Alex Garcia-Laguer

   I recently just graduated from college and I’m struggling to adjust to a practical view of life. I went from being able to revel in all sorts of potential futures for my life to staring down the barrel of my impending loan repayments. I blame myself mostly because instead of surrounding myself with short-sighted individuals who acted as if college would never end, I made the far more critical choice of surrounding myself with artists. Artists notoriously have a penchant for being whimsical by nature and often times delusional by choice.  
   Because of my choices, I’ve adopted a sort of pseudo-artistic attitude: one where I fully acknowledge that creating art is something I’m passionate about, but eating is something I’m equally as passionate about. I’m torn. 
   I’m being pulled in two directions because the most frequent comments I hear about my friends who choose a life of creating art is that they are thoroughly preparing themselves to living a poor lifestyle. I understand why this perception of an artist’s life occurs, due largely to the fact that many renowned artists lived meager lives in despairing conditions; also, because the salary of someone who isn’t a New York Times Best-Seller or a Hollywood A-lister isn’t one anybody would envious about. But, my question now is: do I have to live such an austere life in order to be a great artist?
    To be quite frank, I don’t ever want to tacitly or overtly admit to myself that I will always be poor because of the lifestyle I’ve chosen, nor do I feel I have to. Yes, this time after college has been a sobering experience because I feel like most of my time is spent abating unnecessary fantasies of what my life could be; however, I’ve also had to catch myself from making faulty inferences about who I can be in the future. I am a person who is passionate about creating art, but I’m also a person who is passionate about many other things. It’s so easy to allow myself to believe in the hype of specializing in one area of expertise. It’s a very American concept, but I won’t allow myself to be stymied in any one of my passions. I may be ambitious, but pursuing what I’m passionate about, even if it’s many things, is just as important in someone pursuing the one thing he/she desires above all other things. 
    I don’t know where any of these assertions will lead. I may be more effective for thinking big or less effective for spreading myself too thin, but, just as there’s Van Gogh to inspire every starving artist, there’s Hemingway to inspire anyone else willing to follow their various curiosities. Long story short, I’m gonna make my cake and eat it too…literally.