By Kekoa Paki
Hello Reader.
If you’ve been keeping up with my Instagram account (which you should be doing) you’ll know that I recently graduated from Skagit Valley College and Mount Vernon High School at the same time as a part of the Running Start program we have here in Washington at the age of 17.
Skagit Valley College:
This occasion has got me in the mood to think, to reflect, to ponder. So, I decided to make a blog reflecting on my development through High School and college using some old art I made.
Lathrop High School:
I moved around a lot during High School. I spent my freshman year at Lathrop High School in Fairbanks, Alaska, my sophomore year at Mount Vernon High School in Washington, and my junior and senior years at Skagit Valley College, also in Washington.
This gave me a lot of room to change personas throughout High School. At Lathrop, I wore a suit every day to school and wanted to become class president, gaining the nickname “Suit Guy.” It was between my freshman and sophomore years that I developed a love for artistry. When I came to Mount Vernon, I wore aviator sunglasses every day and developed a reputation for looking like a character from the Top Gun movie franchise, gaining the nickname “Maverick.” In college, I mostly attended online school, so I didn’t get a nickname because people never had to try to pronounce my name (it’s pronounced kay-koe-ah, btw). This was the time when I really homed in on art as the thing I wanted to do with my life.
The part of high school I remember most was my Sophomore year. I was kind of a dick. I was demeaning to my fellow classmates and slightly misogynistic. I was obsessed with getting a girlfriend. The people I hung out with most were mostly communist and progressive, and they all thought I was a closeted gay.
Mount Vernon High School:
And then the worst thing imaginable happened, it turned out they were right. Well, more like 3/4s right. While in High School I was kind of conservative, if you call what I had a consistent ideology, but over time, I’ve come to be progressive. Additionally, while I’m not gay, I did later realize I was bisexual, so they were half right (happy pride month btw.)
That’s why I’m writing this in a blog and not on Instagram, I know their attention spans aren’t long enough to read through this whole thing.
Deathloop fanart I made:
Additionally, throughout High School and College, the way I spend my free time has also changed considerably. While at the start of High School, I was somewhat, well, I guess you’d call it lazy. I would spend most, if not all, of my free time playing video games, mostly Apex Legends, Dead by Daylight, and Rainbow Six Siege, if I remember correctly. I was also a fan of some single-player games like Bioshock, Hitman, and Deathloop.
But, by the end of College, I had become a workaholic. I spend most all of my time creating something or working on something. In fact, whenever I try to play the video games I used to enjoy, I am overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and wasting my time. Now I only experience video games through streamers.
Sketches I made some time ago of people I met in high school:
I changed a lot throughout these past 4 years. I like to think that most of it was for the better… I like to think…
Thanks for reading this blog post, have a good day.
From,
Kekoa Paki
Kekoa Paki Arts 
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