Thinking about the time I got in trouble in first grade because there was some assignment to color a dog. And I colored mine orange because at the time we had an orange dog named Pork Chop. As neatly as I could, I wrote “Pork Chop” above my work.

The teacher then berated me because she claimed, “There’s no such thing as an orange dog and there’s no dog named ‘Pork Chop.'” After that, my art went full Fauvist (though I did not yet know that term) and I did what I wanted. Got sent to the principal a lot too as a result.

Thank you, first grade teacher, for turning me against the entire system early.