Those of you who have been following my writings for a long time will probably recognize the above illustrations from my errant handlettering project of last year. A project that, not surprisingly, fell by the wayside as a turbulent move+getting a job+getting another job+trying to move again happened. I’ve been trying to keep my creativity active, and banishing the stagnant waters that anxiety can cause for me at times. Lately, that has happened by trying to recycle my art into something that I can easily share with others. Playing a lot with illustration and shrink plastic, lately. The potatoes sketch from last week may turn into a necklace for Etsy soon.
Big announcement: I’m signing a lease on my own little apartment next Saturday. There’s room for a studio space. As soon as I can find a job up there, I’ll be moving in. <3 I feel like I’ve finally accomplished one of my goals. For the longest time, my life goals have been to follow truth, live in a place I love and pay the bills by doing something I love. I feel like I’m doing pretty good at the first two right now, and I’m working hard at making the third a reality. Next week sometime I should have some pictures to post here. I’m so excited about having my own place to call my home.
My twentieth birthday is soon. It’s exciting, in some respects. It’s disheartening at times, but only when I compare myself to other people, and try to transpose their goals and dreams on myself. It’s never been my dream to graduate from Harvard, to have a successful career in politics or to make 500K a year. In fact, it’s usually been pretty close to the opposite of it. I’m happy with just enough money to pay the bills, have a tiny place to myself and my art, a bike and money to go to the farmer’s market.
Still, where I’m living now, it’s easy to get caught up in the mindset I see pervading most of the population around here. I can’t remember if I’ve ever written about it here or not, but the culture shock that came from moving to the east coast (second wealthiest county in the country) from just a year and a half before living in a house without running water, electricity or plumbing was pretty crazy. It’s not uncommon for people to come into either of the places I work and in thirty minutes spend the amount of money I make in a week. The kind of things I hear about on a daily basis are summer homes in other countries, the difficulty of buying a good weekend place (even when willing to pay cash), politics and high profile jobs where people have to be vague, but make more in a year than I’ll make in my life.
And like I said – that is *not* my goal in life. I have entirely different plans, and my plans are just as okay as theirs – but when I get caught up in thinking about how I stack up in comparison to them? I feel like I’ve not gotten nearly as far as I should have in nearly 20 years.
When I’m thinking logically, though, I’ve had a pretty rockin’ life so far, and I know it’s going to just keep getting better.
Today I was walking home after a particularly frustrating hour in customer service, and I saw a bicyclist cycle up next to a man who was driving a t-bucket and smoking a cigar. I laughed as the cyclist challenged him to a race, and it was beautiful.
