A few days ago, I spent time with a friend who encourages me to be more appreciative, meaningful, and imaginative. We spent almost the whole day looking at the way the clouds swirled in the sky, the ripples the water made across our reflections in a pond, and the overall beauty of the world surrounding us. I spent a lot of the time trying to be insightful, but I ended up saying a lot of super cliche statements, such as "sometimes when you jump in the mud, you sink really fast and get too dirty." *gag.* However, the day was not void of inspiration, in fact, it was full of it and I ended up learning a valuable life lesson about how I should live to reflect what I believe in.
The day ended with us laying around and listening to music. I got caught up looking at my walls that are completely covered in different types of art, mostly my own. All of the drawings were popping off the pages at me, begging me to look at them and understand what the artist was trying to portray. As I scooted across my floor, I focused in on a little doodle that I did for a class assignment, and honestly, I was ashamed to claim it as my own. When I created it, I quickly scribbled it, and all of my pen strokes reflected sloppy work. I could tell that it was quickly done and not cared about. This piece had the potential to be something amazing, but I didn't put the time and effort into it to make it meaningful at all. I was hit by a sack of bricks as I realized that my art is meaningless to everyone if it is meaningless to me. I can't expect my work to be inspiring if it's something I rushed and didn't care about. If I don't care about what I put onto my canvas, it will just be some other piece of junk. Can something with no meaning even be considered art?
I took that thought and applied it to my life. If I don't put effort into myself, I will never be able to represent who I truly am, what I'm passionate about, or what inspires me. How can I expect other people to be inspired by how I live if I don't care about anything? If I went about life and everything I did was sloppy, I would just be a mess of a person. If I don't apply myself, I will never amount to anything. If I don't take the time to be sincere, I won't have any decent relationships. There are so many different directions that I could go with this thought, but bottom line: if I don't care, no one else will, either.
Earlier that day, I was entranced by how small I am in comparison to the whole world. I am one, single, insignificant being in a world of billions. I have one, single, insignificant voice that I like to pretend that people listen to. I am a statistic. However, when I am passionate about what I stand for, when I actually care about what I believe, I have purpose. My voice makes me significant. Regardless of how tiny I am in the grand scheme of things, I will always have the potential to inspire others as long as I care enough to share what inspires me.
It can be really difficult to speak up when there isn't a platform for you to shout on, but that's why the Odyssey is such a great outlet. It reminds me that people are listening, and if I put forth honest, original, inspiring work, I will be an inspiration for others to speak out as well. I just have to take the time to write what I honestly feel.
In the end, I'm glad that I made that awful piece of art, because otherwise, I would have never had this epiphany about what type of work I put into the world. However, I am going to make another picture similar to it, but this time I'll actually care about each mark I put on the page. It was a good idea, it just needs a redo, and I guess I'm just all about do-overs right now.
