Everyone doubts their abilities once in a while, sometimes a little too often. It’s important to believe in yourself, no matter your skills. Do what you like to do, not necessarily what other people like doing, and believe in it.
One school day in 2010 it was a normal day at the old church that was used for our school, which I had gone to since kindergarten. My creative, inspiring, and favorite art teacher at the time decided to have the class draw an interesting creature with their imagination. She told us it was for a contest for the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, and one child  out of about 700 would win. In a few minutes, I had drawn an elephant like animal, and apparently my inspiration was from a pillowcase my mom had made me.
I didn’t think much about it afterwards, and kind of shoved the thought of possibly winning off to the side. I didn’t think I had enough creativity for the museum to choose my drawing, and I forgot about it.
But a day in October, my thrilled art teacher, extremely excited, remarked “Tessa Rose, guess what! you’ve won the art contest for the museum of glass, they picked your drawing!”. At first I didn’t believe it, and asked myself how they could’ve chosen my drawing out of all the crazy creative creatures that were submitted. But I finally realized that maybe I do have enough creativity to accomplish things, even though I was young.
My immediate family and some of my extended family and I went to the museum and watched the glass blowing team make a glass sculpture that looked exactly like the drawing I submitted. I was so fascinated that they could make something so cool out of my five minute sketch, inspired by a pillowcase. I was so proud of it.
A few days after, I was interviewed by an outgoing, excited woman who works at the Post Record. In my interview, I stated “I was really surprised, I didn’t think I could win”, which I sincerely meant. I proved myself wrong.

What I learned through this experience was that no matter your age, skills, or the little creativity you think you have, you should always believe in yourself.  Never doubt yourself, no matter your expertise.