Dear Artist, You Deserve the World

Dear Artist,

You deserve the world. It takes the most special person to do what you do. It takes courage, compassion, and raw talent. You’ve been working so hard to make things happen and take your career to the next step — to build a career where you can both do what you love and live, too.

You went to school for this and got your B.F.A and in that moment, you were filled with hope. But the hope you once felt has been crippled by the harsh reality of audition season, cost of living, and soul-crushing side jobs.

Maybe on more than one occasion, you’ve considered giving it all up and just moving back in with your parents in the suburbs. Maybe you’ve cried out in anger at God asking, “why did you make me like this? why couldn’t I just be normal?”

You know that you are worth so much more than the hand life has dealt you and that’s been made clear since the world shut down and deemed your art unnecessary when the world needed art the most.

You feel pushed to the side and unseen, unheard, maybe even unloved.

Oh, artist, my heart aches for you. You’ve been so strong on the surface while this whole time your dreams have been hanging by a thread. You really just need a good long messy cry, a glass of wine, and a hot bath. You really need the stage and the energy from a room buzzing with excited onlookers who came to see you. You need the spotlight, not out of sheer vanity, but out of a deep need to serve and entertain others.

You yearn to pour out your energy and love and yet your cup is empty. Maybe you don’t even know where the cup you used to pour from has gone.

Artist, you deserve the world and the world doesn’t seem to understand its deep need for you.

But nevertheless, you will be resilient. You will find new ways to create because it is what you were born to do. You will write songs even if just for yourself and God. You will self-tape even if the role has already been cast. You will go live on Facebook to sing all of your favorite repertoires. You will dance in the rain with your mask on because that is where you feel the most alive.

Artist, you deserve the world.

You have this magical gift of making even the worst situations appear beautiful with lyrics, lighting, a paintbrush, etc…

The world needs you, artist.

Take the time you need to create and then take the pride in your work to share it with the world.

Your art could be what makes someone smile and dance on their darkest day, it could be the emotional hug someone desperately needs, it could be the difference between someone’s despair and hope.

And one day, when the world is ready to be a stage once again, you will be ready. Once the curtain begins to lift on the year and a half that it’s been, you will realize that you are no longer willing to settle for anything less than being an artist who knows who you are and what you’re about. You know your worth and your value because after thinking that you’d lost it all, you did what artists do best and you learned how to create beauty out of a trash heap.

Dear artist, you deserve the world.