#10: The Number ONE most awkward moment. of. my. life.

    Those who know me know that I am artistic. Drawing is one of my favorite hobbies, especially figure drawing. Before I changed my major to art education, I was actually planning on getting my degree in Fine Arts. That said, let me take you back to my Sophomore year in college during spring term. One of the older single adults, Prabhu*, had been assigned to be my home teacher. Prabhu was of Indian descent (dot Indian, not feather) and was a convert to the church. He was an aspiring actor, and was a rather... uh... unique individual.
   Towards the end of one winter semester, Prabhu and I found ourselves at the same social gathering in a mutual friend's apartment. We small-talked for a bit, during which he found out about my artistic talents. He then suggested that he could model for me sometime, as in, model different types of characters, which would help him with his acting. I said something like, "Oh, yeah totally!" and we decided to wait until spring term started and weren't totally bogged down by school. I brushed the conversation off, thinking it would be forgotten about.
  Then, one fine spring day, I got an unexpected phone call. It was Prabhu, following up. Mostly I thought, "Oh crap, he was serious!" but coordinated a time to have a modeling session with him anyway.  
  Now, I'm not sure at what point this was decided, but instead of doing it at either of our apartments where roommates could walk in, Prabhu informed me that we would be doing it at his parents' house in Orem, the neighboring city. This created some awkwardness, as I had no car and would have to ride with him. When the day came and I found myself in his car on the way to his house, I was 50% sure I was about to be raped and would have no escape. I had no idea where his house was, and only knew one other person that lived in Orem, and had no idea how to get to their house either.
    When we got to the house, I quickly mapped away the layout of his house, just in case I would need a quick escape and have to run for it. Fortunately, that wasn't necessary. At least, for the reasons I was thinking of.
   We began our little drawing session. I sat on his couch and had him pose (in his clothes, thank you very much). However, he kept dropping awkward hints by saying things like, "Just so you know, I'm very comfortable with my body..." I tried to ignore what he was insinuating and said what he was doing was just fine. Eventually he suggested putting on a bathrobe to change things up. I figured, "What the heck."
   Bad idea.
   Prabhu disappeared for a moment and returned wearing a little white bathrobe that only reached his knees. I had him do a few poses, but I couldn't help but feel that he was making some of his poses just slightly more revealing than necessary. And after more hints, and me being firm in that him being clothed was just fine, he then started giving me this lecture on how I shouldn't be ashamed of the human body and yadda yadda yadda.
   Ummm HELLO. You are my freaking home teacher. I would have absolutely no problem drawing a live nude. As long as I didn't know them personally, let alone the person who comes to my home once a month to give me a spiritual message. Good heavens. There is an unsaid barrier between artist and model, and it is always, I repeat always, awkward when that barrier is breached.
   I compromised by telling him he could put on some shorts and leave his shirt off. He disappeared again. And reappeared. Wearing only his boxer shorts.
  Fortunately, I had the session end shortly after. We had an awkward drive home, and I think Prabhu said something about trying to do it again sometime. I think I told him I'd get back to him on that. You are correct if you assumed I never did.
  Now, whenever I go through that sketchbook, I laugh a little to myself as I see my model slowly lose his clothes. And I laughed a little when I saw Prabhu's face on a billboard and in a movie preview advertising some Mormon movie.
    Guess you never know what you can ask your home teachers to do for you.


*For privacy issues, names have been changed