Strive, Don't Deprive

(The picture above is the thumbnail for YouTube artist Emily Artful)

Lots of thoughts today.
At first I was going to share about another YouTuber I discovered yesterday whom I'm absolutely loving. I'll get to that in a minute because there was also something more serious that caught my attention yesterday.
I've been clashing with a coworker recently. This person is constantly critical, always find things that are wrong or could have been better, and does not acknowledge when things are done correctly or how well other things are doing. This person cannot be impressed. I know this because another coworker who has worked with them for far longer than I have has tried and now knows better. But this coworker I'm clashing with, their anger is not usually toward one specific person. Usually it is to some other circumstance that is completely out of our control, but my coworker cannot focus her anger, so she ends up lashing out at the people around her. This lashing out because of something she cannot control only amplifies her anger, causing her to have extremely poor relations with everyone around her. Everyone. It increases her critical nature. I'm normally a glass half full kind of person, a realistic optimist, if you will. Naturally her and I haven't gotten along at all over the past several weeks. As I was discussing this person with my mom, who also knows and works with my coworker, my mom kind of laughed and said, "Well, they're Italian."
I stopped in my tracks because that sounded dangerously familiar. They're Italian. To me that is far too close to the phrase boys will be boys. And I decided in that moment to refuse someone's heritage or genetic makeup as an excuse for their poor behavior. Someone is Italian and that automatically means their eccentricities and tempers should be excused?
No. Absolutely not.
I'm not exempt from this categorizing, either. I remember a few months ago while in class I made a remark somewhere along the lines of, "They're Italian, don't they all have tempers?" And I realized immediately after saying it how incredibly douchey that was. The categorizing goes beyond people with bad tempers, as well. Isn't it a stereotype that all Americans are stupid and lazy? According to a study done in recent years (sorry, but I can't remember which one), Americans are one of the hardest working nations in the world. Not all Asians are good at martial arts, math, and piano. Not all Hispanics speak Spanish. Not all Blacks are violent. Not all Christians are anti-LGBTQIA+. Not all atheists hate Christians. We desperately need to get out of this mindset of stereotyping because of a certain heritage, religion, societal class, etc. It's toxic.
I will say that people with conditions that alter their chemical makeup/brain activity (i.e. depression, anxiety) are exempt from this. I don't have a thorough understanding of conditions of the mind, therefore I don't feel comfortable having an opinion on them.
I was overwhelmed with this realization yesterday and retreated to my room to let my brain sort itself out. As usual, I turned to YouTube, as that is normally the place I go when I need to zone out or just be encouraged. (That or Pinterest.) In my browsing, I stumbled upon a channel run by a user named Emily Artful. She tells stories while sketching and doing watercolor, and in addition to her art being totally AWESOME, I loved her storytelling style, the way she was able to manifest her thoughts into a painting. It reminded me of writing and how often the characters or the situations they're facing in some way mimic my own state of mind. One of the things she said that stuck with me is "Strive, Don't Deprive." I love this saying because I think it speaks volumes about how we beat ourselves down so often and deprive ourselves of the nurturing our brain and creativity needs. It's okay to not be the best at something; that is why you practice, you strive for it. You always try to improve because in the world of art and creativity, there is always room for improvement and there is always something to learn. Binge watching her channel inspired me to create. It rekindled a love I've had for art my entire life, and I'm hoping I'll be able to get back into it, because creation is...indescribable. It's organic and pure. It's a high. And I wonder whenever I'm coloring, painting, building, or writing, as I'm building these words and characters, is this how God felt whenever he created us?
I'm diving into a world of dreams and color, a world I have been away from for far too long.

-Grace