THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU......
I am blessed to have two loving parents that were active in my life everyday I’ve been blessed to walk this planet. I was always interested in things and whenever I told them I was interested in things they’d support me in anyway they could. For example I wanted to play the Saxophone cause Lisa Simpson did (The Simpsons is one of my all time fav shows) so my parents bought me a Alto Saxophone and I learned how to play. Anything that kept me out the streets and prison my parents were all for it.
Most of you never had that kind of support and it makes me sad.
It’s not your job to make people understand you and it’s not your battle to fight anymore.
I had a little resistance from my momma about what I wanted to pursue creatively but I never argued with her about it and let her have her opinion and I just did my thing and she seen that I was serious and she started to understand what I wanted. She adapted and seen where society was going and now she's my biggest fan.
To see families, friends, teachers, preachers, etc constantly just step on talented, special, and creative individuals aspirations is very disheartening. Even talented people who are actually doing great things and actually profiting off their creativity are still not receiving support or encouragement from the people who supposed to be their biggest cheerleaders.
I know a creative soul is reading this and they’ve probably had countless debates with a loved one about pursuing art or film or starting their own business and it’s like a broken record just playing over and over again. They just don’t understand you and I’m here to tell you that it’s not your job to make them understand you. That battle is not your battle. It’s your parents battle. It’s your older siblings battle. Your Aunt and Uncles battle. Whoever disagrees with the career path you choose to walk on has to fight that battle.
You need to focus. You don’t have time for debates and the same discussions. That’s their problem. It’s a internal battle for them to deal with. It's nothing but a distraction.
The crazy part is this shit is POSITIVE! It's not negative. They're the ones bringing negativity to your life.
If a person wants to paint for a living why are the people who claim to love this person are acting like he or she is selling heroin and running a prostitution ring? It’s fucking weird to me. You know how many parents WISHED their child was a painter instead of a number on a cell block serving football numbers or in a graveyard? Plenty.
What those people that doubt your passion grew up with is all they know and quite frankly it’s all they want to know. They don’t want to change their beliefs because it’s what they grew up with religiously. So of course their way of thinking on how you should live will be pushed onto you. It’s tradition. It’s a cycle and if you break that cycle you’re an outcast. You’ve disrupted the order that in some families is a generational order so it’s a big deal. You’ve disrupted structure and safe choices which causes people outside the creative lifestyle to panic.
You know how many creative women who have family and friends that are pressuring them to start families and get married as soon as they graduate college or ASAP? Their parents most likely started a family young. Their older siblings probably did the same. So now they expect the young woman to do the same. They really want that young women to put their creative aspirations to the side, take whatever job and go start a family and put their life on hold to do something they’re not ready for so THEY can be satisfied. Ain’t that some shit? People have the same chance of being a failure at marriage as they do being a creative so what difference does it make? No matter the choice there’s a risk involved. Let people pick what risk they want to take. It's their life.
I don’t know where it comes from for loved ones to misunderstand creative friends and family. A part of me feels it’s selfishness. Another part of me believe it’s fear. They fear that if you choose to become a videographer that you’re gonna be a bum displaying your work on a alley dumpster from a projector. It’s silly. It’s not helping anybody. It’s just building resentment and that resentment is going to turn into “I told you so” fuel. There’s a lot of people who create for the sole purpose of one day telling everyone who doubted them “I told you so." It’s a double edge sword because there’s variables of it that’s unhealthy but then there’s variables of it that gives an artist a relentless work ethic.
I've seen people tell creative people that they're wasting their time. It's beyond disrespectful. As if working in a call center or doing inventory in a factory 40-50 hours a week and stressed the fuck out is the best way to spend their time.
If a person who's trying to stop a creative journey is reading this I want you to think about something…..
If I had a child, friend, whatever and I tell them they shouldn’t pursue what they want to do and tell them to do something they don’t want to do and is totally different from their goals and passion, don’t you think it’s dangerous to send them to a uninspiring environment for them to live life uninspired and unhappy? This is how depression, drug abuse, suicide happens. This can really make a person mentally ill. But you’re not thinking about that. You’re thinking about temporary things like money and that’s what driving your fear.
To anybody going through this. I just want you to tell whoever wants you to stop pursuing what you want.. that you love them, that you have to do YOU right now and you’re going to be okay. They may understand, they may not understand but like I told you that’s not your problem. That’s their problem.
