Here’s To The Creative Types

Here’s to the ones sitting in coffee shops, hiding behind their battered books; or in parks with their pen and paper. Here’s to the ones in improv classes with their 5 year old selves or inside the library getting overly excited about all the great plays to choose from. Here’s to the ones reciting Shakespeare like a prayer and filling the stage with their presence. They may be sitting right next to you on the subway, reading a newspaper and crying over the devastating sadness in the world one minute, and running through the streets at night to dance and laugh in the rain the next. Here’s to the ones you find in their basements, feeling the music move through their bones. Here’s to the ones who write down everything the feel, who cry freely because they feel freely. Who cry both because they’re happy — who aren’t afraid to admit that the world is so magnificently breathtaking that it moves them to tears sometimes — and because they’re sad. Here’s the ones who feel something and remind themselves that they are alive, every once and a while.

Here’s to the “weird ones” in society — I like to call them the artists. These are the future Picassos, the next Fitzgeralds, the Pacinos, and the Tarantinos. Maybe they’re not, but maybe they could be. These are the ones who want to express their deepest, darkest selves to the world. They crave the idea of ripping their heart out and putting it out on display, no matter how terrifying that might be. They may be your sisters, your brothers, your fathers or your mothers. They could be your teachers, your neighbors, your babysitters, your daughters, or your sons. They blend in with society on a day-to-day basis but they always feel this controlling force to stand out. No matter how they try to hide it, something will fall through. They will always give themselves away.

The world would be silent of Sinatras, it would be colorless of Van Goghs, and it would be numb of Chaplins if these people didn’t feel compelled to try. And they will be compelled. Don’t ever tell them to feel otherwise. This is something they do not know how to comprehend. It will set them on fire with rage. Do not judge them for their lifestyle or take them for granted. They would give you the stars and the moon if they could, because their art is how they give the stars and the moon. They may seem like they have a few screws loose and most of them do — but in the end, haven’t all the best people been called the “crazy ones”?

They wish nothing but to live a life worthy of being storied. They won’t settle for mediocrity and they will push themselves to the breaking point for the sake of telling a story or expressing their vision to the world. They may seem uneasy and unstable at times, this is inevitable — so be wary of their tempers. Try not to be one to intentionally hurt them because they seem to have a longer healing period than the average person. Here’s to the people who give their whole heart to the ones they love, which sets them up for a greater distance to fall and a deeper wound to heal.

And here’s to the ones who have fallen. To the ones who may have just hit the breaking point of surrendering to society and decided to hang up their dress-up clothes. Here’s to the souls that have let go of the art and came out from the darkness to the florescent lights. Here’s to the ones who have fallen with grace. They have made their peace with the spotlight and the stage. They have respectfully signed out, no matter how much they didn’t want to give up. Their art served their purpose to them.

Here’s to the ones that just can’t let it go. They know deep down that without art they would simply die, they would be washed away with the tide. All the rejection, let down and overbearing emotions have never been or never will be enough to make them quit. The artist inside them is more alive than ever.

Because even though artists come and go, even though they pass away and they retire and new trends go in and out of style, the ‘artist’ inside each and every creative type will live on through their work — that work that they spent a lifetime trying to perfect. It will go on to inspire and to guide those future artists to come. It will be the light at the end of the tunnel and the motivation to be who you are and to stand out in a world filled with replicas and imitations.