Mythology 101 class. Choose a Mythic symbol and relate it to your life for the final project… Little did I know I'd go so in depth with this. This was done in exactly the same way as the Midnight Howl pic I have in my gallery (the one based off Mythology 101 class. Choose a Mythic symbol and relate it to your life for the final project… Little did I know I'd go so in depth with this. This was done in exactly the same way as the Midnight Howl pic I have in my gallery (the one based off of Taurin Fox's Midnight Howl), except I added a glow animation (hope it shows up after upload). Again, this was based off of another artist's original artwork, unfortunately this time I don't know whose, but I give them all credit for the original design. Anyway, below is a copy of the writeup I did to go along with the image which explains just why I relate to the Phoenix.

In mythology there are countless symbols and archetypes and each one of us can identify with almost any of them in some way or another, but one mythic symbol I personally identify with quite strongly is the Phoenix.

This mythic bird is a symbol of resurrection. The phrase ‘rise from the ashes’ comes from the myth of the Phoenix. It is a legendary bird that, when it reaches the end of its life it bursts into flames incinerating, but in the smoldering pile of ashes there is an egg which contains the very same bird reborn. Not its child, but the bird itself, reincarnated, a brand new life.

This resonates with me personally as I see this theme recurring over and over again in my life. Two times stick out though. When I was younger, around the age of 12, I realized something about myself. I realized I was gay. I lived my life telling lie after lie from that point on, enduring homophobic jokes constantly and pretending to be interested in the girls all of my friends were interested in. After a while I developed depression, and parts of my life began to erode and ‘burn away’. When I finally reached the very edge of my rope something snapped inside of my, I was at the very bottom, with nothing left to lose there was nothing left to do but give up, or rise higher than before, and I chose to rise from the pile of ashes of my life. I burned away toxic relationships, reimagined my image, renewed my body with serious exercise, and became the version of me you see standing here today.

But that wasn’t the only time I took on the role of the phoenix. Shortly after my first rebirth I graduated from High School and began college at Stony Brook. I was a new person, I was my own person, and I was going to do what I wanted to do. Stony Brook wasn’t right for me, but I wasn’t ready to admit that. I once again watched my life crumble and burn around me as my grades plummeted, I had my scholarship taken away, I was kicked out of the Scholars program, and ultimately, I was suspended for my GPA being too low for too long. I was told to take some classes at Suffolk in order to prove that I was ready to come back, but once I was out of Stony Brook, that cloud surrounding my life and my mind burned away, I realized that I was much happier at Suffolk, and it showed. My grades skyrocketed, and for the first time in a long time I was actually proud of the work I was doing, it wasn’t just stuff I had to do.

These experiences taught me so much, but most importantly, they taught me that I will always rise up from the ashes no matter how bad things get, and I will rise higher than ever before.

And no, I didn’t choose the phoenix because it is flaming… although I suppose that is accurate…