With one year left in college before my debt becomes real and job searching becomes serious, I often find myself questioning where I’m at compared to my peers. And while summer is great, it could also be overwhelming. Being out of school for three months pressures you into thinking that everyday should be a creatively productive one. You finally have the free time you complained about not having during the school year so you should be taking advantage of it. But we’re humans, and we have friends, and lives, daily tasks, dogs to take out, jobs to work, eyebrows to fill in, beds to make, cucumbers to peel, yada, yada, yada.

So, walking around the grocery store yesterday for an hour and a half just to end up getting the one thing I initially went for in the first place gave me time to think.

My thoughts and conclusions from this terrible experience are as follows:

• Tons of people had grocery lists, so to feel more accomplished, make a list of daily tasks. On the list you need to have things that are harder to achieve like maybe “finish that drawing today.” But what I’ve been doing is also throwing little bonus’ in there like “get out of bed, take your vitamins, tie your shoes, close the door when you leave the house” and this way, you can cross more things out and feel like your accomplishing the absolute most in a 24 hour period.
• Next, treat yourself. Wegman’s was five more minutes out of my way yesterday (and a bit pricer) so I went to Giant on my way home instead and it was so strange. It was like walking through a crowd of zombies, I felt like I was in the twilight zone. So, when your picking out art supplies, treat yourself. Drive to the place that has the best options and buy the sketchbook that’s a little more expensive, you’ll be happier in the end.
• The lady who held up the line to return her canned peaches because there was a dent on the side of the can taught me that I don’t ever want to be like that. So next time I’m drawing or painting and I mess up a tiny spot I’m sure as hell not going to hold up the entire finished piece because of my little mistake, especially if you won’t even see it in the end anyways.
• An older couple got into a fight right outside the entrance because she wanted to use a motorized cart while he insisted that she’s fine to walk. To which she replied, “yeah but I’m tired already Joe.” So what I got from that is fake it till you make it. If you don’t know what your doing whether it’s a new technique or speaking about your own art to people, act confidently and sternly because honestly, people will believe you.
• In the candy aisle a man tried to justify to a boy why they should just buy sugar free jolly ranchers instead of a fun bag of gummy worms. His argument is that they’re basically the same thing. And even though he was convincing the little boy wasn’t budging, and rightfully so, they are nothing alike. So don’t compare yourself to other artists. If you compare yourself, soon enough you’ll become the boring, white lifesaver mints when you had the potential to be the colorful, soury, gummy worms.

So yeah maybe I didn’t end up being creatively productive today, but I learned some lessons while buying lettuce so I can cross that off my list.