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Glass is an incredibly fragile, unforgiving, and difficult medium to work with. For thousands of years, human beings have been manipulating glass into various different objects. Glass surrounds us our entire lives, but until becoming a flame worker, much of my relationship with glass was unconscious. I can remember the first time glass was pointed out to me as something that I should pay attention to when I was in Las Vegas at probably 11 years old for a hockey tournament and my father told me to look up at the ceiling of the Bellagio. I remember looking up and being instantly amazed at all the colors and more importantly how the glass was effecting the light being transmitted through it, it was incredibly beautiful. My father told me that the ceiling was made by a man named Chihuly, but that name would not become relevant to me until much later. Many people’s first interactions with glass are generally something falling off of a counter and breaking in their home, at which point they’re told to not go near it until it was cleaned up. This puts glass into the consciousness of many as something that could potentially be dangerous, and maybe this has something to do with humans’ innate obsession with the material. When I was a sophomore in high school, I unassumingly was looking for a movie on Netflix with friends when someone decided on the film “Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes”. As 16 and 17 year olds, anything having to do with marijuana or something illegal fascinated us enough to at least give it a watch, and little did i know this film would set me on one of the most fulfilling creative pursuits of my lifetime. After seeing artists like Marble Slinger, Banjo, Dosh, Salt, Marcel Braun, and countless others in this film creating magnificent pieces of art and coming together to collaborate and share their ideas, I became hooked. Later that year, Instagram came into my life, and I quickly found myself seeking out these artists to get a closer glimpse at their work and lives. I was then and am still always looking at glass art, and it continues to fuel my own passion by remaining connected to a vibrant community of artists that continue to push the boundaries of the medium and art itself. In 2016, after years of seeking out instruction unsuccessfully, I finally got behind a torch for the first time. I would be lying if I said the connection was immediate, because I could hardly stand the heat that was coming off the torch and glass, it was unlike anything that I had ever experienced and I momentarily began to panic thinking that my dream of being a glassblower was going to be foiled within the first few hours. Luckily I began to settle in, and having now blown glass for a few years I can say that it gets easier and easier over time and your body adapts and becomes more heat tolerant, beyond the point that many people can even imagine. Upon arriving at Rutgers, I finally found a more permanent situation that allowed me to blow glass, meeting my now best friend Jacob Moskowitz. Jacob has been making glass since he was 15 and has a BFA in glass from Cleveland Institute of Art and is one of the most technically skilled and multi-faceted glassblowers in the industry. Jake took me under his wing and opened up his shop, and his life to me and has been the driving force in my development as an artist, a glassmaker, and a human since I met him. He has never told me an idea is a bad one, and he has always given me instruction when and where I ask for it which has enabled me to progress at a much faster rate than someone discovering glass entirely on their own. Glass has become central to my life, and has provided me with incredible opportunities the likes of which I had previously only dreamed of. I have been able to meet some of my heroes in the medium and the consensus I have gotten from nearly all of them is to just continue to push yourself. Do whatever you need to do and make whatever you need to make to be able to continue making glass. Developing a style, a business, a collector base, or a skill are all products of time on the torch, so whatever enables you to have time on the torch is what needs to happen.