Spoiler alert: I don’t have an answer. I’ve always had a bit of a struggle choosing what “talents” I should focus on.
Ever since I can remember, I would always pass my time by singing or imagining some new song, or making art anywhere I could (including on the lounge room walls – sorry mum)! And over the years I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that if I was to pursue any of these things that I wouldn’t be “successful” or that it wouldn’t be “sustainable”; or, worse still – that it would no longer be enjoyable. While sometimes that is the case, I’m finding that once I genuinely do decide to focus, I can do the work and still enjoy it. And I get very frustrated when something prevents me from doing the thing I want to do, even (and especially) if it’s me and my own perceived limitations.
Something that very much affects this for me is that word – “talent”. I have strong feelings about the word but it boils down to this: I see it used a lot as an excuse by people that see something I’ve made without seeing the years of work, frustration, and trial and error that went into getting that knowledge. I have a bit of a complex about being called talented, and often cringe upon hearing it even if the person means well. But alas, I digress.
In the last year I have done a lot more than I thought I would do – I left my job to take a 3-6 month break from working for “the man”, I’ve composed quite a few tracks for some small game projects, made 5+ dresses, drawn a bunch of art, I’ve done 2 game jams, took my first art commission ever AND I released my debut single.
But, and here’s the weird thing, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that if I had chosen to do one thing that I was “talented” at. I see the advice a lot that you have to focus on one thing to get really good at it, and that does have merit. But I also believe in something a friend says every time I complain about having to choose: “you can have everything you want, just not all at once”.
I realise that that’s held true for me, even if I didn’t know it at the time. I only have two hands, but these two hands have done a lot of work. All of that time I spent in my teens sewing and drawing and to be perfectly honest being an anti-social git flitting back and forth between seemingly unrelated hobbies actually contributed to something, much to my surprise. (Although now I’m lamenting my lack of social circle but oh well, that kinda comes with time).
So, to my point, I know my main focus on this site is my art – however! I am also a professional musician, and as such I’m thinking about adding a section of my video game work as well as my more mainstream music on here. In the meantime though, you can find some of my stuff on Spotify here.