Ok, I am fully aware that what I am about to write is insane.

There is no such thing as a new idea. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. -Mark Twain

Let me take it back to first grade, 2009. I’m in the school library looking for a new book to check out. I stumbled upon a book misplaced in the Animal book section. I can’t recall the name but it was a cartoon drawing book. I was OBSESSED. I love drawing but get frustrated because I can’t ever make something look like the real deal. Cartoons are a happy medium, it’s not supposed to be real, it’s a cartoon. One day in art class we were putting textures of different leaves under paper and coloring on top of the paper, revealing the texture and shape of the leaves. I never thought of that. I tried putting my paper everywhere after that. Including, on top of the pages in the cartoon drawing book. I knew I would have to return this book to the library so I figured I had to copy what I could so I could always have it. I outlined the shapes of the figures’ bodies and key characteristics. I’ve always been obsessed with eyes, so when I landed on a page with different cartoon eyes, it was like I had unlocked something I never knew existed, but was right in front of me. I was too focused on making everything real that I skipped right over the fun. I learned how eyes can show emotion. Anyway, I traced every single pair of eyes I could find in the book. I then started drawing different characters. My classmates started noticing what I was doing and were also very interested. They started copying me. I remember being very upset about this because it felt like I found an underground artist before they get discovered. My teachers would say, “Copying is the highest level of flattery” or whatever they could to convince me it was a compliment. I didn’t think of it as a compliment, but just tried to ignore it. As the days went by, everyone in the class was drawing cartoons with faces and characteristics identical to mine. I could kind of handle it when it was one person, but the whole class?!?!?! I was beyond frustrated. I then decided I had to change mine so they are personal to me and can’t be copied. When drawing a woman I’ve always drawn their hair down usually ending at their shoulders. I couldn’t draw shoulders so I felt sneaky getting around having to draw them. In the book, I saw how cartoons can be drawn with all sorts of different hairstyles I could’ve never imagined before. I really held on to the ponytail, because at the time I am pretty sure my hair was almost always in a ponytail. I think I wanted the character to sort of look like me so even then you could see how personalized the drawing is. I was finally at peace. All of my drawings all of a sudden had ponytails. Later that week, everyone in the class was drawing ponytails. I was enraged. I don’t know how I moved on, but eventually I did.

However, I haven’t fully moved on, but I wish I could. I am a very observant person so I notice details most people overlook. I also love symmetry.

I’ve never understood why people don’t buy the store-brand of products. It’s always cheaper. It’s the same thing, so who cares? Well…I would most certainly care. I know monopolies are bad and I can recognize that but I’d be pissed if I came up with something and then someone made a store brand version. A ripoff. All my hard work down the drain. I don’t know why I feel this need to get “credit” for all of my ideas, however, I am kind of a genius when it comes to random ideas, so yeah they are my property, trademarked, copyrighted, patent pending, or whatever. It’s one thing to be Coke and then for Pepsi to pop up on the scene, but imagine being Qtips and the store brand really had to make their own version. Something as simple as Qtips!!! Leave them alone who cares.