"No, bad Naruto. You're not killing the man you're supposed to protect."
Chikusho.

When in the course of human events we set for ourselves, as seperate and independent individuals, life-consuming and -developing queries that thrive only upon gargantuan amounts of invested time and--
(31 words down and about--*dodges a thwap from Jamal* KIDDING! ^.^;)

OK, anyways, there really was a point to that. Namely, have you ever asked yourself a question years ago and waited for the answer? You knew the answer would take a long time coming, but you predicted it would be this answer, not that.
Well, it happened to me today.
I was digging around, looking for unused binders (and this little card collector/player is shifting back into just plain collector mode for a month or two; not without making notes on all the plays she's done, heh), when I stumbled on my sketchbooks from--get this--1997.

1997. I was a sophomoric sophmore in high school. I don't even remember the people I saw every day as a part of my routine from back then. >> (However, there happened to be a list of them in one of the books, and I recognize a few names, but a lot less than I'd like to admit to.)

My question to myself at the time was: would I be a fantastically fantastic artist in the future and totally put my current stuff to shame? And today, about 7 years later, I recieved my answer. Ah, answers.

Part one: Fantastically fantastic artist?
*soft, humble chuckle* Everyone else seems to think so. I'm not surprised that my attitude toward my art is just the same today as it was back then: somewhat pleased, but knowing I could do far better if I'd just put the time in. My past self would probably be amazed by my present self, and it'll be the same 7 years from now, I'll bet.

Part two: shameful current stuff?
My present self, however, was amazed with my past self. Creativity was obviously oozing out at the time (albeit cute, the whole lot of it). I had a fantastic grip on pencil shading and was working to get color under control. In self-made stuff, the proportions were out of whack in some places, but fan-made/realism stuff was...dang. Seriously. There was a (and for me to say this about me is saying a LOT, for me) near perfect facial represenation of both Jones and Smith from Men in Black. Slinky (Toy Story) got a few pages, and Disney's films (shudder) paraded here and there.

Now I know how time capsule people feel. Unsure of what the future holds, trying to predict it, then getting to that point and being...well, in my case, pleasantly surprised. It's been a great learning experience. ^_^