I’ve been told by multiple people that I was “born in the wrong generation”. Sure, I suppose I’m not the conventional Gen Z-er. No, I actually don’t have TikTok, or SnapChat… Yes, I do tend to favor music that is way older than me… I can see why the people around me may think I stick out amongst others. But the thing is, my generation is so rich in diversity and personality; it’s hard to pinpoint what a Gen Z-er is really like, since all of us are so different. In my honest opinion, I truly think my generation has gained a bad reputation, especially during Covid times. We were the first generation to grow up with the internet, and are usually the first group of people that comes to mind whenever someone says, “kids these days!” (Even though we’re practically all adults now). How time flies! My interests are all over the place, in chaotic order. I love doing things last minute. (Lol). I love hyperfixating over my favorite things. I love randomly throwing niche references out there. I love the world of art and music. I love making my friends laugh with our inside jokes that’d make zero sense to anybody else…. I really could go on and on, but sadly there’s a 300 word limit. Even if I don’t tick all of the common boxes of the Gen Z criteria checklist, I still think I am unique. And I think that type of open-minded thought makes me the “most Gen Z human alive”. Thank you for reading! :)

For my Connections choices, I did “(Blank) Paint”, “Music Note Durations”, “Famous Broadway Musicals”, and “Middle Names of Classical Composers”. I did these in the order of least difficult to connect, to the most difficult to connect, in my opinion. (From top to bottom) ____ PAINT |Oil| |Acrylic| |Watercolor| |Spray| MUSIC NOTE DURATIONS |Quarter| |Half| |Full| |Eighth| FAMOUS BROADWAY MUSICALS |Cats| |Chicago| |Newsies| |Cabaret| MIDDLE NAMES OF CLASSICAL COMPOSERS |Van| |Sebastian| |Lucio| |Peter| I chose to make every topic music and art related, because those are my strongest passions. I made the first two columns less obscure than the last two… I feel like it would be much more obvious if the Broadway section had “Wicked” or “Hamilton”, so I chose various other plays instead, all to make the player think harder. The same thing goes for the composer names - one would automatically connect the dots if the choices had “Beethoven” or “Bach” for example, instead of the lesser-known middle names listed. The last group of four was a bit harder for me to assemble and come up with… But I felt like it was perfect. Of course “Van” is Ludwig Van Beethoven, but it could literally be mistaken for the vehicle itself, causing even more confusion. Then I threw in more common middle names… “Sebastian” is obviously Johann Sebastian Bach, “Peter” is Franz Peter Schubert, and then the wildcard, “Lucio”, who is Antonio Lucio Vivaldi. Imagine seeing all of these jumbled up… It would be a chin-scratcher, and it’d definitely make for a challenging round of Connections! Thank you for reading.

The everyday world around me really influences the way I make my lines, colors, and overall composition... I love the nature around me, and it really affects the way I create art. I like to make flowy, natural brush strokes as opposed to geometrical lines and shapes. I usually avoid using bright saturated colors not found in nature - I personally adore the look of more dull, natural colors... Just mixing a hint of red into green, and using various other complimentary colors makes the palette look so natural. Those are just a few reasons how the everyday world around me inspires me as an artist.