Beginnings are invigorating.

After three days of school, I have to say that this school year is going down like an ice cold glass of lemonade so far. We have had a great time up here in the loft so far. The studio looks great, and it's nice to be back.

So far as the students go, I don't know all of their names yet... but I have so many that it is a challenge. I am getting a few more learned every day, and I am enjoying talking to more and more of the students as they lose their initial hesitancy to talk at school and now are beginning to let their real personalities emerge. It is a nice time.

There are approximately 27 in the morning, and that is actually a perfect size...although I know I could take a few more. There is a waitlist and I suspect they could still decide to add someone else, but we shall see! In the afternoon, there are 30 and that is maxed out. I am also not counting two that are special situations that Mr. H and I are kind of "sharing" even though they are enrolled in Animation. They are crossover students who will be working on motion. They like to do their work in my studio though, so they are added and that brings in to 32 students. Wow. That is a lot.

We have really plunged forward already. We have advanced students working on a fashion magazine and we have practicum students working on everything from digital painting to interior design and typographic design. It's already quite interesting. The first year students are working on taking baby steps in Photoshop. I'm pretty happy, but extremely tired. It is always hard the first week.

Next week I feel that we will have settled into our work and we will all be extremely busy all the time. I feel that all of us are still in the process of re-adjusting our sleep schedules and trying to get used to having a limited amount of time that we can spend doing what we want. Regimentation of your schedule is always more different than freeform summertime. I'll have lots more news to post next week... coming up, a feature on three of our students who attended summer programs at great design schools. Two who were at SCAD, one of whom was selected as a SCAD Rising Star, and one who spent five weeks at MICA in Baltimore.

Exciting stories to come.

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