What Spike wanted to be when he grew up.

So everyone knows that I stand out from most people for all sorts of reasons. When I was a child and asked what I wanted to be when i grew up was always one of those things. Most of my classmates at school wanted to be a policeman, fireman or professional football. Whenever I was asked I'd say I wanted to draw cartoons for Disney, even at a very very young age. Over the years my classmates ideas for jobs changed somewhat to things such as wanting to be vets or teachers etc, however mine didn't. Even in secondary school I stood by my dream of wanting to be a Disney animator, and whenever I visited Disney land, one of the hilights for me was watching the animators drawing stills for the next animated motion picture due out in a few years time.
Halfway through secondary school thoough, I lost this dream. I'm not sure if it was that I realised I'd never be good enough, or if it was that I found something even better that I wanted to become.
When I was off sick from school, there was soemtimes a programme on called 'Movies Behind the Magic' , or something similar. In it they'd show you special effects from films, and how they went about creating them. The making of monsters, puppetry and make up effects is what amazed me, and from that moment on I knew I wanted to make monsters for films. Trying to explain this to people though, they didn't always have a clue what i was on about.
I used to make little monsters out of copydex glue at home, the copydex is similar to latex and gave a great feel of skin to my creations. I even made a corpse out of it in sixth form which was a hit with most of the students, although the teachers frowned upon it.
In year 11 I remember having a career interview and having to tell the careers advisor what I wanted to be and she would direct me into what courses I should take up after my GCSE's. What a waste of time that was. She didn't seem to have a clue what I was on about and could only suggest taking up an art course and had no advice for me after that. So that's when I went into sixxth form and studied advanced art for two years without passing. In that time I became more odd and a little more extrovert and more like the Spike people know today. However I had my dreams squashed a bit when I didn't pass and when I was not allowed into a foundation course at Hitchin college either, as I wasn't good enough. Still, I carried on making monsters and odd creations at home, althoguh I now also had a love of painting due to my advanced art course. I found out addresses for uk special effects companys and sent off letters to them asking for advice and apprenticeships. I only ever got one reply, and that was from the Jim Henson Creature Shop in London, the company I'd dreamed of working for for years. They said that there were currently no jobs or apprenticeships going, but I was very pleased they at least replied. Unfortunately the London chain closed down a year or two after that. I guess my dreams of making monsters then gradually faded, and for most of my twenties I was unsure about what I wanted to do, but knew it had to be creative. I carried on with my painting, which had greatly improved since sixth form. I also still made the occaisional 3D sculpture, I think the last was a life size Gollum. Unfortunately when Jacob was young he broke bits off of it, so I disposed of him (Gollum, not Jacob).
So now my passion is magic. I want to be a magician, which I guess I technically am. It started out as jsut trying to impress a few mates in the pub, but once you learna  little, you get hooked and want to learna lot more. whether or not I'll become a full time pro, I don't know, but whatever happens it'll always at least be a hobby. As for my art, I'll still always paint in my spare time too. I very rarely draw cartoons anymore, and I guess my lack of having drawn them means that my cartoons are nowhere near as good as when I was younger. However I'll still paint with oils as it can be an amazing feeling, bringing a painting to life. i also find that emotions greatly improve how a painting turns out. I love to paint when I'm sad, as they always come out better, I guess as I'm putting emotion into the painting. So, although my original career plan has changed soemwhat since childhood, I'm still as creative as I always was, and still strive for a creative career.