Inktober Day 7: You’re Going to Need It

When I was in high school, I read To Kill a Mockingbird. It changed my thought process around relationships, family, and prejudice. I was fourteen years old and to this day it is one of my top five favorite books. Harper Lee wrote it in 1960, when as a country we were still struggling with race relations and equal treatment of all people. She put the issues of women, children, blacks and those who are mentally challenged all into one sweet story starring Jem, Scout and Atticus. If you have not read it, you need to. Here is Harper Lee’s advice to us all:

We will always have critics. Not everyone will like or understand your perspective. People will say nasty, unkind, cruel things for a variety of reasons. Creative people are not always understood AND if you are doing it right, are often the topic of much conversation from those who have not bothered to consider the creative’s point of view. The necessity of building up our own perimeter, a thick hide, allows us to buffer ourselves from those critics. If we have the courage to create, to put it on paper, to post it, paint it, build it, even put it in ink, then we have to be willing to defend our work. For at times, we may be the only one coming to our own defense.

So as you spend time building up your skills, finding your own creative outlet, even daring to imagine that you could write or create something important….develop that thick hide. Be secure in yourself and the importance of what you are creating. Let the rest of the world say what they want. As long as you believe, as long as you can defend and be proud of your work…then everyone else doesn’t really matter. You be you, be proud of you and develop your thick hide…you’re going to need it!