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

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

The concept of having a job that paid the bills and then pursuing your interests on nights and weekends seemed completely absurd to me.

When your intuition guides you to do something, don’t wonder why. Just do it and eventually you’ll find out.

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.

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,

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

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.

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?