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I was just ten years old...
but it was one of the achievements of my life.
I drew a squirrel aloft in a tree
the first and last that won a prize for me
A Brooke Bond travel scholarship award
Sounds impressive...
but nothing to do with travelling abroad
My prize was two books
and I have them still
the results of my foray with water colour paints
- one book about the natural world,
the other about history, soldiers and saints.
I was now fifteen...
and it had been the longest five years of my life.
I could have gone to art college
but I was impatient to leave school
and I thought 'college' was trading like for like...
nothing about it seemed cool
but how can anyone of that age
make that kind of decision
when the governing factor
is fear of derision?
My art teacher - Mr. Lord - always said I had ability
but my instability lay in making bad choices
listening to the inner voices
turning left when I should have turned right
yet some say that is the definition of life
Now I see I was a fool
judging everything by some vague adolescent rule
and I wonder...
where the alternative path would have taken me
Would I have been clever,
excellent even?
or simply a model of mediocrity?
I shall never know...
Thank Goodness.
Kevin Wells
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