Open Book Thursday (ok, well, Friday)

Hello and happy Friday! I meant to do this yesterday, but I am back in studio trying to get ready for 2013 and the day just got away from me. So, this week it will be Open Book Friday.

I want to thank you all for your questions! I love getting them, hearing what is on your mind and honestly, answering them is a good reason to sit down and think and write. I really appreciate this opportunity. So, thanks! And keep ’em coming!

On to questions! (I am answering these in random order, or in order of what I have the brain power for today…)

Katie asked:

I’m sixteen years old and I fell in love with your work a little over a year ago. I’d love to know if you knew this was the direction you wanted to go as a teenager? When did you figure out this was your dream?
Thanks so much
xoxoxox
Katie

Thanks Katie! The answer to that is complicated. (Not unlike being sixteen.)

It was never actually my dream. There. I said it.

When I was a teen, I was doing a little bit of everything and trying really hard to get focused on my schoolwork so that I could get into a good college. I was not a natural academically, so had to make the decision to apply myself every single day.

I was very into art and theater, and knew that I wanted to pursue those things at a higher level, but I didn’t really know how or where. I also played sports and wanted to be involved with athletics at the college level, so going to a conservatory was not high on the list. Honestly, at the time, I wanted to be on Broadway and dreamed of moving to New York and giving it a shot, but truth be told, my very practical side kicked in (as well as my very practical Mom) and after someone came to speak to one of my art classes about graphic design, I thought “OOOH! I would like to do that!” I ended up at the University of Kansas School of Design and entered a very rigorous and challenging program and loved it. Curly Girl Design very slowly developed as my style developed and my work and opportunities developed. It happened because I put in the time.

So the truth is, this was never my dream. It became my dream as I developed and learned and stumbled through the very organic (and mostly messy) process of becoming myself. A process that I am still very much in the middle of.

The good news is, you have your whole life to become who you are going to be.

All this is not to say that you should not have dreams or that you should talk yourself out of dreams… or anything like that. It just means that you will be (hopefully) about a million different versions of yourself over the course of your life and hopefully you will allow yourself to explore them as they come up. There will be many dreams and many paths. You may not get to follow them all, but will figure it out. You don’t always have to know what you are doing, or going to do. Even if everyone else thinks you should.

Take your time. Commit to learning. Commit to yourself, and commit to exploring. Then follow the thing that makes your heart sing. Over and over again.

That’s all I’ve got for today. Have something you want to ask me?  Leave your question in the comments section of this post.

xoxo