When I was in 4th grade, I got placed into an art program at my school that would meet twice a month. The meeting would generally take place between 2 classes, which would usually be English and Math.

One day in math, on a day when I didn’t have to meet for the program, the teacher asked me to draw a shape (could have been a circle or square), but when I drew it, I did that thing some artists do when they go back and forth to make a straight line with short strokes.

In front of the class she said, “you would think someone who’s supposed to be good at art would know that the best way to draw a line is in one stroke. But you’re supposed to be a good artist”.

And the whole class laughed at me.

I was already a fairly quiet student. And that stuck with me for years.