couch potatoes NEED NOT apply! Love DAILY long jogs through the park, and would probably LOVE chasing a frisbee or doing agility work on the weekends…Loves kids (other people’s, I can’t have any of my own), other large male dogs OK too.
Sandy & her Foster Owners
If you are looking for a VERY ACTIVE German Shepherd to accompany you jogging, hiking, or any other outdoor activity, Sandy is your girl! I call her “The Snow Fox” because she looks like a little, white fox darting around…..she is DEFINITELY built for speed. She is a petite female (about 45-50#) approximately 1 year old GSD who goes from dawn till dusk…like the Energizer Bunny!! I think she would excel at something like agility because she is lightening fast and NEVER quits. She would also be a wonderful jogging partner…she prances when she runs, and doesn’t have the big, heavy build of a full-sized GSD that makes jogging so hard on their hips.
Sandy is a happy dog who lives to play. She probably should not go to a home with older or smaller dogs because she would worry them to death to PLAY with her!! I don’t think she would hurt them though…same thing with cats. She gets along GREAT with all of my big males, but can get pushy with females.
She loves ALL people…no exceptions. She is housetrained, crate trained (she sleeps in her crate quietly at night). She is a POWER chewer, but as long as she has a Kong to play with and chew on, she is fine. She rides great in the car; if the trip is long, she will just lie down and go to sleep. She sits on command, and we are working on other basic commands for her…she loves to please, but she is young and needs reinforcement with her commands.
Sandy is spayed, Heartworm negative, microchipped, fully vaccinated and ready to GO, GO, GO to her forever home. If you are in the market for a sweet dog who would make a GREAT jogging partner, she is your girl! Please apply for her on-line now!!
March 2008
Sandy has completed a month of obedience training at Southern Star Ranch!
July 2008
Sandy has decided that she is really a LAB in a German Shepherd Dog body…she LOVES to swim!! She is very graceful in the pool, and she and her foster Lab brother swim laps every day together!
<- Nature & the Quest for Meaning #18 | Nature & the Quest for Meaning #20 ->
More on Sandy: Sandy’s Webpage
Ellone’s Reference Sheet
I feel like I am a complex individual with a lot of different elements to my personality, my thoughts, and my emotions. Because of this and my drive to create art, I tend to express different aspects about myself through creative means. With my writing abilities and artistic talents, I’ve created original characters that have grown and matured as I have. I’ve used these characters throughout the years to say what I need to say, emphathize with my feelings, and help me express myself. For many of these characters, I create websites for them, uploading various artworks of them and writing life stories about them. Several of these characters personify certain aspects of myself, exaggerating that aspect to help me understand it, but only one represents myself as a whole.
©