This one's for the kids who have spent their whole lives between the pages of a book. It's for the escapists, the dreamers. This one's for the coffee-drinking insomniacs who spend their nights constructing paper worlds around them, for the bright-eyed idealists trying to channel their words into a revolution.
This is a reminder that pre-med students are not smarter than you. We live in a society that has constructed a very limited idea of what it means to be intelligent, and it's bullshit. Don't let them tell you that success only comes in the form of a six-figure salary. If you've created something, you're already there.
This is a reminder that you're going to fail. You're going to fail a lot. It's a big cold world out there for people like you, full of criticism and doubt and rejection after rejection after rejection. There are going to be times when you question yourself. You'll think about switching to something more practical, settling down, moving into a nice house in the suburbs, and never looking back. Don't.
This is a reminder to stop giving up, and I'm going to add to that something my creative writing teacher told me a long time ago: Don't get it right, get it written. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a bit of a perfectionist sometimes. Try to remember that no one is expecting flawless writing the first time around. You are human. You are fallible. You will make mistakes.
This is a reminder that if you think you might sound pretentious, you probably do. I'm including this article in that statement - there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I'm going to look back on this in five years and laugh about what a tool I was. Don't worry too much about the retrospection; it's a learning curve.
This is a reminder that the books you read will manifest themselves in your work, so choose wisely. Expand your horizons. Look for writing that's intricate and graceful; look for writing that's harsh and cold and laconic. Understand that art isn't always what you find beautiful - it's what makes you feel something.
This is a reminder to take care of yourself, if you aren't already. Get up, take a walk. Drink some water. Don't get so caught up in your imaginary worlds that you forget about the one you're living in.
And if you take away nothing else from what I'm saying here, remember this: art, more than anything else, has the power to catalyze change. You're going to transform people, and you're going to save them, and you're going to bring the world to its knees. You are the instruments of a revolution that has been going on for thousands of years, and that will continue to go on as long as humans inhabit the earth. Remember that the next time someone suggests that you "pursue something more practical."
