Painting Might Be The Death Me But At Least Jesus Still Loves Me

You know, I have never really worried about buying school supplies. We've always had the money, even if I had the cheap versions of what I needed. Getting the plain folders instead of the brightly colored Lisa Frank creations. Ten cent spiral notebooks instead of the Five Star multi subject notebooks. At least I had what I needed, right? Even if it wasn't always what I wanted.

Last semester I headed into the school year with six hundred dollars in my bank account left over from my summer job as a camp counselor. That money went towards my textbooks, supplies for my Printmaking class, food, and sometimes dinner with Prince or a new pair of shoes. I was making about 200 dollars a paycheck from the coffee shop, so I was never too low on cash.

But then I went a whole month during Christmas vacation without working or getting paid, and even though I didn't spend an inordinate amount of money, because I had no new cash flowing into my bank account, it started to dwindle. And I ended up starting out Spring semester with less than 200 dollars to my name.

And that money has been spent on more school supplies and food. I am in two studio classes this semester, and one of them is Painting. Now, I've never really like painting - it's always been my least favorite art medium. For multiple reasons - it's expensive, I hate getting it on my clothes, and I hate trying to figure out how to mix colors.

All those starving artists you hear about are mostly painters. Because paint is costly. And the paint I need comes in small tubes and they cost about seven dollars a piece, depending on what color you need. They can be as expensive at fifteen dollars. And then if you want a bigger tube, well that costs even more money. Thirty seven dollars for a 200 mL tube of zinc white paint? Yeah, I'd rather die. I was glad that wasn't the kind I needed because there's no way I can afford that.

Anyway, after I depleted my bank account buying more art supplies for the most insanely expensive class this far into my college career, I cried a lot. I died a little inside. I whined about being so broke. I've never been so broke that I couldn't get school supplies. And now, I have almost no money in the bank and I still need more paint brushes and more tubes of paint.

It's ridiculous.

But then, I ran into a friend from high school on my way out to my car after lunch. He is an art major too. He asked me how I was doing, and then asked "Why just okay?" So I told him about my painting class. He asked who my instructor was and how I liked the class. I told him that so far I hated the class. We haven't done anything because not everyone had all the supplies they needed last class, and today I still didn't have everything I needed and I was just hoping that I could make it through today's three hour scheduled torture device.

And guess what?

He had some of the supplies that I was missing. And guess what else? He let me have them. Not all of them, because he still needed some, but I got some Titanium White, Crimson, two mason jars and two new paint brushes.

So, I still need a few more paints and brushes, but at least I can survive a little bit longer than I originally planned. And I just can't thank my friend enough. Or Jesus, because I feel like He planned for it to happen. I was so upset after I came out of Michael's having spent so much money on such necessary stuff, that to have what other things I needed handed to me was quite the blessing!