The Upside of Being Down: How Mental Health Struggles Led to My Greatest Successes in Work and Life

creatives often need logistical and operational support so we can focus on being creative and not be eye-tortured by spreadsheets.

You want someone whose words resonate with you deeply. Who you trust and feel comfortable with, because, week after week, you’ll be spilling your guts out onto a table like puzzle pieces to be sorted through and reassembled.

My signature move was to pack up all my opinions, feelings, likes, and dislikes, and set them aside so I could absorb the lifestyle, interests, and friends of whoever I was dating. If I remain compliant, sweet, easy, and suggestible, then you’ll really love me, right?

if you know the job you want, and you can’t find it, you can create it.

we had tapped into the creative consciousness. I have always viewed ideas as energy, floating in and out of our minds and in the air around us. Whether or not we choose to harness that energy is what differentiates us.

There’s a real beauty, and freedom, in acceptance.

You’re probably used to seeing creative types depicted as successful or suffering, one or the other. My story is both.

When Laurel asked me questions she looked into my eyes with such attentiveness and genuine curiosity that for the first time in my life, I felt seen. For a girl who had felt incredibly misunderstood by the one most important female figure in her life, this was the gift I needed to set me on my path.

After the laughs and the raw fish and the Ferris wheel, we went back to his apartment and made out on his couch, listening to Van Morrison until dawn. My arm fell asleep about an hour in, but I didn’t say anything for fear of disrupting the kissing. When I finally got up to leave, it hurt to get my keys out of my purse.

Just because you find a career that you love doesn’t mean you are tethered to it for life,