How Getting Beat up Taught me to Share my Art
There’s no pain in putting your work out there.
I was beaten up by two teenage boys when I was in college.
Walking to my university, I guess they followed me onto campus, and when I reached the Fine Arts building—I was a graphic design major and cartoonist—the two guys who looked only about fourteen ran up to me and started throwing punches.
My hands went up instantly to block my face—as I learned from taking Taekwondo martial arts classes as a kid. They got some hits in as I did my best to dodge them in shock at what was happening suddenly.
Who were these kids? What did I do to them?
I was just a twenty-year-old going to school: no gang affiliation or criminal history. The two kids weren't trying to take anything from my bag or pockets, they just wanted to hit somebody, and I guess I was an easy target.
Maybe they wanted to knock me down, but at six feet three, I was a lot taller than them, so one of them picked up a garbage can as the last act and threw it at me. It was plastic, so it bounced off my right shoulder, giving them enough distraction to run out of the building and escape.
My nose was bleeding, and I was disoriented. No other students were in the building at the time to…
