Initial Thoughts...

After our first class, I am a little confused. There was a lot discussed, and I am struggling to remember and understand it all. I think the focus on science fiction will be intriguing because I take so many science classes, but I rarely get to explore science in a creative way. I believe this class will be a nice distraction from my other classes and an opportunity for me to flex my creative muscle, which is an opportunity I rarely get during the semester. My name is Ava Best, and I am a forensic science major. I intend to to pursue investigative work after graduation. I love science, so I decided to major in Forensic Science rather than Criminology because I feel like I'll still learn valuable skills and enjoy the course content more. My mom and I have fostered or adopted several cats, and until recently all of them have been black. Therefore, I love black cats, and a lot of our decorations in the house have black cats on them. I believe my grandmother is my inspiration for a lot of my interests. She lives 3 doors down from me, so I spent a lot of time at her house growing up. I used to go to her house after school everyday, and we would watch crime shows such as Castle or Law & Order. I also found my love for puzzles because of her. We did puzzles regularly throughout my childhood, but during the height of the pandemic we turned to puzzles out of boredom. We started doing large puzzles (like 750 pieces) at least once a week just to have something to do. I think these regular occurrences growing up not only inspired my interest in investigative work but gave me skills meant for investigative work. She is also an incredible artist, and I loved doing projects with her. Throughout my entire life she has always done mosaic work and gardening. We have pretty big yards in our neighborhood, and she has dug up at least a third of hers to create more space for her gardens. She also paints gorgeous bird houses or feeders for all of her gardens. She also creates mosaic designs with tiles on flower pots and garden steps consistently. In the past few years she has also picked up revamping chandeliers that she finds at yard sales or thrift stores. She always add solar lights to them so that people hang them in their gardens. During day they collect the solar energy, and at night they light up. I definitely inherited her creativity. My favorite media is painting, but I also enjoying doing mosaics with her or drawing. I explored colored pencils during the pandemic, but decided they weren't for me. I hope this class will allow me to explore more creative work that I've put on the back burner while I'm in school.