OK so before you get all, "oh Melissa, you are sooo materialistic, you want a car!"... well no. I don't. In fact, the next few drawing challenges are going to be really rough on me. This drawing has been fun but it's been really self-reflective and I've been avoiding it for a very long time. In fact, I think the rest of the Drawing Challenge is complete BS and I don't want to do them but I want to finish this. A friend had told me that I want too many things and it's a problem. It is, I can never focus. I want so much, I want to do so much. I never had a focused academic ultimatum (yes I totally use this phrase in my cover letters, haha). I dabbled en route to Engineering but met my match with calculus so I finished a diploma in Business Administration, then went on to become a published poet; completed an associate's degree in Arts. Now I am on my way to finishing off my tech school certificate, with industry certifications like CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+. I am a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator. I still manage to work in publishing and do some freelance photography while I was at my last IT job. What do I want? Jeeez. Although - at the end of this year, I want to finish my Linux certification so I can be done with it. At the end of it all, I just want to be happy and I haven't quite figured that part out. What do I want to do 25% of the time? I want to drive a Mini Cooper down the I-5 and listen to all the music I haven't heard in ages on my iPod. I want to drive to California and have wind go through my hair and smoke clove cigarettes on my breaks. Sounds stupid, eh. Maybe my friend is right: I need to grow the fuck up.

This is my mother's picture in high school (9th grade). I love to comment on her clothing and hair choice of the 80's. The reason I chose this picture is because my mother is my best friend. She has always been there to support us through the roughest times. She was a single working mother of two and did a great job. She had me at a young age and still managed to get her associates degree to make her children lives better than hers. She is my inspiration to achieve the most out of my life. She has always pushed me to go further than she did, make more out of my life, give my children more than she could, and to be independent. I don't believe I would be this goal driven and independent if it wasn't for my mother. I love and thank her so much for everything!