We all sat down on our seats and prepared our crayons. We were allowed to paint whatever we wanted and I was excited to draw my home garden. I was ten years old and it was an art class in school.
Usually I would draw my trees with branches and leaves, but this time I decided to decorate my valley with trees that looked like a green circle with a few red apples in the middle. I was I real talent for drawing- NOT, but I had fun with it and I loved it. ☺
The teacher went around the class, looking at our drawings. When she came to mine, she took it and mocked it in front of the whole class saying:
“This is not how you should draw trees! This is how a six year old would do it! You are ten and you should know better! Immediately take another paper and start over!”
And so I did… embarrassed I started over, not really knowing why my trees were so bad…
Why were they?! It was my imagination, my creativity…who set the rules that trees should always have branches with leaves?! Why not a green circle with apples?! Why does the sun need to be yellow, or a house roof red?! Why not blue?! Who set the rules…primary school teacher?!
No matter who it was, what are they trying to do?! Do they want to teach us to do what is safe, secure and already made so we wouldn’t experiment and, there’s a crazy thought, actually LIKE something that’s different and more difficult?! They teach us not to make mistakes, not to improvise and be brave while we try to break through with our dreams and ideas! They set boundaries, they plant fear! So what if I fail trying to pursue something I love?! At least I’ve tried.
There’s no shame in that and I shouldn’t be afraid of any form of failure. And I can proudly say that I have learned more from my pain and my failures then from my happiness. I don’t want to feel limited out of fear and I most definitely won’t play safe…simply not my style! 😉 And neither should you!
Guess what, life is filled with different crayons, so choose your own colors and lines!
Sky is the limit, my friend!
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