I wish I had grown up with adults who helped nurture my creativity, rather than always being told art would never get me anywhere.
I see people I went to school with in elementary, who could have made it to university academically, but they chose art instead. Their parents helped them rather than trying to change their minds. One now has a book published, one just opened her new store to sell handmade rugs. All because they had the support and finances from their families. They made it.
I didnāt even want help with the finances, I just wanted someone to let me know I could do it instead of telling me itād never work out. Someone to help me learn how to start my own business, and help me find the steps I could take to reach my goals.
They wanted so badly for me to abandon my artistic abilities and be ānormalā thinking it would get me somewhere. I graduated 6 years ago now. Did what they wanted and stopped trying to pursue artsā¦when that was the only thing Iām good at, and now I am still nowhere. I have made it nowhere. I have accomplished nothing because my brain does not work with numbers and charts. It works with art mediums, photography and poetry.
I just wish I could learn how to make it. But nobody is willing to teach me no matter how much I am willing to learn.
If your child wants to pursue something that theyāre good at, even if itās not necessarily āacademicā⦠support them. Help them get there. Forcing them to be what you want, will not help them in the long run. It will not benefit them. It will leave them with a feeling of āI couldāve done way moreā for the rest of their lives.