I loved this project.  I chose to tell the story of my shift from teacher to student, and the hero’s journey of which this is a part.  When I was a teenager, my mom, then in her 50s, decided to go to GSU for nursing school.  I was really proud of her for going back to school and it taught me that you can always choose to take on new challenges.  Similarly, my husband got his law degree in his fifties.  These examples inspired me to leave teaching, my identity for nearly a quarter century, and try something new:  art, and eventually, art therapy.  My narrative shows a flashback to my year as a truly distance learning scholar, when I walked up to the local post office in Nairobi, toddler in tow, to mail off essays to my Montessori training school in London. So, yes, the work ahead may be challenging, but as the hero in my own story, I will prevail and be able to go out into the world again as a new kind of helper:  an art therapist. 

My process for this project began with thinking about myself and what I feel I offer in the way of good to the world.  I decided that I wanted to portray myself as an everyday hero, not a superhero.  My power is simply showing up and trying, over time.  That’s when I landed on the motif of Russ’s truck, a blue Toyota stick shift with over 200,000 miles.  I can still see my dad in that unpretentious truck, headed to work into his eighties, using his heart and his mind to help others.  For my superhero outfit, I chose my pink hat. I used ink wash and watercolor pencils, collaged in map images to show the stops along my journey, and tried to use color to convey different time periods.  Many hours went into this work, and it is far from perfect.  However, I’m happy with it as my first foray into the graphic narrative form.