Voice: The Narrative That Guides (Ch. 2)

How often as kids did we all hear the phrase from our parents, “well if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you too?” This scolding was inevitably the product of a moment in which your guardian was worried for who you were becoming, the kind of people you were following, or the social voices you were listening to. While this was always a terrible analogy, and an overwhelmingly unfair question (of course I’m not going to jump of a bridge for fun, mom, but why are all my friends jumping off in the first place? There are a lot of variables in your dumb hypothetical situation that might change my mind) it was grounded in a valid concept. Our parents all understood, more than our small, malleable selves, that the voices we listened to would shape who we would become.

“What informs us forms us.”

But it is not just the outside voices. We also form ourselves with the things we tell ourselves every day. Telling myself for the past 22 years that I was not creative, not an artist, has caused me to believe just that. I never allowed myself the space to believe I was artistic. Until now. As people around me start to encourage my artistic pursuits, I am starting to let myself believe that maybe I am artistic.

In fact, I am starting to believe that we all are.