Dear Jackrabbit,
There are going to be times in your life where someone is going to say something to discourage you from trying something. Sometimes these people think they’re being helpful–that they’re administering some kind of “tough love”sort of nonsense.
My advice to you is to ignore these people.
Several times in my life I did not follow this advice, and it’s one of the few things I really regret. For example:
In high school, I really wanted to be able to draw. A couple of teachers saw my sketchbook and informed me that I would never be an artist. It would be decades before I decided to give it another shot. Now, I may not be the most skilled artist in the world, but I can draw the human figure fairly well. And I’ve sold quite a few paintings over the years. The most important thing is that I enjoy doing it. I regret those years that I had stopped trying.
Some of my watercolors on the left, books I’ve published in the middle, jewelry your mother made on the right. We sold enough at this show to pay for Christmas. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I was told by a couple of people that I should give up on playing a musical instrument and, for many years, I had. Then I started going to Irish music sessions as a listener, and really got that itch to play again. So… I grabbed a starter instrument, starting learning a few basic tunes, and in a couple of years I was a regular session player who could relably hold his own. Now, again, I’m not the best musician in the world. I can’t even read musical notation, but I managed. You’ll see around the house a guitar, a tenor banjo, a five-string banjo, a mandolin, an octave mandolin, and bodhran. Ask me and I’ll play you something.
I was told Japanese was too hard of a language to learn. Them, I cheerfully ignored as I made some decent progress teaching myself the basics, and then taking classes. It eventually got to the point where I became vice president of the local Japan Language Society. Those were odd meetings–my comprehension was always better than my ability to quickly form phrases, and I was usually the only non-native speaker in the room so everyone would be speaking Japanese while I spoke English (which everyone understood), so it was a little weird thinking in two languages at once. I’ve not had occasion to use my Japanese in a long time, so I’ve fallen way out of practice… but the important thing to take away is that I tried and was fairly successful.
Poetry, I was told, was dumb. Well, I’ve sold several poems over the years. Some of them have been nominated for awards, others were sought out for reprints. I’ve also sold short fiction and nonfiction over the years. People wonder why bother. I enjoy it. And nothing ventured, nothing gained.
What business did I have running my own small press? None. But I went ahead and did it anyway. It’s not the most successful business ever, but I have some authors who have dedicated followings and I have customers who purposefully seek me out at conventions–so that’s a win.
And jeez… what business do I have being a father at fifty? But here I am, and seem to be doing fairly OK. (You be the judge.)
So that’s what it comes down to, boy. Do what you love despite anyone else’s nay-saying. You may not be perfect, but that’s less important than the doing. And with time, practice, and will… you can become skilled at anything. And I’ll tell you what helps, too, is being around supportive people. Your mother, for instance, has always supported any venture I’ve tried. I love her for that.
We will both support you in whatever endevour makes you passionate.
All my love,
–Dad
