Storytime in Quarantine Pt. 2

This story of my life is not about me having the guts to rise above the adversity, using some kind of god-given will to succeed. It’s not me trying to become famous and showing off how well I’m doing to the world. It’s about showing people that there is more than one reality to a situation, and that you can choose which one to accept. For years, I chose to fight the shitty reality that I was injury prone and had ADHD and kept chugging along miserably, frustrating myself because I never changed my expectations. But this time, I said “fuck it” and found the silver lining that people on the news and on Instagram doing the #untiltomorrow challenge don’t realize. And that silver lining is that you have a whole day to yourself to do whatever you want to do! (with the exception of maybe 3-5 hours for schoolwork and Google Meet.) There is now literally nothing in your way to stop you from expressing yourself and being creative. And there is no end to this glorious situation in sight.

Notice how I phrased that last sentence. I did not say “making something” because that would require you to have something tangible on-hand to make some “thing” for which you already have ridiculously high expectations. Some of us are lucky enough to have a 3D printer or a laptop or whatever to make exactly the thing they want, but that’s not everybody. Instead, I say “expressing yourself and being creative” because it implies that you are placing importance on the original, fun ideas that are coming from within, and being innovative with what’s available to you to make those ideas come to life. To put it in practical terms, instead of frustrating yourself by trying to blow glass with your home oven to make a gorgeous vase, you could invent some kind of self-watering pot thing out of Legos, Elmer’s Glue, and straws, and have fun with it.

Some art I made out of a rusty car fender :)

I also decided not to say “make something” because I realize not everyone is inclined to create objects that exist in the world, and that everyone, regardless of what they are interested in, has some passion that they can pursue creatively while they have no limits. I completely understand this. I am not just an artist; I really enjoy marketing and content creation, business, exercising, and traveling. So, I am also creating an Instagram Live/IGTV series, writing blog posts, reaching out to employers, and looking up cool places to go when this is all over. Explore, write, share; do whatever verb that excites you. (Except for the ones that involve leaving quarantine, of course… #stayhome!)

Bottom line, this situation, like any other major predicament, appears to suck ass, but that is reading only half the story. The other half is the part that you can write on your terms, because you can realize that this situation has opened up a world of opportunities for you to creatively pursue what you really care about.