With the confidence I have now, I would love to go back in time and challenge this scenario, but I was a very shy 17 year old and scared easy!
I was always in love with art - everytime we were asked what we wanted to be growing up I always said something art related. Artist when I was like 6 which then changed to graphic design when I was a teenager. So I took my art very seriously and wanted to learn.
The problem though was we had a mentally unstable art teacher (not an exaggeration, she as off a lot for mental health issues and other teachers in the school made a lot of comments about it). When I was doing my AS Level art we got given a new topic that really inspired me. So the first weekend it got handed out I locked me self in my house, spent hours researching for my portfolio, created 4 sketches and also a very large oil pastel drawing. The topic was surfaces and I went the beauty route and opened the topic with the very large drawing being of my lower face with a clay mask (that was flaking off). I was really excited going into class on the Monday to talk to my teacher about my ideas and show my work. Well... she went crazy. She firstly asked me how I was able to take a picture of my own face - I was surprised and mimicked holding a camera up to myself. She then asked me how I could prove I drew my sketches and larger study. Shock again, I would like to point out we had never had to wait to draw in class, and everyone drew for their assignments at home to keep pace. I said my family could confirm, but to her that wasn't good enough. Anyways, the conversation continues. I tell her I found 3 artists who I liked (for AS Level we had to research artists alongside our assignment) but I was struggling to find any that fit exactly my ideas. She said 'How dare you ask me for that, there are books at the side of the room, do it yourself.' I was shocked, I thought as an art teacher she would want to support my learning and recommend places to look for inspiration. I didnt want her to do my work honestly, I just needed guidance. I left crying and after I finished her class gave up art. She took the love I had had for 17 years and made art my worst subject. Im 26 now and only started to pick it back up last year.
Just to also highlight how awful a teacher she was. And a little context for non-UK people. At AS Level my school had a policy, you could take 4 subjects and drop one the following and final school year (as you only need to do three A Levels for university applications) or you could just do 3 subjects but you are then stuck and cannot drop any the following year. Every single person studying 4 subjects in that class dropped art the next year. The only people left were the ones who had taken 3 and were stuck (although a couple just left the school entirely to study it at the local technical college).