Aspirations (By Sirius)

        So I was wondering what I should write tonight but couldn't think of anything particularly important that I needed to get out...I was also feeling a bit lazy but that's not the point. I decided to get one of my good friends to do a guest blog since he had said something about being interested in helping me out with this little project. Now, he has always been someone I go to get advice from, not only with writing, but in life. He has always given me the best answers he can give and isn't afraid to brutally slap me across the face with the truth if its something he knows I need. For this reason, I trust him enough to be my editor for this blog and to write whatever he so chooses to write when he's guest blogging. He may be young, but I've always seen him as an old soul and I hope you enjoy reading his work as much as I have for the past...I think it's four years now...holy shit...that's a long time. Anyway, here is my good friend Sy with whatever it is he is about to talk about. . .have fun, Anonymous Reader.


                                            ~The Ink Eater

Quote/Event/Insight of the day: "You won't even be able to SEE the wedding cake behind the jelly beans!"
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      Hello, Anonymous Reader! My name is Sirius, but The Ink Eater calls me Sy after one of my characters. I'm her guest writer today (even though it's Tuesday, not Saturday) and one of her more... intelligent friends. (Any of her friends reading this: that's my opinion, not her statement. Suck it.)

I'm writing today on aspirations, and what it means to really strive for something. Read the following list of things and see if you can name the thread connecting them:
-Animation
-Digital Art
-YouTube
-Video Games
-Prose
-Poetry
-Drawings and Sketches
-Political Activism
-Music

Do you think you know what it is? That's a trick question, because there are two of them: creativity and me. I'm currently am or have been involved in all of these things in one way or another--and I just turned eighteen a few months ago.

I truly believe that there is nothing that cannot be done in this world. We are literally capable of anything. We could sprout wings and fly if enough geneticists got on the job. (The real question is what SHOULD be done, but that's a topic for another post.)

I have tried my hand at all of these things and found myself moderately successful in them all, at least at a beginner level. There is not a single area listed above I do not see a potential for growth, in myself, my skills and techniques. And I'm not some superhuman, either.

Anyone can do this. Don't get discouraged at beginning setbacks--I have and I regret it, because I know it isn't necessary. I could have been an expert guitarist if I kept at it, but I dropped it years ago. Now, I'm still doing it--discouraging myself. I'm worried I'm running out of time to learn before I have to get a career and a family and my exploration time will be gone.

I call bullshit on myself, and you should too. Kick your own ass into doing what it is YOU WANT TO DO. I've had friends who have tried to write, draw, play music; when the setbacks come, they stopped. I annoyed them into continuing, and now I'm pleased to say my closest friends are the best writers and artists I know.

Get a mentor, too. Don't try to teach yourself. I learned how to write by writing against my friend Charlene, who did and may still surpass my abilities in every way. Get yourself a music teacher if you can afford it--if you can't, I'm sure you know SOMEONE musically talented. Draw something small every day and get feedback where you can.

I'm probably not going to succeed at everything listed above.It's highly unrealistic that anyone succeeds at everything. But I want it to. I aspire for it; I ache for it. I want to be the next Michelangelo, the next Rowling, and the next Beethoven all in one. And because I want it, and because I know it's possible to be the next great artist, magic will happen. I won't succeed at everything, but I refuse to fail at anything. Succeeding once is enough... You can too. Aspire to be great, and you will be.

"It was the man's dream, and his inspiring attempt to make them come true that remain important." Francis Ford Coppola


-Sirius

Sirius' Deviantart: http://rayvenworks.deviantart.com/

Sirius' YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/rayvenworks