#3: a) Visit Washington Family b) Complete a Covert Mission

As I mentioned, I am including at least one submission from everyone who participated in the challenge.  In order to do that, I had to combine several people’s submissions in some creative ways.  I got especially creative with Challenge #3– but I think the CalArtians would approve of the creativity.

Most of my dad's family lives in Washington state where he grew up.  Regrettably, because of the distance and the cost of travel, we didn’t get to see each other very much as I was growing up.  Back then, even long distance phone calls were expensive because they had to be paid by the minute. If you went one second over, you had to pay for the whole minute. I have vivid memories of my parents lining my sisters and I up in the kitchen once a month, so we could talk to our grandparents on the phone. We often kept the oven timer running, so we could make sure time didn’t get away from us.

Last year I returned to Washington for my grandfather’s funeral. It was the first time I had been there since a family vacation when I was 11 years old.  Even though we were there for a funeral, I really enjoyed the time with my relatives, especially my sister from my dad's first marriage.  After hearing about me talk about my time with my relatives so much, one of my close friends challenged me to a return visit.

Unfortunately, I am short on vacation time this year because I started a new job.  As much as I would love to go out to Washington again, it just wasn’t in the cards for this year.  My oldest nephew’s graduation from college, on the other hand, was definitely in the cards. I checked with The Council…meeting with Washington relatives on non-Washington soil satisfies the intent of the challenge, thus Council approved! 

My nephew is super intelligent and musically talented; we were so excited when he got accepted into California Institute of the Arts.  Four years later and I can't believe how fast time has gone and that he is ready to be on his own in the real world.  I was not going to miss the honor and privilege of watching my oldest nephew graduate from college.

I will be a proud aunt of my nieces and nephews no matter what, but the fact that our eldest of the next generation graduated from CalArts was just down right cool.

The graduation was on the campus of CalArts, which conveniently enough would provide me the oppurtunity to finish the second part of this challenge: a covert mission. CalArts is home to the famous Room A113.  You may have heard about Room A113 because of its recent buzz on the internet, but even if you haven’t heard of it, you have seen the fruits of its labor.  Room A113 is the graphic design and character animation classroom at CalArts.  Pixar recruits heavily from CalArts. As a result, many of its animators have covertly hidden A113 in each of the Pixar movies as a nod to where they all got their start.

While we were sitting outside, waiting for the graduation to start, my second-oldest nephew and I snuck in the main building to find Room A113.  The room was slyly tucked away in a non-descript hallway.

 

People were inside the room, so we couldn’t go in…but I stuck my phone through the door to catch this interior shot...super-stealthy-Ninja-style!

MISSION 3B: COMPLETE.

After our photo excursion, we headed back to the lawn for graduation. CalArts does graduation like no other academic institution. The graduates didn’t wear robes; they got to wear whatever they wanted (and my sister warned that I shouldn’t be surprised if some chose to wear their birthday suits).  Instead of processing to “Pomp and Circumstance,” they walked in to the styles of African tribal music with student tribal dancers ushering them to their seats.  As each graduate’s name was called, a 30-second musical spot of their own choosing was played as they walked across the stage; we heard Disney, rap, classical, and various theme songs throughout the night.

Our Keynote speaker was CalArts Alumn John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.  He said many wise and entertaining things, but the two that stuck with me the most: 1. You need others. Lean on others. Celebrate others. 2. In the art world, you are not competing with each other. Great art makes you want more.  Don’t make it a competition, when everyone will benefit from collaboration.  Although his remarks were about art, I think they are applicable to many more life domains, including medicine.

As fun as the graduation was, my favorite part of the trip by far was hanging out with my family. Because my sister and I don’t get to see each other very often, it was amusing to recognize all of our similarities, especially with regard to our quirky habits.  I am hoping to see my sister and nephews again soon.