Life as a broke college student

Hey everyone,

Sorry its been awhile since I’ve posted anything. Life has been a little hectic with mid-terms and now finals, eeks! But then its summer so its all good.

So, I’m gonna take a different approach on this post for Behind the Screen, its story time. You’ll all get a kick out of this I’m sure.

I want you to think back to the days of being a college student, remember the lovely aroma of ramen cooking in the microwave? Or all those late nights of studying? But of course you have to remember what it was

Welcome to the Life of High Gas Prices

like to be a broke college student. Budgeting every last cent just to last you the rest of the year. Do you remember forgetting to add gas into your budget? And then you’re driving, you’re running late to work, and you’re car slows down, chug chug chug, and oops you’re out of gas. You’re like, “Greeat! What do I do now?”

Well, on Monday it was one of those days for me. I was running late to work and my tank was on empty. Uh oh. I had made it almost all the way to work and then…yep, my car slowed down and I heard the chug, chug. I just kinda coasted the rest of the way and I encouraged my car to make it all the way to the parking lot. By a couple words of encouragement and coasting along, my car made it to the parking lot and almost to a parking spot. Then it completely stopped and I had to get it to a parking spot so that it wasn’t in the way. I am no grease monkey by any means so for me, a complete girly girl, to try to push my car into the parking spot was a brilliant effort. Luckily, there was a nice gentleman in the parking lot who helped me push it into the parking spot.

I am super late to work by this time, so I hurry as quickly as I can. And I arrive completely out of breath. I couldn’t worry about my car and gas at that time so I just got to work on the things I needed to get done. 11:30 comes around and I need to be back at the school by 12:30 since I needed to get lunch and go to class at 1, so I decide I should probably figure out what I should do to get back to campus.

My job is in the center of town, and the closest gas station is across the bridge. So, I did what most college students in my position would do, I started walking. I walked to the other side of town and then over the bridge, across the street, and then there, a great sight to see, the Kum & Go gas station. As most students are, I was very short on cash, I had like 7 dollars. I couldn’t afford a spare gas tank so I asked the cashier, if they happened to have a loaner tank. Luckily, they did. With the prices of gas these days, I got maybe like a gallon of gas for 4 dollars.

This is where the fun part comes in. My journey began. Picture a complete girly girl, carrying around a gas tank all over town, yep that was me. It was so annoying, the tank kept dripping and I couldn’t stop it. So it spilled all over my jeans and my boots. I finally arrived at my destination. The gas tank was confusing to work so it took me a couple minutes to figure it out but I did. I poured it in the gas tank and it brought my car back to life.

I was running kinda late again so I hurried as quickly as I could back to campus. This is the embarrassing part. I wasn’t aware at that time that the gas had spilled all over me. So I go to math class, I didn’t have time to change. After a couple minutes of being in class, a kid exclaims, “It smells like spray paint in here”. It was embarrassing but I fessed up and told him that I ran out of gas and that the gas had spilled on me. Another girl was like, “Its okay, I like the smell of gas.” It was pretty embarrassing and it was quite an adventurous Monday.

Hope you got a kick out of my story, thanks for reading the inside look for Behind the Screen.

A World With Creativity

Imagine a world without creativity. Imagine a world without any imagination. The world would be a very bleak place. We are surrounded by creativity and beauty. Art and design in its simplest form is merely an interpretation of all the beauty that surrounds us. Since I’ve lived in the mountains, I’ve come an appreciation of all the beautiful sights around me. I find when my biggest inspirations or ideas come to me, I am just walking around town or somewhere outside. My inspirations come from the simple things around me.

For my design on the right, A World With Creativity, I took the image while I was walking around Glenwood Springs, CO. The mural on the wall really fascinated me because it was the only beautiful thing in the very grungy alleyway. The mural looked so vibrant and welcoming against the old brick wall. The mural was tucked away in an alley that many people wouldn’t even notice as they walked by. It goes to show that sometimes the best art isn’t always in places you would expect it to be.

Many people wonder why art is so important, well just imagine a life without any art or any color. Wouldn’t it be a very boring place? I think so. The quote that I used in my design by Pablo Picasso says, “Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” I really like this quote because I think it is very true. A world without creativity would be very mundane and in a way art does sweep away the dust from our everyday lives. Art makes us pause and take a break from our endless daily tasks. Now you might be thinking, well that’s great and all, but I don’t really like going to boring art galleries or old, musty museums. You don’t have to go to some art gallery or museum to appreciate art, art is all around you. Art isn’t just fine drawings or paintings. Art can be any design or layout.

Since I started studying graphic design, I find myself noticing the little details in things, details that I normally would have just passed by. The more I learn about the fundamentals and principles of design, the more I like the different layouts and designs around me.

Everyone sees art differently. Graphic designers see things through different eyes because art is not only something nice to look at but it now has a purpose behind it. Just as fine artists and graphic designers see art differently, so does the ordinary person who isn’t an artist. However, we should all appreciate art and not take it for granted no matter what way we see it.

When I was working on my design, I decided to look up the definition of creativity, take a look at what it means.

Creativity

-noun

1. the state or quality of being creative

2. the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or to create meaningful news ideas, forms methods, interpretations

Isn’t that cool? I think so. Anyone can be an artist and anyone can be creative. You just have to think out of the box and in a way that is beyond your comfort zone. When you step out of that box, you may be surprised at what brilliant ideas come to your mind.

Well, that’s all for now, thank you for reading another inside look for Behind the Screen.