It's an understatement to say that life is hard. The pressure of making the right decisions weighs heavily on most of us. This also comes with conceptualizing the idea of who you are vs. who you want to be. I've always struggled with this. I grew up painting and daydreaming, really unconcerned with the world around me. As long as I had time to draw.
'Get up,' my grandma would nudge me in church.
There I was, 10 years old, a pen in hand, on my knees, using the wooden church seats as my easel. I couldn't possibly get a flat surface while sitting the right way. Cartoons lined the pages of my notebook, with speech bubbles creating a dramatic storyline. It didn't end there. I failed most of my math classes throughout school for the exact same reason. Ink gardens flowed over the pages, blocking any equations I had yet to solve. Teachers glared at me, probably dismissing me as the problem child.
I deal with the complications of todays world in the same way. The stress of University: paint. COVID-19: paint. My love life: paint. You get it.
I was being asked by friends and family, 'Where do you want to work? What do you want to do?'
Some didn't agree with my choices. And because I was eager for freedom and happiness, I was willing to try almost anything. Creative jobs, on the grand scale, were never seen as lucrative or consistent options, and for that reason are looked down on. This discouraged me, as a dream of mine was to get paid just to exercise my art skills. And when I started my business Tianna Henry Studios, I realized that no one was going to give me what I wanted, I had to do it for myself.
Walking across the convocation stage on the day of my University graduation opened my eyes to a few things. I will probably never be in the career I spent my whole academic life preparing for. And, damn, if I could be doing anything right now... it would be jamming out in the studio of my deluxe penthouse loft, paint brush in hand with absolutely no worries. *Sprinkle Sprinkle*
If you're reading this, may God remove your pain and problems, and replace them with happiness and peace. You deserve it!
