In our modern era, when there are thousands of people (if not millions) trying to make it in some kind of art scene, it is really apparent that not everyone will make it big. There are artists that will never have their paintings sold to famous museums, there are writers that will never get their work published and there are musicians that will never be invited to play any big concerts. These artists will never be famous and will largely be swept under the surface of the scene they are attempting to make it in. It is for that reasons, that art becomes scary and continues to be something that invites extreme doubt into whoever is attempting to "make it."

In the rapper Macklemore's song, "Ten Thousand Hours," he states, "A life lived for art is never a life wasted."

It is in those moments where artists become fearful that I believe they realize again why they decided to make art in the first place. They did not choose to make art in order to make a large amount of money or in order to become famous. In fact, many of these artists didn't even choose to become artists, it just happened.

In a way, art is a lot like falling in love. You begin to participate in it and as you participate in it, your desire to participate in it grows even deeper as you desire to make art more often. Sooner or later, you realize that you cannot live without this art and that there is nothing more that you desire than to tell your stories through the art that you have come to love so much.

Yet, art is a scary thing to partake in. As a spoken word artist and a blog writer, I am constantly afraid of the possibility that all of my hard work will become void and will count for nothing. To reference back to Macklemore's song, which discusses the idea of ten thousand hours of rapping paying off for him in the end, what if my ten thousand hours never pay off? What if my ten thousand hours of practicing spoken word never amount to anything? What if my ten thousand hours of writing never amount to anything? Will I still love the art that I am making if it never amounts to any fame or money?

The answer, after a lot of soul searching and heart questioning, is yes. We will still love the art we make because loving this art is not a choice or an option. It is not something that we make a decision to fall in love with, it is something that we simply fall in love with because it makes us feel alive. We love it because in the moments that we are doing it, we feel a part of something so much bigger than ourselves.