My students struggle with everything from being stuck in a wheelchair to maintaining a grip on a pencil, but they rarely struggle with kindness. And the smiles are free. I was raised with the opposite belief, that human beings were a cancer on the planet, that all we did was cause pain. In my dark moments, I believe this. I have been working through CPTSD from childhood and two bouts with cancer. One of those cancers put me through a year of the heaviest hammers of chemo, as well as leaving me feeling like I'd survived a shark attack. Other life events – divorce, single parenthood, the pandemic – have fanned the flames. But then I get to go to work and interact with my students. Teaching art to adults with intellectual disabilities is a joyful pursuit for many reasons. They understand living with grace for each other while dealing with mental health challenges. They are loving and accepting of each other and me as we try to support and create together. Seeing how kind human beings fundamentally are in my current work gives me great hope. My students often have close to nothing, yet they still greet each other and me with all the warmth and welcome you could ever want. When I know I have helped them do one more thing – one drawing, one mug, one print – to be proud of, I feel like I've glimpsed the reason for life on Earth. I have more resources in the form of being able bodied, and yet they reach out to me and make my life better. If people with so little of their own give so much, I know we can all do this. The more we share, the warmer our hearts grow. There is suffering in every area and at every level of human society, but there's equal compassion and kindness. I believe we will heal ourselves and each other by offering each other a hand. In all directions.

Teaching art to adults with intellectual disabilities is a joyful pursuit for many reasons. They understand living with grace for each other while dealing with mental health challenges. They are loving and accepting of each other and me as we try to support and create together. I have been working through CPTSD from childhood and two bouts with cancer. One of those cancers put me through a year of the heaviest hammers of chemo, as well as leaving me feeling like I'd survived a shark attack. Other life events – divorce, single parenthood, the pandemic – have fanned the flames. Because of this, I want to finish my Master in Art Education, focusing on trauma and art therapy in the schools, to help others deal with these struggles. Helping others through the tools of creativity motivates me, morning and evening.