I’ve doodled, sketched, and created things my entire life.

In second grade, I got called to the principal’s office. For a well-behaved boy who avoided trouble, I was very nervous. This quickly escalated to terror when I noticed my principal Sister Cecilia, my teacher Sister Maria Garretti and my mom waiting for me. What the hell is going on?

 Sister Maria calmly told my mother, he’s a good kid and doing well in class but he draws constantly. You need to get him into a real art class. No ruler across the knuckles for me, just encouragement to pursue something I loved? Not the graphic story or outcome I had fabricated in my mind. It was a strict conservative catholic school built on discipline and following the rules, no questions asked. Sister Maria looked past the normal, expected structure and changed my life forever.

 Maria the Penguin.