On Adaptability and Switching Majors

As I seem to be mentioning frequently, and realizing even more frequently: change comes at you fast.
While I haven’t experienced it directly for a while, loss is one such sudden change you have to learn to deal with out of the blue (and my favorite color is red… so I’m not a fan of the blue to begin with). On most occassions you don’t get to sit there and think clearly “what would I do if x, y, or z happened to my loved one?” and even if you did I doubt your emotions would allow you to make a clear conclusion. Oh, and whatever conclusion you may have come to would never play out according to plan. I made such great plans on how I was going to be productive every day at college (cold showers, regular workouts, eating healthy), and I do get really good sleep compared to most other students… (we don’t talk about the other goals)
I’ve had to adapt, and need to adapt even more to make the best out of my ever-changing situation. Now that I know more about how life in college operates for me, I should take some time to revisit my goals and plans for reaching those goals—including the ever-present “major” decision.

A major in Art

I worry. I really do. I’m afraid that I would burn myself out filling the day with creativity. But then I go about the rest of the day dreaming of filling it with creativity. (Part of the hills and valleys—iykyk). A day will come along where I just want to create, and I’ll do it for hours and hours, and the next day I’ll waste away in disgust of myself and my lack of “productivity” and convince myself I can’t be sustainable about it (even though I’ve proven otherwise at points).

[Editing thought: I’m not sure how I want to structure this post: Do I start with my thoughts on the major decision? or do I start with the importance of adaptability in life and art? or do I jump around back and forth like the madman I am?… hmm… well we know the answer now]

Advantageous Adaptability

I could quote Randy Jackson, who is credited with “You never know what the future brings,” but I’d rather quote the sound of music, and Julie Andrews singing “What will my day be like… I wonder.” (I Have Confidence). The same amount of uncertainty carries, and the same lack of knowledge is evident whenever we think to the future. We just don’t know what’ll happen!
Therefore, the very best way to prepare for inevitable unexpectedness is to improve the traits of adaptability.
1. Flexibility 2. Acceptance 3. Compromise 4. Openness 5. Willingness to Change 6. Most of these are synonyms I just felt like numbering… the idea is there though (could be/surely has been refined by an academic).
Really, the easiest way I can think of to define adaptability is to juxtapose it with rigidity and stubborness. If something doesn’t go your way, the worst way to react is unmovingly. What do you think you will gain without any change in your methods? It didn’t work the first time… why would it work the second? When stubborness prevails, so does argument and consequent pain, power struggles, and really nothing constructive. If anything is constructive, it is a consencus of sorts, or a coming-to-agreement that has nothing to thank the stubborness for. Stubborn people will not always get what they want, so it’s best for both sides to practice flexibility.

Stories really are best, and Malcolm Gladwell tells stories quite well, especially in Talking to Strangers. He opens the book with a devastating story of (spoiler alert) a police encounter with a lady who decides to smoke during the “procedural” pull-over. The cop demands she put out the cigarette, not out of necessity, but out of stubborness and a desire to exert dominance over the inferior driver (or at least, that is how I interpret the actions). To conclude the story, the cop violently pulls the woman from her vehicle and arrests her. She then is said to have hanged herself in a cell within days. I know how little the story may seem to relate to art, and it’s quite extreme, but it’s an example of where compromise would’ve made a huge impact (saved a life). Adaptability was not evident in this interaction. At least not in any positive manner. The fault wasn’t even only on one party: the lady could have just put out the cigarette, or the cop could have just let it burn. Neither adapted to follow a predetermined set of politeness or positive values they trained and practiced for stressful scenarios like a law enforcement interaction.

While I don’t expect many people reading this blog—including myself—to regularly experience such an extreme case of unbending wills, there are much smaller conflicts to which adaptability can help stupendously. Such as art! (See how it all connects so I can say this blog has a central theme… see??)
I’m sure a great example is client work… but I can’t say I’ve ever worked closely with clients before. The commissions I have completed, the buyers tended to entrust me fully with the project after brief descriptions and minimal instruction. I trust if/as I extend into the (more) professional world, that will not be the case, and close client contact will be more expected and necessary, especially for larger works. I imagine compromises will need to be more frequently made to what may be my creative vision in order to more accurately align it with a client's.
On a project to project base, whether or not it is commission work, adapting on the fly can also prove to create a better finished piece. Say you accidentally spill coffee on a section of a portrait piece. You could either yell in frustration and shred your precious canvas, or you could incorporate the stain in a way that makes the piece even more personal. I know Bob Ross said something along the lines of “There’s no such thing as mistakes; only happy accidents” and I heard it first in elementary school when mistakes were abundant. While the saying may not fit into many areas of life, I’ve realized how excellent it is for art. Even with some of my smaller pieces, there are concessions made throughout the piece based on how the materials were behaving. Maybe an arm wouldn’t stay connected, so I end up positioning it in a way I hadn’t considered before, but looks even better. Adaptability is less of a tool to have in your toolbag, but rather a valuable skill to ever-improve and practice.

