"You just need to know who you are" Hand-Lettered Art Print

Lately, I've been doing some hand-lettering including some custom art prints and signage. I'm really enjoying how the combination of my hand-written work and what I can do with the computer can help me design meaningful gifts and work for clients in the shop.

Such is the case with today's post, a print I created for a close friend using a photo I took in San Diego and a hand-lettered quote of my own.

My friend and I are about the same age and going through the wonderful growing pains of what it's like to navigate life and career after college sends you on your merry way with little to no path to follow. As I was chatting with her, I wanted to allay her concerns about feeling lost at this point in her life and so I simply said hey - "you don't have to know what you want, you just need to know who you are."

Since I articulated it that day, I've thought a lot about it and really taken it to heart myself. We all put a lot of pressure on ourselves to have everything figured out or wrapped up in a perfect bow. And some of us have everyone thinking that we really do have it all together which just perpetuates that pressure. But really, I'd love to get a loud speaker going and announce we're all works-in-progress- myself more than included. Think of the tremendous comfort there is in knowing you aren't totally missing something - that we're all heroes in our own story, including character flaws and conflicts.

But even without that open consensus, I breathe a giant sigh of relief when I realize that it's a very human thing and an okay thing to not know what you want or not know what you want to be when you grow up - whether you're 10 or 60.

So often in the past few years, though I consider myself to be a creative person, I haven't thought about my life or career path very creatively at all. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the illusion of tried-and-true paths or the generally accepted right ways to be successful and lead a meaningful life. I've felt very free in the moments I've embraced focusing on who I am to get closer to knowing what I want, and to my surprise - that focus has creatively sparked ways to get it.

Maybe I should print one for my wall too. A friendly reminder to stay creative in work and in life.