I feel emancipated.

I’ve had my stained glass project from high school in my basement for the past 6 years. I was very excited to finish this in high school. I was the first person in my class to choose my pieces of glass, cut/saw them and copper foil them. It was like the rabbit and the hare. I did everything as quickly as I could and then decided to either read magazines in art class or just not go until the remainder of the year, assuming I had tons of time for bringing my project to completion. I had the most ambitious project. Everyone else did one thing. A flower. A bird. A Boston Red Sox emblem. I made an entire seaside landscape. I was a senior and things had spiraled out of control and I ended the year promising my high school art teacher that I would come back the week after school had officially closed and she said that she would still be at school busy with administrative work and that I could. I never went back.

I knew I was making a mistake then and that I would regret not going. I regretted it all the way until now and I never did anything about it. It didn’t keep me up at night in a panic, but during the past six years, anytime I stopped to think about whatever I had to do, I would always be reminded of finishing my stained glass project. I decided to call up the high school because I saw a flier for adult classes at the cafe. Here’s how that went:

Me: Hi! I was just interested in your adult stained glass class, am I calling the right person?
Lady: What stained glass class.
Me: Oh… I thought there was one at the high school…
Lady: UHHHHHHHHHH letmecheck.

Hold for ten minutes

Lady: OKAY that used to be a program we offered but the last class ended in May and we are currently not offering it indefinitely.
Me: Well is Ms. Walsh still at the high school? Do they still offer it for the normal curriculum

I dont know why I even said this. Like I was going to sneak into the high school and join a high school class in efforts of coercing Ms. Walsh (my former teacher) into not reporting my presence to anyone.

Lady: No she’s not at the high school anymore.
Me: Well, I guess I should explain my situation to you then. See, I was a 2006 graduate and I (nervous chuckle), well I had a stained glass project that I’d like to finish and it seems I have some time in my, uh, schedule–I mean not a lot of time but well I-(I started to trail off here and was just anticipating her interruption, something like “oh wow, how neat! Well let me see what we can do for you!” as she diligently went off to be helpful. Instead she was silent.)- well I guess that’s it.
Lady: (silence)
Me: This must sound so silly.
Lady: Well. Ms. Walsh isn’t at the high school anymore, I’m not sure what else we can do for ya.
Me: Who teaches stained glass now?
Lady: Nobody.
Me: What do you mean.
Lady: Stained glass isn’t being taught.
Me: WHY?!
Lady: No one’s taking it!

Then I thanked her for her time and went online to watch tuturials on stained glass. Then I kept thinking about where I could go to use some stained glass making facility. I consulted a few friends about it. My friend Sean told me I could just buy a soldering iron but that sounded much too complicated so I immediately disregarded the suggestion and continued wallowing about it, because, where could you even FIND this stuff.

I went online.
Looked up “soldering iron” in google.
Clicked on “I’m feeling lucky” for the first time ever.
The page that came up was RADIO SHACK. SOLDERING IRON. $8.99.
There’s a radio shack down the street from my house.

I finished it! Finally after all this time!

I love it as much today as I did when I first created it.

Tools. Plexiglas.

I had to make these dollops so they would hold the pieces together for me.

Being able to control metal is incredible. This is why Magneto is the coolest X-Men character.

I got a new little table for my room from a man on craigslist and painted it blue in between the time I started and ended this project. It’s actually a file cabinet! But it’s wooden.

I added a little hanger for it. I was unsure about it holding the weight but I pulled on it as hard as I could and it’s still intact.

DONE.

I think I have aptitude for stained glass.
That’s one I can cross off my bucket list.