There is the voice of a young child in everyone. Every time you make a choice, your younger self can be heard in the back of your mind. Senior Victoria Wagner has heard that child’s voice and uses it to fuel her passion every day.

“I scribbled on the walls a lot as a kid,” Victoria said. “From there, it went to my dad and I playing a lot of video games and me going, “I want to do this; I want to make characters for video games.’ From there, it was scribbling really awful people and then teaching myself.”

Since day one, Victoria was destined to be an artist. As she has grown, she has been able to specialize her craft and realize exactly what she wants to do for the rest of her life. Victoria wants to pursue a career in video game design. This career choice was inspired by her love for drawing.

While drawing comes naturally to her now, it wasn’t always this simple. Victoria had to teach herself how to draw. She was not naturally gifted like others and had to work very hard to get to where she is today. Aside from learning the basics of drawing, Victoria also struggled to create her own artistic vision.

“I had to create my own style,” Victoria said. “You can’t really copy off of other people’s style; it just doesn’t look as good.”

After mastering her own style, Victoria became hooked on drawing. She draws at least once a day. She often finds herself mindlessly doodling, whether that be in class, at home, or elsewhere. When drawing, Victoria often pulls inspiration from her other hobbies.

“[A lot of my inspiration] comes from the anime that I watch,” Victoria said. “I see something and think that would be a cool concept to go off of. I’ll take the storyline from there and make something sort of related or a character that would be able to fit into it.”

Aside from the digital world, Victoria also pulls inspiration from her own life.

“I’ll take aspects of my personality, aspects of my friend’s personalities– or just things that I’ve known, things that I’ve done, and I’ll put it into my art,” Victoria said. “Then, it’s somewhat like me.”

While drawing is her passion, Victoria sometimes struggles to make her art exactly as she imagines it to be. As an artist, it takes a great deal of perseverance and willpower to make her art perfect.

“There’s a lot of frustration,” Victoria said. “From there, it’s a lot of crumpled paper and a lot of erase marks and possible page rips.”

Drawing can be discouraging at moments, but Victoria never fails to stay determined and finish her projects.

“[I just think], “You know what? I’m going to finish this; I’m going to do it,a��” Victoria said.

The victory of finishing a piece makes every struggle worth it. Aside from the achievements, Victoria has found personal growth through her art.

“[Art has made] me so much more open,” Victoria said. “I used to be super quiet when I wasn’t at this school. I was the weird art kid. Now, I’m still that weird art kid, but I’m super outgoing with everything.”

As she continues to pursue her dream of a job in video game design, Victoria will continue to listen to the art-loving child that lies inside her. She will never fall out of love with drawing.

“It’s a creative outlet,” Victoria said. “I get to make worlds that, normally, we wouldn’t get see. It’s just making something completely out of the ordinary.”