Just Write.
We've always been a smart kid, and when younger, we lived for those moments our parents, family members, or teachers extolled that ability. The problem with constant praise and no critique, though, is that it makes you pretty mediocre. It doesn't challenge you, doesn't force you to grow and "prove" yourself. SO, with some skill, and an inflated ego, we head off to college and within 2 semesters, we're hit with a does of reality so swift, it leaves us reeling. We fail spectacularly. 12 years of school, no grade below a B average, second semester of college, 2 failed classes. Yup... TWO Fs.
First of all, take a breath. I know you're freaking out. You want to pull out your study guides right this moment, but I challenge you to be still for a minute. We are not our grade. The value of who we are is not represented by a random letter in the first 20% of the alphabet.
Just Breathe.
I will not lie to you. We struggle with this. We struggle with the loss of an identity placed on us by Society. Who are we if not an "A" student? Additionally, we struggle with the humiliation of having to watch the disappointment on our parent's faces. So here we are now. An "A" student who no longer holds that moniker. The "perfect kid” who isn't. We hide in shame and lick our wounds. The world ends now, take me Lord.... except, the world still spins.
It Just Continues.
But this is why you're so awesome. There's something in you that just refuses to give up. So, how do we handle this set back? We Write; pages upon pages, notebooks upon notebooks, until our fingers are sore and imprinted with that classic "2".
This is our first real taste of failure, and, little did we know at the time, it would shape a lot of who we become over the next few years. 1 failure doesn't mean you're dumb. It doesn't mean your parents love you any less. It doesn't mean you'll never succeed again. It simply means that the way you approached a problem before didn't work. We must simply try something different.
Fear of failing again haunts us. We throw ourselves into school, but never let go of writing. We read, question, yell, scream, and cry, but we also begin to try new things. If I'm not an "A" student, maybe I'm a sushi-maker, poet, high school basketball referee, planetarium volunteer, bowler, football data analyst. The trials are near endless. And we soon realize, we're naturally good at almost none of those things. In fact, we "fail" quite a bit, and with each failure, we realize, it's not personal. We simply need a different approach. We pick ourselves up and take another crack at it.
We Just Try.
So now here we are, but why? I've wanted to write to you for a while. The world is very different from what you know. Anyone can talk to everyone within seconds! You can see something happening across the globe in real time, from multiple cameras, angles, and viewpoints. This also means that criticism is swift and harsh because anonymity makes people bold. There's hesitation to put our art out there. Are we good enough? Do we know enough big words? Are we "well read" enough? But then I realize what's happening.
Take a moment. Just Breathe.
The world yet spins. It Just Continues.
Through the years, we've learned a lot; learned so many new approaches to a problem. What stops us now?
Nothing, so Just Try.
We're good at quite a few things. Fear of failure doesn't fully go away, but courage always gives us the push to move past it. I mean, we did graduate.... 3.3 GPA baby! It's not a perfect score, but we actually like that. We worked hard for that 3.3. It makes it all that sweeter.
So, here we go again, doing something new, slightly terrifying. Forget the critics, forget "making it big". Forget the semantics and the large vocabulary words.
