The Sponge

I took an art class once upon a time. On the first day we were asked, for our first take home assignment, to paint a portrait of ourselves as an animal we identified with. I sat for three days in front of my bathroom mirror just staring at myself and wondering what animal I might be. Inspiration finally struck the night before the assignment was due, and I painted what I thought at the time was a masterpiece.

The next day we turned our paintings in at the beginning of class. Ten minutes before the end the teacher randomly picked a few of them and showed the class. Mine came up just before the class time was up. At first no one could guess what it could be. There were grumblings in the room about how we were not assigned to be plants. I finally told them that it was a sponge otherwise known as Demospongiae in Latin. When I was asked why I chose that animal this was my response.

"My whole life I've been stuck on an artificial reef, watching the fish and other animals swim by. I've soaked up every second of my life and analyzed everything I've seen. Its all up here," I said pointing to my head. There was silence in the room as time ran out. I was the first one to the door and no one had said a word yet. I turned and faced the teacher with one hand holding the open door. "Maybe someone will give me a squeeze one of these days and something interesting will come out. Today just hasn't been that day."

I haven't been back to class since...