Over the last few years I’ve come to recognize my own personal values for self-expression. Growing up, I looked at art/music/athletic talent/etc. as things I admired in other people and strived to do for myself because I wanted to be seen the way I saw those performances. But I eventually realized, every time, I was not as talented as the ones I envied, and so, my instinct was always “this path is not for me.” But thankfully, I also come from a stubborn family hahaha So when the thought arose that I wanted to write song lyrics or paint or learn guitar or practice yoga or play a new sport… it was quickly silenced by the “you won’t perform like they do” perspective - and my stubborn mentality said “bet.” I don’t need to perform like they do. I just want to do it. My own way. And what I realized was that if I can do something *terribly* and still find reasons to enjoy doing it, then yeah, not only will I get better at it, but I learn more about myself while trying. See, I strive to shift the perspective of self-expression from the idea that we express ourselves to be noticed or discovered for talent - to the perspective that self-expression is the ultimate key to realizing parts of ourselves we hadn’t realized were there. I’ve slowly been learning (on and off over the course of a decade - more off than on lol) how to play guitar and make music. But I was going through a funk over the last few weeks and started crafting this (very much unfinished) song and wanted to share. More than the song itself though, I want to share the process. Because we generally get finished products to be in awe of, and call it magic how someone comes up with something beautiful - but we don’t see behind the scenes. Or better yet, think of a piece of art/music/film/story that you love and got to see behind the scenes after the fact. You wouldn’t be interested in the process until you already experienced the product you came to love. But once you’re engaged, you want the whole story. Because once you see behind the curtain, you see how you could do it yourself!