Off the Path

Watercolor and ink on paper; 12”x16”; 2020

I am not a “Five Year Plan” kind of person. While I always knew I wanted to be an artist and adventurer, those things don’t really have a clearly defined path. I’d feel blind panic when people would ask what my plans were because I didn’t have a solid answer, and the answers I did have weren’t the answers people generally wanted to hear. I knew I wanted to go to college and learn as much about art as I could, and this is a decision I have never regretted. An art degree didn’t exactly set me up on a clear-cut career path, and I’ve had plenty of people look down on me for not taking a more practical (ie: lucrative) path, but the things I learned have been invaluable to me. I didn’t learn how to do a job; I learned how to become the person I’d always wanted to be. I used to feel shame because my path didn’t look the way a lot of people thought it should, but the older I get the more I realize that what you do is so much less important than who you are, and that fulfillment comes from allowing who you are determine the path you take.