I am thankful that I am given the ability to protest in this country without being forced to stop by my government. It is a blessing to be able to speak my mind whenever I choose so long as I am willing to face the social consequences.
I am thankful that I was encouraged to learn how to read and write. Without these abilities, I would not be able to learn from and appreciate the creative arts.
A huge part of why I am the person I am today is because of the stories I read about and the content I consume. Some of these stories involve the power of dreams, fighting against injustice, and overcoming impossible odds, making the impossible possible.
The first two that come to mind are japanese mangas, Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece and the late Kentaro Miura’s Berserk. These two pieces of art have probably had the most influence on me as a human being. There’s also the Bible but I’m not sure if it falls under the category of art in terms of the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.
Understandably, the broad category of people known as artists and those who aspire to one day be great artists can be thought of as naive or pretentious. Not everybody who creates art is going to produce something that millions of people admire. When someone confidently and proudly shows me something they worked on that seems boring and poorly executed in my eyes, the first thought that may come to my mind is that this person is full of themselves and I’d prefer not to associate with them.
But as I’ve grown, I’ve started to have another thought pop up in my mind when an artist shares their art with me. I’m thankful they decided to show me this.
I’m glad they didn’t think that they could never be as great as Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo and decided it wasn’t worth the effort, instead taking the effort to develop a new skill, regardless of what the motive was. They are better than me, who has had a lot of ideas pop in my head and fantasized about being a respected artist but never picked up a pencil out of fear or failure and humiliation.
I’m going to be 28 soon. I look back in regret thinking about how good at drawing I could currently be if I decided to start trying as a young child. But there isn’t anything stopping me from picking one up now I suppose.