I AM AN ARTIST AND I’M NOT UNEMPLOYED

Me: Hi, My name is Libby and I’m a doodle Artist. (Happy face)

Known person: Oh! (Total disappointment in their face) What are you planning to do with your life?

Me: Did I miss something? I already have a new start-up business. I make Customized doodle greeting cards, wedding invites and customized doodle notebooks and bookmarks. I will be adding more in future.

Known person: No, I meant, you are jobless, where are you planning to work? Or, are you going to pursue PhD or M.Phil? Should I get you a Job?

Me: Well, Hello, Did I speak Latin Just now? (Voice screaming in my head) I am an artist, which meant, I do something creative (Unlike you) and I earn money for what I use my grey matter for. And I’m happy!

Known person: But (Still sticking to their side of argument) it won’t give you a permanent job, it won’t put food on your plate, maybe you should try at least for school teaching, since you studied only M.sc zoology.

Me: I’m so happy we had this talk! (Smirks)

End of discussion.

Trust me I had infinite number of conversations with such humankind who come preaching about. Being Artists or Entrepreneurs doesn’t make us inferior from you, perhaps we far more superior than what or whom you work for. I wouldn’t say you don’t have the right to tell us, but you can at least appreciate for what we do, because we took the risks of life to gain recognition and not sit among thousands of employees in air conditioned space.  All we ask of you is guidance for leading a life and not advice and degrade us. What we lack most in today’s India is words of “appreciation and motivation”.

And does creativity have a place? No. Not in today’s world. We are brought up with a mind to reflect and mirror mediocre Homo sapiens.

For instance, we learn, sorry, study till 10^th grade, and we are “told” to opt for Bio math or computer Science (Which are considered to be studious children’s major). Most parents even take pride in telling that. By the time their children get to write their 12^th exams, they push them into a mental trauma to get the highest marks possible and make him\her sit in an engineering class room. As you all know how engineering colleges have formed to become a mini school, were you almost lose all the fun and drain your brain for the next four years, while the parents happily show off to their family and friends how their son/daughter is doing an engineering course.(God knows the struggle). Soon after you finish your 4^th year, you get through campus interviews and land in an IT job, only to find after an year that you have lost your happiness, fun and freedom of creative thinking throughout your journey. Do they welcome creative thinking in IT sector? No! (As far as the IT interviews I have attended.) You are just a “techno coolie” to someone who sits in a far off country, who gets all the monotonous work done by you, whereas, he gets all the name and fame and what not. And no questions can be raised because we get the money for that. And for the other part, some end up preparing for exams (As we all know) which they take a zillion years to pass. This is the very reason why we vote for the party which is not educated enough to run our government, this is why we end up in It jobs, this is why we don’t create good movies, this is why we fight for caste and religion, this is why aim for high marks(which is useless, when the child doesn’t know the basic GK), this is why we oppose inter-caste marriage, this is why our education system is backward, this is why lack discipline, this is why don’t come in time, this is why we don’t dress appropriately, this is why we don’t read books, this is why we fight over silly petty actors or actresses, this is why we have poverty, this is why we don’t use our brains. Our eyes are blindfolded to the things we can create. Yet we take pride in having an Indian in an American company, were as we still function as mediocre. It is because he tried, we didn’t, he thought differently, we didn’t he differed from the crowd, we never.

What I am asking of you all is, why do you have to follow the crowd? Why not do something which you are capable of? Why do you have to write exams which are of no interest to you? Why can’t you “learn” to do creative things. Well, if you say that you don’t know what you are capable of, why don’t you go into the world and find out yourself? If you start thinking differently, the same parents who push you to do what the neighbour does will take respect and value in telling about you.

Make up your mind now, this very minute, believe in yourself and do what you want to do.  You can be what you sincerely want to be. Choose a path and focus on that one thing and move along the journey. Never get doomed to failure. Self confidence grows when you meet occasional failure. Think of success and you are a successful person already, before anything happens. Start dreaming Big and act small, you’ll be in greater heights soon.

So this is how I made up my mind. To be an artist or an entrepreneur, you should never leave anyone or anything move or shake your conviction.  I decided to maintain a strong positive mind when I have discouraging conversations. Be a person who hurdles over roadblocks, and achieve something great for yourself. I’m sure you don’t want any regrets in life. Don’t walk the walk of an average person. You were never born to be ordinary. Be creative, be you! Do anything that makes your heart content and the world a difference.  It is not too late, Go create yourself!

 

And for  all the people who is waiting to ask me the same question next time, “ Your idea of life is not mine” use it to run yours. Because, I am born unique and different.

I am a doodle artist. I am an entrepreneur. I am a proud human.