On Living a Creative Life

I was lucky enough to have my dad send me this article this morning, a perfectly timed reminder and road map on a day when I'm feeling less than inspired. It's a transcript of the commencement address given by J.C. Herz at Ringling College in Sarasota, Florida, and it sums up the keys to a creative life.

It's funny, given how superfluous it appears, that it can be physically difficult to be a creative person. That it can be an ache that lurks in your bones and a gnawing in the pit of your stomach. That you're reminded of it at inconvenient times, like when you're trying to fall asleep at night. That you scribble down a personal shorthand of furtive ideas—or worse, when you don't catch them at all, and you're left grasping the tip of your tongue for that lost stroke of genius. Being creative can be a joyous, powerful experience if you've made peace with yourself, but it can be a harrowing one when you're just learning the ropes.

I think this is probably the hardest period in our lives, these 20-something years when we're merging our professional lives with our passionate ones. Where once we had boundless time and enthusiasm, we're now left with the inbetweens of 9–5s, the endless nagging of self-doubts, the paying back of student loans and a moving target of what constitutes a career path. A time when we have the taste but not the talent. And if, like me, you don't exactly know what you want to be when you grow up, that's paired with anxiety about how to find some direction, any direction. It's a tough time we weren't entirely prepared for, and finding traction when there are so many variables can feel a bit daunting.

Sometimes you need a wake-up call, a reminder to pay attention to the life you're snooze buttoning through, and start shaping a life that looks closer to your ideal.

Which is why I found Herz's advice so powerful and moving. It's not a commencement address urging grads to 'follow their dreams and the money will come', nor is it congratulating them on acquiring their hard-won diplomas. It's a guidebook and a warning: now comes the hard part. It's easy to lose your way. It's easy to become complacent. Don't.

Don't get lost biding your time, waiting for the 'right' project to come along. Don't get lost down the abyss of Facebook/Youtube/Google Reader/insert your own internet drug of choice. Don't be pacified. Don't be stagnant. Be healthy. Be able to unstick. Be busy and have side projects. Be kind to yourself. Be daring.

This is the hardest thing in the world to do, because it's the opposite of what we've been trained to do, what's demanded of us. We're encouraged to dull our impulses by acquiring things. We 'like' when we should go for what hurts. We take the path of least resistance rather than forging new paths, finding new roads, challenging ourselves and facing our fears. It's the opposite of our survival instincts, but it's the only way we'll be able to contribute the things inside us that are begging, just longing to come out and shake things up.

So please, if anything I've said has rung true, even a little bit, read the commencement. I promise you, it will be the best 15 minutes you've spent all day. Herz is far more elegant than I've managed to be here, and I truly believe her advice should be printed on the back of every arts and humanities diploma.

Good luck, and be brave out there.