Hannah Moss, My Friend, the Incredible Artist and Kind Soul

Hi readers,

I want to tell you about an extraordinary person that I met at program run through Kerry’s Place called Peers. Her name is Hannah Moss. I consider Hannah to be one of my closest friends. She is creative, kind and she is my favourite person to go the movies with and celebrate birthdays. The reason why Hannah is so extraordinary to me is because she stayed true to her creative self and that inspires me.

When I first met Hannah, I thought she was quiet and shy but in a good way. I thought that I was shy too, but not in the same way. I always felt pressure like I had to speak because that's what we are taught to do as children with social insecurity. There is like pressure to communicate to fit in. That caused me a lot of anxiety. It also led me to ask very simple comfortable questions that I knew answers to or random compliments. Things like, " I like your name" and "What colour is that?" It's embarrassing but that was me trying really hard. Too hard. I felt like I was not being who I normally am.

I will always remember when she invited me to a library film submission that showcased a Claymation movie she created. It was called Midnight Oil. Click on the link or the video to see for yourself.

Spoiler alert: In my opinion, It was fantastic!! My whole idea of Hannah had changed. She was so very expressive in her art. It was Hannah that inspired me to go back to enjoying animation shows. Yup, cartoons. When you become a teen, you feel like you have to fit in. When you have disabilities, that pressure is even more. It's not easy to admit you enjoy the animated story of Ferdinand. With Hannah it's different. We talked about her love of Pingu when she was young. Sometimes I watch these now, and I think about how it was made. I watch the motion and enjoy the humour even more. When we go to the movies together we talk about the posters and the sounds. The funny details. We watched the remake of Lion King and we discussed the differences in characters between the old and new versions. Hannah observed the differences in Scar’s mane and how she thought certain things were better in one story and other things in the new version. I like the way she sees things. She notices small details and I find that wonderful because I notice these things too...but Hannah has a perspective I never thought of before. It's so great.