finding it

my voice, that is. Something that we are asked to do near the end of the undergraduate arts program is to find our voice. After several years of sometimes very structured and pushy guidance, we are asked to make the leap. Maybe it's like what I am told about the army: you come in with one idea, are broken down, rebuilt, and then are asked to think for yourself when it's all over. It's a bit of a crisis, really. Many of us as students have a bit of a crash, wondering what all our work was for. We are being trained in process after process, and then asked to make something we care about. I'm in the heat of the crisis. I have projects that I do, I have assignments that teach and fulfill requirements, but how do I put my ideas into their system? I guess that's why we graduate eventually, because they know we can't do it forever.