confidence and always seem unsure of yourself, it can be terrifying pursuing what you want to do. I’m afraid of what people will think, afraid of my dream not working out and being left lost and defeated, and afraid of a lifetime not doing what I love to do. I think the answer for “what do you want to do for the rest of your life?” is so unclear to some of us because we are so afraid to admit what we want. We become vulnerable when we reveal something we are in love with. We expose ourselves to judgmental eyes and thoughts, and we do our best to put on our brave faces even if our voices are trembling and we can barely think straight. What has saved me from the pressures, standards, and molds that I feel like I’m forced to squeeze myself into is this: Be vocal. Say what you want and what you want to do in full confidence, and I promise you what you think other people are thinking is probably what they are not thinking at all. Making assumptions is destructive. Be selfish when it comes to your future. I promise you, and this is something I can never be more sure of, that in the explosive and breathtaking chaos that is the universe, things will happen that will either destroy you or nurture you. Let go of things you can’t control. Do not waste time worrying about things you cannot possibly do anything about. You are the creator of your own life, and your tool is your voice. It is only with things you cannot control you then let the universe do its thing. Said by the great Ted Mosby of How I Met Your Mother, “If you’re not scared then you’re not taking a chance.” If you are scared in the process of achieving your goal, that’s when you know you are doing something right. Life is grand, and absolutely anything can happen. – Annaliese Segoviano / Los Angeles, CA I am about as fake as it gets. Let me explain. For the longest time, I struggled with the idea of figuring out where I should map myself in the school community, as though all my peers in the school magazine belonged to the 49th parallel, and if I looked up the members of the volleyball team, I would undoubtedly find them all positioned along the same longitudinal line. I thought it was all so definitive and would hide certain things about myself because I felt like it didn’t project one, cohesive image to my peers. I was a patchwork of interests, but I would put up a facile façade in attempt to sell a concept that I figured was digestible to everyone else. I was a liar, and cheated myself ultimately. I knew that there was always a duality in my hobbies. I was invested in my academics, but remained drawn to photography and creative expression. I separated those two realms for a long time and would only be proud of the content I produced in my own privacy, feeling almost ashamed if I shared it with my friends. In retrospect, it makes little sense, but at the time, I felt that it was necessary to maintain the persona that people at school knew me by. I felt bound to a role, a niche in the stereotypical social scene of high school. It took a gradual shift for me to register that it’s okay to not fit into preceding conventions. It’s okay to have polarity in your identity. A niche is not a one dimensional, stagnant label, but rather a constantly evolving entity that
must be cultivated through the pursuit of passions and relationships with the people around you. A niche is not a permanent designation, but a place of evolving entity that must be cultivated through the pursuit of passions and relationships with the people around you. Getting over this misconception, or perhaps even subconscious fear that I was ‘confined’ by a niche has allowed me to live authentically without reservations. This whole time, I thought I was a mere coordinate in the sky, when in reality, people are all complex constellations, consisting of many points that form a vivid kaleidoscope, an image that varies for every viewer, much like how certain people in our lives only know specific aspects of us as individuals. And all of this, these diverse constellations, these niches, each different from the next, form the beautiful galaxy of humankind. – Selina Ye / Vancouver, Canada Throughout my life I have been pushing away my love of art. I think the reason for that is because everyone always says that you can’t make a career out of it. The starving artist is a phrase that is too often used when art is brought up and I just felt that when I drew or painted and showed anyone they would bring up the fact that making art isn’t really a career. The truth is that I wasn’t actually expecting a career to come out of making art. I was doing it because I loved it. And that’s what I’ve come to realize recently. I don’t have to make perfect artwork because I’m not doing it for anyone but myself. It makes me feel happy and powerful and in control. I’ve started drawing almost every day because it’s what I’m passionate about and I know that I’m good at it. You don’t need to worry about what others think when you’re doing something that you truly enjoy. – Taylor Ussher / Ontario, Canada
– ILLUSTRATION ABOVE / LAURA FILAS
local wolves — 19
