Tricia Rose Burt

art school and church.

And both places challenge how I was raised in very different ways, but they're saying the same thing.

You have a voice, listen to the voice, and become who you're being called to be, and you're going to be happy.

Now, as an emerging artist, I craved anything that art school had to offer.

And so I went to Ireland with the museum school on a painting trip.

And I chose Ireland because I wanted mist and rain and tragedy.

I was looking for drama and angst.

Instead, the sun shone every day for three straight weeks.

It was the first time in 20 years they had a stretch of sunshine for that long.

One day, it was hotter in Ireland than it was in Greece.

Right before I left for Ireland, there was this slightest chance my husband and I could reconcile, but with distance brings clarity, and I realized I couldn't even write that guy a letter, much less be married to him.

So I went into this little church and I said, you know what, God?

I am so happy to be alone.

I don't want a husband.

I don't even want a boyfriend.

All I want is to make art.

And I mean this from the bottom of my toes.

And I don't know it at the time, but I meet my future husband that night.

I'm standing on one of those Irish stone walls, and I'm looking at this amazing sunset.

And I'm having a hard time getting off the wall because I have these pretty but stupid shoes on.