So I’m done. I graduated a week before Christmas. Graduation was a short day and a long night. But I got to see friends and classmates; family, instructors and mentors. I even got some good crit on my book, which I still have to put online. And, in the process. It was a good season to graduate, and I feel lucky to have had the people in my class.
Things haven’t gotten completely back to “normal.” I’m writing this the day after Christmas, where I’ve some time to sleep and recover from all the craziness of graduating. I’ve begun to catch up on this new show on Netflix named NIKITA about a spy gone rogue from a secret government agency gone rogue, so is she really rogue? Hmmm… I’m dreaming of having a spy as a girlfriend because I didn’t know that spies were cute! haha Anyway, I’m feeling good about my Art Center “recovery.”
Without question, my family was the driving force behind this entire experience, especially my Dad. Yes, I’m sad that he passed away before he saw me graduate, but I’m awfully glad he was there in our hearts and in spirit. My family is ME; just right of my center. I could not have done it without their love. My honor is their love, and for this I have felt truly blessed.
I spent grad night with my best friends from Art Center. You know it’s all good when we’re eating after a night of long lines, changed rendezvous venues, and superfluous gallons of wine and alcoholic consumption. It was a “good” cray. Now, I’m waiting now for the “cray” cray. That starts in 2012, when all us are working and see each other in NYC or Boston, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, or in Portland; San Francisco, England, Taipei, or Dubai, or fuck it, here in LA and we say, “Hey (so and so)…FUCK YOU!” And you know what? As my boy Jon Farrell would say…”It’s all love! But it does not translate well on the internet.” haha Wish everyone knew what we were talking about! But I guess it will always remain one of “our” things. Just like this experience; just like this school. I wish them all, excellence.
And at the end, that’s how I see it. Yes, I believe that us AD Kids are crazy. And I’m one of the craziest I guess, because I’m a crazy with honors. This time demanded of me to be nothing less than excellent. Not perfect, but excellent. Not only in my work, but also excellent in my failures. The best advice I heard from every one of my instructors was this, “Work hard. Stay humble.” I think I get that now. And if not, there is always room for me to improve.
And with that, no need to explain myself further. I hope the past three years of keeping this YeaRBooK has explained it all. I wish I could tell you that graduation was a mix of emotion and a theatrical climax that I imagined happened after a John Hughes movie. But it wasn’t. And it wasn’t the ending of The Jersey Shore neither. Nonetheless, it was a very special time of my life. One that I think I will not forget. Ever. Not the people, the work, the worst, or the best.
Or I could be wrong, I could want to forget about it all tomorrow and just get back to work.
Signing off,
Ray Allan David
Art Director graduated
Art Center College of Design
Pasadena, California
Advertising Design, Class of Fall 2011
YRBK 