Personal Narrative: Welcome To Queen City Clay

“Welcome to Queen City Clay (QCC), today we will be teaching you how to throw on the potter’s wheel.” This is the beginning of my story, the start of uncovering my hidden talent, of finding my pure joy of creating a unique piece of pottery; from that one sentence, my life has been forever changed. As a junior in high school, I uncovered a great talent that I have, pottery. Prior to learning about pottery, I was more of an introvert, enjoying activities that I could either do alone or in a small group. I was also pretty stressed out about school, my grades and planning my college future; I needed an outlet. I had taken several art classes each of my high school years, enjoying mediums like watercolors, sculpture, ceramics, and creating mosaics. I developed a fantastic relationship with the art teacher, so when she announced a class field trip, I signed up. Our field trip was to Queen City Clay, a local pottery studio.

We first observed artwork made with glass and paintings being created at the studio. Then we visited the ceramic arts area. The instructors taught us how to throw clay, work the wheel, and ultimately how to mold our piece of clay into a basic shape. It was that afternoon I discovered that not only was I very good at this, but I also really enjoyed it! During the field trip, I learned that they offer evening, extracurricular classes. At that time I was struggling in life; I was downsized out of my part-time job that I really enjoyed, my family had to put down the dog that I grew up with, and I found myself with a lack of motivation. After consulting with my parents, I immediately signed up for the next class, beginning in November