Making a Documented Difference Anonymous

I winced in aversion when the document loaded. Displayed before me was a dauntingly long list of bizarre names, obscure titles, and dates hundreds of years in the past. As I scrolled through the PDF, my disorientation only grew.

Earlier that day, I had been enticed by my friend to join Quiz Bowl, a buzzer-based team competition testing a wide variety of academic subjects. Being a part of this sounded fun, so I was eager to accept his offer. However, visual art was a weak area of the current team, one I would need to study if I wanted to join. I was in ninth grade, and up to that point, my extracurricular interest had lie solely in math. I studied math in my free time, competed in math competitions, and watched math videos for fun. I knew math well and I stuck to it, seeing no reason to venture into other subjects. Yet sitting at home now, I knew I had to.

So one by one, I begrudgingly googled each art piece. I studied its details, learned about its painter, and became familiar with its historical context. Each day, I allocated some time for doing this, and slowly but steadily I made my way through the list. For the first week, studying art was a tedious chore. But as my mental art catalog grew, a passion started to develop...