As promised, a return to the subject of Majors

To the few current college kids who may read this: How is this going for you?
To the few college graduates who may read this: How did you do it?
To the few kids reading this: …good luck!
To everyone else: Got any good duck jokes?

I love art. But do I want to learn about art? Of course! But do classes feel like creativity limiters? Sometimes, but they often spawn the best ideas in the first place! What lovely conflict. Let’s think cost: aaaaaaaaah. nope. let’s not. (a common theme in my life so far). The practicality of learning something you’re interested in is: you get better and know more. The downside is…
So anyways, about the stigma of artists not making money and the potential reality of my prospective reality of me potentially prospectively possibly (yeah I don’t know what this sentence is accomplishing). I want to be generous with money, but it’s a lot harder to do that without money. So I want a career that allows for that. I don’t know if it’s a hurdle I need to jump over, a fear I need to confront, or what, that is stopping me from seriously considering a career in art. I’ve always viewed it as an impossibility—something I would LOVE to do, but just… y’know… shouldn’t. I have “so much potential” and could “do anything I set my mind to” and my Valedictorian speech emphasized “living for memories, not money”. Reading this I feel stupid. but mainly disappointed. I don’t seem to be following my own advice. To even myself (if I look from outside of my head) I seem to not be pursuing a life I am passionate about and could succeed at if I set my mind to it. I just would need to set my mind to it as I haven’t yet.

The Super Unhelpful Feedback I Receive (which doesn’t help my ego)

Writing this down seems pushing the line of boasting, and I don’t under any circumstance desire to do such a thing, so I must preface it: this is just what I have heard. I am not saying that I am told “you could accomplish anything you set your mind to” as a boast, but as a dilemma easily interpreted as egotistical and haughty. That is not my intent. Now I will proceed:
While it is justified per the laws of child raising that my parents would say such things as, “You can do anything you set your mind to” and “You’re going to do great things, I know it,” it’s sometimes near strangers telling me these things. Can you imagine how unhelpful that is when trying to decide what career to pursue??! I wish a couple people would (in an unbiased manner) tell me exactly what I would find the most joy in and be best at and should put my time into. That’s where the adaptability and major decision are an issue: I don’t know what major I should adapt to.

Art: I could learn more about what I know I love, but worry I would snuff out the passion with too much structure.
Communications: I could read the materials I am provided and show up to classes, completing well-intended assignments and hopefully learning helpful tips along the way, perhaps eventually sparking deeper passion towards interaction in non-creative contexts.
Business: I could use my communication skills and adaptability to succeed financially, and try and maintain passions on the side to make up for the potentially mundane work of a non-centrally-creative job.

Those are some extremely biased takes, as I’m currently in an art-biased mindset after an inspiring discussion with an art faculty member. He let me know his unique perspective: Not becoming a photographer as his major would suggest after he realized he was more passionate about contributing in the ways he does today (similar to another faculty who went from a furniture design degree straight into the set design industry). This person’s input therefore was the opposite pushing me to do something I’m not passionate about. He made sure to clarify that rather than just wanting me to pursue art because he loves art, his only worry was that after seeing the potential I have through how I view art and approach life (and the skills I’ve developed thus far in writing and visual communication, etc.) that if I was passionate about it, I wouldn’t “stop trying to run before I’ve even walked” (paraphrase). I shouldn’t give up before I’ve even started. “You’re the least qualified you’ll ever be right now,” he said. Because every time I try again, I’ll improve.
Besides the general encouragement to pursue what I find most fulfilling over well, anything else, that was my main takeaway. Because yes, I’ve consistently looked at the art field as a thousand foot mountain I’ve only climbed a hundred feet of. The barrier for entry seems so far away I look at the ground and it’s almost comforting. The peak is daunting. I hope to take that advice and carry it into something I enjoy, and that just might be art. I said in my Valedictorian speech “I’m planning on pursuing art, and I’m sure you all know it’s a veeerrryyy lucrative career… (It’s not) but I’m not worried about it! Because I know for a fact that I would rather live in a van and make art than live in a mansion without joy.” (or something along those lines).

Boy do I want that line to stay true.