She drew a picture about losing sleep on her career goals. I think it's a pretty universal thing for people to be scared about their careers. Though to be honest with you, I feel less and less worried about it as I go on. I feel in my soul that if I didn't feel obligated to be the "bread winner" I would be a stay at home mom. That's my calling. I would love to be an influential figure in art. I do really want to become a concept designer. But staying at home with my kids and trying out lots of crafts and foods on pinterest would be way more fun. Sometimes I think people need to take a moment and think about life if money REALLY ABSOLUTELY was NOT a variable. Would you honestly have the job that you're going for? Is that REALLY what you want to do with your life? Because for me, as much as I love what I do and want to continue doing it, I can take it or leave it as long as I have my family. Perhaps that's not comforting to other people, but it's comforting to me.
Ms. Orca
Photoshopped her dreams. I love that she took a positive spin on her fear. Her fear is totally rational and one I've been stewing on a bit lately, myself. Since I feel strongly that my best friend may be depressed. I don't know what I can do for him and I'm so scared that I won't be able to do anything and he'll just get worse and worse while I sit by helplessly. But she's doing something. I've never even thought of art therapy in that way and I think it's amazing and innovative. I had a great dream the other day where I talked about eyelashes and food. I don't know how I can give Sean that same escape, but she's given me some hope to keep trying.
Ms. 3D Print
Made a 3D Print of a creature she designed at night. I think it's interesting that she talked about how her mood affects the way she views art. I definitely find myself turning toward certain genres when I'm in certain moods. Oddly enough, when I'm sad - like really soul crushingly sad - I watch/play/read horror. And maybe you'd think that was going from the frying pan into the fire, but horror for the most part is absolutely not the same thing as real life. It provides more than just an escape from my sadness, it's an escape from all this dimension's problems. Issues in most horror movies/video games/books are just NOT issues in real life. For instance in Sweet Home, the plot is a group of people trapped in a haunted house being terrorized by horrible creatures because of a ghost lady whose child died. In no way can I relate that to my problems. So in that way, I don't think about my problems. It keeps my head in the clouds and OFF the things bothering me.
Mr. Marine
Growing a flower to overcome his claustrophobia. I don't have much to say in the way of getting over his fear or even understanding where he's coming from. I actually really like tight spaces, they make me feel cozy. I've always wanted a little club house. I'd squeeze myself under the sink when we played hide and seek. So I guess what I really want to say is that I can't imagine giving up a whole career path like he did. And I actually find that a lot of people I know have done this and plenty of people more than once. Which I just can't even imagine. I find that a bit scary. I've sort of always known what I wanted to be. When I was 10, I told myself that if I wanted to become a great artist one day, I had to buckle down and start now. There was a brief period in high school where I thought I might do web design because art is hard and not a real job. But then I job shadowed a web designer and it was the most dreadfully boring thing I'd ever witnessed and it was absolutely not what I wanted to do with my life. Now that I've taken some classes, I think that I COULD do SOME web design, but it bores me beyond belief. I'm not bad, I just hate it a little bit. I value having those skills but I will never choose that career path. I'm sticking to my guns. I'm gonna make it in art or I'm gonna die trying.
Mr. No-Face
Made a poster for the future. It's funny to me that so many people are so scared of the future. Not funny haha, funny like totally disturbing. The future looks so bleak. And even I get that way from time to time, although I recognize that being defeatist about the future isn't solving any problems. I actually used to think that worrying about things would help me know what to do when the time came, but it doesn't. It just wastes time now. No one knows what the future will hold, and this is coming from someone with the name CASSANDRA. I'm not really a glass half full kind of person. But frankly speaking, I'm generally too busy drinking the water to be worrying about how much is in the cup. Worrying about the immediate future is fine because that's the sort of thing you can plan for. But worrying about what you're going to be doing in ten years isn't even worth your time. You can't possibly imagine what your life will be like in ten years. Ten years ago I thought at 20 that I would be almost out of college, working at a bookstore, and a virgin. Nnnnnope. But I don't regret any of that. I'm getting through college one way or another, the time frame doesn't really matter. I'm stocking at a grocery store and I love it. Some of the time. And no, I'm not a virgin, and I loved every single minute I spent with my partner and I would do it all again. You will make the big decisions when the big decisions come.
Ms. Naruto
She drew a picture about her fear of letting her family down. I suppose I'm not really all too worried about letting my family down. Even though I'm not a nurse like my mom or an IT guy like my dad, they support me. And I'm endlessly lucky to have that. In fact, my mom frequently discourages me from settling for "real jobs." She tells me she doesn't want me to feel comfortable settling. She doesn't want me to feel like I can't leave my job because it's a "real job" and it's "good enough." She wants me to put myself out there and give it my all to become what I want to be. And the rest of my family? Who cares. Sure my parents pressure me from time to time, because they're parents and that's what they do. But they have confidence in me and don't feel the need to baby sit me because of it. And that gives me confidence in myself.
Ms. Ninja Turtle
She drew two pictures about her fear of judgement. And they were wonderful pictures. As artists, we all feel the fear of judgment. People are so quick to give their two cents on art. People are total assholes about art, too. Some people go out of their way to be assholes about art. It's subjective so they can say whatever they want and get away with it. Until I threaten them and then they walk away muttering about the crazy little woman with the anger issues. What really matters in life is what you think about your artwork and what you think about yourself and your accomplishments. Now, when I say that, I don't want it to be taken as "it's just as easy as being happy with yourself and your work." That's not easy. That's hard. Believing in yourself is NOT easy. Humans crave approval from other humans. And I think part of my journey to self acceptance had a lot to do with looking around and realizing that people are absolutely terrible. I don't like them. I don't want to be like them. So why do I care what they think of me? I'm sad that the way I learned to love myself came after so much suffering at the hands of others. But there was one person who stuck by me the whole way. And he helped me to learn to love myself. And as much as I love him and actually care what he thinks of me, I have now reached the point where my opinion of myself matters more to me than his. There is no handbook on how to get to this place. And I haven't been here long. I can't say I won't get discouraged again. And I know from time to time I still have episodes of crippling self doubt. But the episodes pass and I get back on the wagon. I know if I can do it, so can others.
Mr. Beard
Drew a chart of his fears and how they all stemmed from fear of failure. I couldn't agree more that failure and success is a construct of your own mind. However, I don't believe that makes them any less real. The exciting thing about it is that because of that, you have control over WHAT qualifies as WHAT. Even a failure can be a success. I remember my boyfriend and I, when we were starting to get to know each other really well, we fought a lot. All the time even. He hated it, he won't talk about that time. As much as I hated fighting, I truly feel like we learned a lot from that time. We know what things will set us off now. And we know how to handle ourselves in a disagreement. I learned I'd rather be napping with my boyfriend than fighting with him about how he wants to stay up all night hanging out with his friends and then just wants to cuddle and sleep when I'm over. I have failed at a lot of things in my life. A lot. I like to draw in pen. And I have thrown out a lot of paper. I have thrown out a lot of artwork. I have hit a lot of flat notes and I have lost a lot of solos to other people. I have gotten plenty of Cs. I've quit jobs. But I'm still here and I think I'm on the path to success. Failure does not impede progress. Refusing to move forward for fear of failure does.
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