"For his part, every beauty of art or nature made him thankful"

Art has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Not guilty in that I spend tons of money on it, but in that it wasn't a "cool" thing to like until college. And once I was in college, I loved my art history classes, my professors loved me, but I wasn't an Art History major, so I was looked down upon by that group.

I've also never really fit into the Art crowd. Just a little too preppy, a little too comfortable with fitting into the world, to really be an Art person. I used to love to draw and paint, but was much better at copying than creating my own emotions on paper or canvas.

Yesterday I decided to put that all aside and recapture this guilty pleasure; after all, what's a guilty pleasure if you don't enjoy it? This was partially propelled by my desire to fill my new, more adult, apartment with art, and partially because I needed something to entertain me outside on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I decided to explore the Three Rivers Arts Festival, enjoy a gorgeous spring afternoon, and work on not only filling my next apartment with great art, but doing it all alone.

There are two things that have become apparent to me over the past week or so:

• Being an adult isn't something that comes with age, marriage, having children, or even a great job, it comes when you realize that sometimes you have to be alone. It's how you deal with being alone that makes you lonely, or not.
  
• Only you know how you can truly be happy. Doing what you think others want you to do, or following in someone's footsteps will never make you happy. You'll always be chasing happiness down a long, winding, road.
  

With that, I made plans to purchase a piece of art, and fell in love with a piece that I just can't afford. And yes, I'll be going back to make sure I take in everything that is offered.