being a beginner

Sometimes things happen right at the precise moment you need them to. After a particularly difficult week, I serendipitously came across this today:

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

— Ira Glass

via joy thigpen via melinda josie via nouvea romantics (who I love!)

I needed to hear that today. I needed to read it. 

I was definitely m.i.a. on the blog this week, feeling a bit down after getting some bad news about the shop hunt and facing a few setbacks, deeply missing a dear friend, and just generally feeling discouraged. 

This coming week looks a bit brighter, with lots of exciting projects and collaborations in the works, more blogging and the website... soon!

RIP Tanya. You are always with me, this week no different than any other. I wish you were here to be sharing this journey with me. Missing you.