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For a large portion of my life, I believed I wasn’t creative.
In middle and high school, I would go to the art room after school most days of the week, not because I wanted to but because I needed to. I didn’t have the touch. I wasn’t artistic.
Despite creating YouTube videos throughout my middle school career and writing in early high school, I refused to acknowledge what I did as art. I was simply doing what I loved to do.
It wasn’t until I read Seth Godin’s The Icarus Deception that I could finally look at myself in the mirror and say “I’m an artist.” He put the vocabulary to my everyday practice:
Art in the postindustrial age is a lifelong habit, a stepwise process that incrementally allows us to create even more art.
In the developed world, as more and more of our basic needs are met, the creator economy becomes vital.
Soon after discovering Godin, I came across a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote. Immediately, I realized that creating was my path to impact.
Imitation is suicide.
I read that Emerson quote time and time again. It gave me the impetus to create my own path — a decision I’ve now been grappling with for years. It helped me understand that I want to work for myself and create connection.
