If you’re reading this, remember that your passions matter.
I have been doing art basically my whole life. As a child, I painted almost anything I could get my hands on, from desks to old food containers. There was simply nothing more satisfying than turning something plain or ugly into something beautiful. Getting the “what do you want to be” question as a kid is easy because you can say whatever you want and people will smile and tell you that you can be whatever you want. I would always answer that I wanted to be an artist, because that was the only thing I found to be my true passion. However, as I’ve grown up, my same answer has received very different responses.
I always knew I wanted to study art in college, so when it became time to decide where to go I was torn between UVA and art schools. There were so many draws to furthering my skills as an artist at a school specific for that, but I decided on UVA because I knew I could still study art while at a beautiful school that was also home to my sister and amazing academics. It’s no secret the art department is one of the smaller departments here, but I could have never expected the responses I would get from fellow peers when I tell people I’m a studio art major. I’ve been told I’m only going to get a low paying job. I’ve been told I’m never going to have a job. I’ve been told I’ll be flat out “screwed.” These things definitely made me question my self worth, especially at this university where people go on to such high paying, society approved, notable jobs. Hearing people say that it was “so cute” that the “little artist” did something impressive when I got a painting exhibited somewhere really hurt. Why were my accomplishments less impressive when I worked just as hard?
I struggled with these feelings for a while, but I couldn’t bear to stop doing art. I tried studying economics and computer science, but both fell short because I just didn’t feel passionate about them. I ended up becoming really frustrated with myself for not having the right passions and not being able to do what I thought I should be doing. This frustration started to affect my work, and I began to no longer be excited to work on projects.
Spring semester second year, I was tasked with an end of semester project which would be an animation of whatever I chose. I decided to channel these emotions into this project and depict how I used headphones to escape the world at times. This project is what reminded me that I am still very passionate about art and I have the ability to create something I would be really proud of. I spent many late nights in the studio animating frame by frame which turned out to be over 400 in total. When I was finished I told my friends about my project and related that there would be a showing but I figured no one would go because no one seemed interested.
The night of the showing I was sitting alone waiting for it to start when four of my friends and my sister came in, excited to see my project. I was completely taken aback, because I had never received that kind of support for my art in college before. I will never forget that feeling and am eternally grateful for them, because the support reminded me that there are people out there who do support my passions.
This letter is a reminder that even though it is easy to feel unaccomplished because your passions don’t feel like enough, your passions will always matter to someone - especially yourself - and that’s all that matters. Never feel like you are less than anyone just because they have different interests than you, and always embrace what you feel most excited about!
Lauren B., University of Virginia ‘21