Courage Can Be A Quiet Voice

be courageous

Yesterday I went to say hello & good-bye & ROCK ON to a few of my former RIT illustration students. They are graduating in 2 weeks and going out into the reaaaaal world. I spoke with these students at the annual Illustration department’s Portfolio Walk-Through where all the seniors display their illustration portfolios to the public for the first time. It’s a joyous evening filled with lots of talk of the future, but you can feel the trepidation underneath the smiles and thank yous.

I was glad that I could offer a few more words of advice to these students. They all needed one last nudge that “Yes, you can find your way”. I’ve realized in my 10 years from graduating college that everyone’s path is truly different and you cannot repeat it exactly from one person to the next. You must forge your own path, but it helps (a lot!) to know that you have supporters cheering you on your journey.

courage is a quiet voice

I also found this above quote on Pinterest and it truly hit home. There was an opportunity for me to take a full time design job recently. It was a job with great creative potential and steady income, but it also involved a 2.5 hour daily commute which would mean a drastic lifestyle change. It also would mean that I would have to place AbbyDora Design on the back burner. A small quiet voice kept saying to me, “Not yet. Not yet. You aren’t finished with this big adventure of AbbyDora Design”. Maybe it was my heart speaking out or perhaps it was my courage—a tiny, soft voice being very brave and speaking up. In the end, I followed this advice and I’ve decided to keep AbbyDora Design full steam ahead!

My choice has lit a fire in my drive and I’m pushing myself even harder to reach out to new clients and keep on painting and painting. Like my students, I am optimistic that my passion, my courage, and hard work will create additional and amazing opportunities for me. All I have to do is be brave and be myself.

Have you been brave lately?

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