Every morning, the first thing I see when I wake up is my drafting table. I see mountains of half used acrylic paint tubes, jars full of Micron and Copic pens, and numerous amounts of artist pads, ranging from palette paper to transfer sheets to watercolor paper. Every morning I wake up and I wonder what I’m doing here.

You see, I’m currently a freshmen at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where some of the unofficial mottos are “Sleep Comes After Death” and “No Starving Artists.” Which basically means SCAD is a work hard network harder school that prides itself on industry connections and influential alumni. And while SCAD is an amazing school and I’m proud to be here, I often find myself wondering what I’m doing entering a field that most people consider child’s play, or just consider it dead. I mean, let’s face it, when’s the last time you stepped foot in a painter’s gallery or a fine art museum? Art is dead.

I look in my group chats of friends from high school and I see my friends studying and working hard at some of the top universities in the country and the world. Friends who are pursuing careers in fields like engineering, law and science. Friends on pre-med tracks. And I think to myself: what am I doing here? What is my contribution to the earth going to be? I’m not an engineer, a lawyer, a scientist, or a doctor. I’m an artist. So how do I deal with two and half hour long studios of foundation classes that I have no interest in, introduction to major classes with workloads and rival artists who are working in professional industries, and lecture/academic classes that are just not relevant to what I want to do? It’s simple. I think of my impact.

While art and creative careers seem like meaningless studies, the truth is, the world practically revolves around what we are doing. Artists are behind the most trivial pieces of pop culture and society. In reality, artists are the ones who are influencing what you think, what you buy, and how you live. The clothes you buy are not only designed by people like us, but they are advertised and distributed by artists. The clothes on your back are there because of us. That video game commercial you see on TV? We are the ones behind, not only the branding and commercialization of the game, but also the actual video game production, graphics, and rendering. You are playing it because of us. The movie you are watching; it was produced, filmed, advertised, and created by artists. The building you’re reading this in? Made by architects, interior designers and artists. We are award winners. We are influencers. Creative artists are advertisers and designers and branders. We influence how companies are perceived by people like you. We influence how the world is perceived by people like you.

It’s easy to be discouraged here. It’s easy to feel like mixing paint in color theory and suffering through charcoal still-lives will not get me anywhere. Going to an art school is ambitious. It takes confidence, drive and talent. Art touches all walks of life, no matter how abstract or industrial it may be. So when I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, and I feel like my education will not make an impact on the world, I just think about the sweater I’m wearing. How the pattern and material is produced by a fibers major, how the silhouette and design of the garment was made by a fashion major, how the sweater was bought and sold to stores by a fashion marketing major, and how the brand was marketed and advertised to me by graphic designers and advertisers. Because hey, at the end of the day, art may be dead, but you will never stop wearing clothes, watching movies, or playing video games. You will never stop being influenced by us.