Stop Saying that Artists are "Brave" or "Lucky"

Next person to call me “lucky/brave because you’re following your dreams” can go bug off. This may seem insensitive, but hear me out. 

My only piece of “good fortune”, realistically, is in knowing what I’ve wanted to do with my life since I was very young. I’ve had a tumultuous life path up until this point, which included (and is not limited to): 

- Studying medicine in high school, going back and forth between public school and charter school so that I could still play music 
- Studying engineering in college and becoming a leader in my STEM-based engineering extracurriculars. 
- Working as a contract chemist at PPG, all while rehearsing and sometimes touring in a local Pittsburgh band 
- Being unemployed and studying for my GRE 
- Working as a server at a couple of places, most notably James St Gastropub & Speakeasy where I met a number of professional musicians 
- Working for a year as a full-time project manager at a local Digital Marketing firm called FutureDerm Media. 

Now, in my mid-twenties, I namely do what I set out to do from childhood, which is to write, perform and teach music. 

I am not “brave”. I am not “lucky”. It’s thinking like this that likely makes you project your insecurities onto me. You think my life’s work is some act of God, or that music materialized to me by some good fortune. 

It’s my motivation, hard work, relentless perseverance and determination that got me this far; luck had little to do with it. My career in music is an ongoing, uphill battle and I’m here with fighting words and boxing gloves. 

Trust me - if you work your ass off, you see results. My luck is in knowing exactly what to work toward. That’s all.

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