Guidance counselour for me
Not for nothing, but in America, at least, there’s a strong trend of “unless you’re the BEST at it, you need to stop doing it.” Somewhere around 5th grade, kids get it into their heads that if they’re not some sort of art prodigy already, then pursuing it (and actually, y’know. Practicing and learning) is a foolish, childish notion.
The idea that someone could just do something for FUN? Not entertained.
Also, that if you’re not planning on making a *career* if it- can’t make money off of it- then it’s not worth doing.
That second point, though… I gave up playing music when I was about 9 because I was only mediocre at it, and I thought that “practice” meant “instantly master”, because everything before that had always been so easy. And my parents couldn’t really afford the rent on the trumpet so they didn’t try to encourage me to keep going.
I gave up drawing and painting when I was in high school. I understood practicing by that point but I couldn’t get anyone to take my attempts seriously, not even my art teachers, and I didn’t think that enjoying it was a good enough reason to keep going. And, well, “Art doesn’t pay the bills, sweetie.”
Writing fiction was the only thing I was both naturally good at and that I enjoyed enough to persist at, but even then, everyone assumed that with a ‘talent’ like that, I would become an English teacher. My mother sort of gently directed me into an office admin career because she couldn’t think of what else I could do with a knack for writing and “You’ll need a real job, too, hon.”
I’m still trying to train myself out of that mindset. Like, I have an actual and pretty good Adult job, and I write on the side and have a couple of other side-hustles, all hobbies that I turned into ways to make extra money, and now it’s kind of stupidly hard to just let myself enjoy something.
Just… let yourself enjoy things. Be good at it, be bad at it, be average at it… It doesn’t matter, just do things for fun.
Published
Loki is the Philosopher King 