Yes, that's 2012. Not 2011. In 2011, all was perfect. Yup! No mistakes here.
But in 2012, I plan to make mistakes. Huge mistakes. Gargantuan ones (well, maybe not gargantuan...). But in 2012, my goal is the test the resilience of human dignity and flexibility.
Or something like that.
Actually, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. If you knew my age, that might sound like a silly thing to say, but it's true. At one time I wanted to be a doctor. So I started in college as a medical student. Then I became an art student, then a language student. Since graduating college, I've been a freelance artist, a manager, an illustrator, an author. Phew. I know variety is the spice of life, or so they say, but whoever this "they" is has probably never heard the saying "Everything in moderation."
But who knows really? I mean for myself, each of these changes -- "course corrections," I like to call them -- I think has made me just a little happier. Would I have been satisfied with life had I stayed in medicine? Perhaps. (My bank account certainly would have been.) But the change, as terrifying as it was at the time, was necessary -- both for my happiness and for sanity's sake. (Organic Chem was a beast...)
There was a really amazing quote from Neil Gaiman earlier this year (or maybe late last year?) that began:
"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes."
If you don't know Neil Gaiman, he's famous for a myriad of things but possibly most recognizable as the author of The Sandman graphic novel series. He also wrote The Wolves in the Walls, an amazing children's book, by the way. If you haven't seen it, check it out. The art is mind-blowing. (Written by Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean). But I believe what Gaiman is talking about is what we're all always afraid of, which is change.
Of course, we're afraid of change. Change is the unknown, that mysterious fog which clouds our vision of the future. And people fear the future. Well, what we really fear is the unknown future. We as humans acclimate ourselves to the status quo for a reason -- for consistency, for complacency. With one, comes the other. And with both, we feel we don't have to fear tomorrow, because tomorrow is likely to be just like yesterday. We don't need anyone or anything cutting in to reshuffle the cards or shake up the snowglobe, so to speak.
But "Change is good," right? I know I've heard that one before, and it's half-right. Change is good sometimes. Change is bad sometimes. But we can't allow ourselves to become afraid of change, because just as fear of change is human nature, change is nature. That is, it's natural. And naturally, we all have within us the capacity to deal with it, to accept it, and to make the best of it.
In fact, maybe we should stop basing our life decisions on unattributable platitudes anyways and just make up our own damn minds.
We should want change. Change challenges us, shows us at our best, and shows us at our worst. It invigorates us. But what's important is that change shows us us. We learn so much about ourselves through it. Two years ago I took a trip to Argentina. It was my first real trip out of the country, and for the weeks leading up, I had so many people telling me to be careful of this and to maybe not do that until I had just about worked myself up to not going. And I could have not gone and just maintained the status quo. But thankfully I didn't let anxiety get the better of me and just took the plunge, brushing up on my Spanish during the seventeen-hour plane ride. It was an amazing experience. Not always good, but amazing. And I learned that really, I liked not just traveling overseas, but the whole fish out of water element of it. It gave me the confidence to finally take that trip to Japan later that year, and believe you me, I stuck out like a sore thumb there. But it was and remains the best experience of my life thus far.
So I guess I gained a bit out of the whole venture. And of course, I made mistakes -- in Japan ended up lost in a residential area of Roppongi for half a day, in Argentina I ordered a gigantic T-bone steak when I just wanted chicken -- but I didn't let that stop me, and I learned something new about myself in the process. And isn't that sort of what this whole thing called Life is all about? Learning and growing and changing and re-changing. And just...
...Refusing to stand still.
So now it's 2012. I still have no idea what I want to do with my life, but... I think that's okay. It is okay. It's okay for you too. Right now I'm a writer. Tomorrow I'll start a rock band. Maybe one day I'll be a doctor. Who really knows? ~Tet
"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever."
-Neil Gaiman
But in 2012, I plan to make mistakes. Huge mistakes. Gargantuan ones (well, maybe not gargantuan...). But in 2012, my goal is the test the resilience of human dignity and flexibility.
Or something like that.
Actually, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. If you knew my age, that might sound like a silly thing to say, but it's true. At one time I wanted to be a doctor. So I started in college as a medical student. Then I became an art student, then a language student. Since graduating college, I've been a freelance artist, a manager, an illustrator, an author. Phew. I know variety is the spice of life, or so they say, but whoever this "they" is has probably never heard the saying "Everything in moderation."
But who knows really? I mean for myself, each of these changes -- "course corrections," I like to call them -- I think has made me just a little happier. Would I have been satisfied with life had I stayed in medicine? Perhaps. (My bank account certainly would have been.) But the change, as terrifying as it was at the time, was necessary -- both for my happiness and for sanity's sake. (Organic Chem was a beast...)
There was a really amazing quote from Neil Gaiman earlier this year (or maybe late last year?) that began:
"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes."
If you don't know Neil Gaiman, he's famous for a myriad of things but possibly most recognizable as the author of The Sandman graphic novel series. He also wrote The Wolves in the Walls, an amazing children's book, by the way. If you haven't seen it, check it out. The art is mind-blowing. (Written by Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean). But I believe what Gaiman is talking about is what we're all always afraid of, which is change.
 |
| Not that sort of change. |
Of course, we're afraid of change. Change is the unknown, that mysterious fog which clouds our vision of the future. And people fear the future. Well, what we really fear is the unknown future. We as humans acclimate ourselves to the status quo for a reason -- for consistency, for complacency. With one, comes the other. And with both, we feel we don't have to fear tomorrow, because tomorrow is likely to be just like yesterday. We don't need anyone or anything cutting in to reshuffle the cards or shake up the snowglobe, so to speak.
But "Change is good," right? I know I've heard that one before, and it's half-right. Change is good sometimes. Change is bad sometimes. But we can't allow ourselves to become afraid of change, because just as fear of change is human nature, change is nature. That is, it's natural. And naturally, we all have within us the capacity to deal with it, to accept it, and to make the best of it.
In fact, maybe we should stop basing our life decisions on unattributable platitudes anyways and just make up our own damn minds.
 |
| Now this kind of change is VERY good. |
We should want change. Change challenges us, shows us at our best, and shows us at our worst. It invigorates us. But what's important is that change shows us us. We learn so much about ourselves through it. Two years ago I took a trip to Argentina. It was my first real trip out of the country, and for the weeks leading up, I had so many people telling me to be careful of this and to maybe not do that until I had just about worked myself up to not going. And I could have not gone and just maintained the status quo. But thankfully I didn't let anxiety get the better of me and just took the plunge, brushing up on my Spanish during the seventeen-hour plane ride. It was an amazing experience. Not always good, but amazing. And I learned that really, I liked not just traveling overseas, but the whole fish out of water element of it. It gave me the confidence to finally take that trip to Japan later that year, and believe you me, I stuck out like a sore thumb there. But it was and remains the best experience of my life thus far.
So I guess I gained a bit out of the whole venture. And of course, I made mistakes -- in Japan ended up lost in a residential area of Roppongi for half a day, in Argentina I ordered a gigantic T-bone steak when I just wanted chicken -- but I didn't let that stop me, and I learned something new about myself in the process. And isn't that sort of what this whole thing called Life is all about? Learning and growing and changing and re-changing. And just...
...Refusing to stand still.
So now it's 2012. I still have no idea what I want to do with my life, but... I think that's okay. It is okay. It's okay for you too. Right now I'm a writer. Tomorrow I'll start a rock band. Maybe one day I'll be a doctor. Who really knows? ~Tet
"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever."
-Neil Gaiman
No comments:
Post a Comment