Writeable Drafts

There are some rare, chosen people are just “naturally” good at certain things. Painters have a hand for art, dancers have rhythm in their bones, writers have a way with words, and designers have an eye for fashion- the list goes on and on. But most of us are just regular people trying to find a passion we’d like to pursue and hone with all the potential we possess. Sometimes we think, they’re so lucky to know what they’re good at. They’re so lucky they have it easy. It makes sense. They seem to know what they’re doing and they seem to love it. I wonder though, can they afford to take it easy in a world where anyone could improve and use up all of their potential? I believe that no one, not even inborn talented people, are exempted from practicing their craft and experiencing daily struggles.

With practicing, there will always be good and bad days. Frankly, I prefer the latter when it comes to writing. On good days, I’d wake up and words would effortlessly flow from my brain to my hand like a river. I’d tweak my work here and there, but overall, it would be done in an hour or so. But on bad days (geez), I’d feel the most passionate about what I do because the words in my brain are abandoning me, slowly dripping from a leaking pipe. This is when my determination is put to the test. Will I leave my work and try it again tomorrow? Will I continue to torture myself and just finish a rough draft? Or will I start to doubt myself and wonder if this is really for me? I've done all- the latter mostly. I've learned that we can’t control when we have good days or bad, but we can control our passion. That, itself, is a significant habit anyone can have.

Honestly, when I work on personal stories, book reviews, entries, or requests, it would take me days to finish. And in a day, it takes me an hour of “writing laps” to actually get my pen to write presentable, (and usually) mediocre, content. Some veterans in the craft can compose such artistic stories in just one month and it makes me admire how they work. But most of the time, I’d get mildly jealous to the point where I start to throw darts on their pictures (I’m talking to you, Murakami.) Kidding aside, I try to steer clear from comparing myself to others, especially kids my age because it just hurts my self-esteem. I’m pretty sure this is relevant to almost every living person.

Well, I think that if we let jealousy consume us, we’d lose our sole purpose in why we even try to be good at what we’re doing. Whether this person is older, our age, or a child prodigy, we can’t go on and keep comparing ourselves to others because when it comes to your passion and line of work, there is no “rest of the world”. It’s only you, your dreams, and the love you have for your passion. Nothing more, nothing less.

So, this is for those midnights where you can’t stop looking for flaws in your work and the coffee-induced morning where you feel like crawling in a corner. This is for those who haven’t found their passion- a gift, I believe, of freely choosing what you want to pursue. So you weren't born talented. Well, neither was I and neither were a million of people in the world. Here’s to making the most of the bad days and the daily grind we go through in the name of passion.

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When You're Not Born with Talent