Dear artists,
I know that sometimes it gets harder than you can take. I know that sometimes, it can get so suffocating that you decide for a moment to let everything go without a second thought. I know you are constantly surrounded by people who say that science is a more ‘future-proof’ degree than reading Shakespeare for four years. People who try to convince you that you do not have enough language in your mouth to keep telling stories for a living for the rest of your life, the paint on your pallet will eventually dry for good at some point and you will not stand a chance.
I know that there are times where you feel like you’re not even that good at the things you thought you were good at. And I know that some days you think you’re just a statistic and nothing you will ever do will be “Never Seen Before.”.
Maybe it’s true.
Maybe everyone doesn’t have your back as much as you think they do. Maybe you have to face these critics and harsh words over every morning breakfast, telling you about “real-life” and how it’s nothing close to that novel you’ve been waiting to publish since you were fifteen, How a “decent future” doesn’t lie between the pages of the last poetry collection you read or the chords of the song that’s been stuck in your head for months. Maybe you won’t ever get enough credit for your art as long as you’re not JK Rowling or Van Gogh, but please, please don’t ever stop creating.
Don’t ever think for a second that your art is not enough. Without you, the world would be so dull and meaningless. You bring sense and beauty to this life and even if they do not appreciate you, please have enough patience and perseverance in your heart to keep moving forward. You are talented enough. You are more than what they expect and more than what you were taught you are. You are not the words that have once brought you down, you are not the people who failed to appreciate you. You are a hurricane of pure exquisiteness. You are the very breath of life.
Please, don’t ever stop creating.
Love,
– Someone who needs to tell all of the above to herself every day.
SpaceCadet. 