Being The Best At... Whatever

No Strings Attached

I turn a corner and there she is, in full feral fox mask. She nearly scares the daylights out of me.

“What do you think, daddy?”

She’s getting better. We have a thousand masks floating around the house. She makes them for her friends. She gives them away. If she could, she’d wear them everywhere.

Making masks - somehow - has become the one hobby that has stuck, consistently, and that she’s consistently improved at.

One of her favorite bands, Freeze the Fall, used one of her masks for a music video.

“Wow, that one is really cool,” I say for the millionth time. (I mean it each time by the way.)

When I was her age, I was writing or reading. That was sort of it. That has been my thing, well, forever. That’s what stuck really early for me and didn’t evaporate. (Obviously if you’re reading this, you already know that.)

But I find myself, not surprisingly, in the same bind as my parents, which is - how do I direct this interest (passion?) into some form of a lucrative life?

My parents were always pushing me toward being a teacher, or professor, or public relations. You know, so I could make a living. My dad wanted me to be an accountant, but that’s a story for another time. The last thing they wanted me to do was write books. Haha, sure fooled them, didn’t I?

But at the same time, they never stopped encouraging the writer in me. They never said… stop doing that. It’s a fine line isn’t it?

So, for Little Bean, where’s that line? Special effects artist? Theater production? Interior designer?

Or… and this is tough… can we just encourage her without strings attached. Phew, just writing that makes me sweat.

I’ll try. Here goes:

Just make masks. Make them better each time. Be good at it. Be the best mask maker you can be. Have fun doing it. That’s it. Period. End of sentence.

---

Updates and News: You all did it! So far here at Day by Day, we’ve posted three Interviews By Uma. Of the hundreds of posts here at this newsletter, those three have received the most reads, engagement and interest. In fact, three of the top six posts are those three interviews. (Our number one post is the one on the great horse manure crisis of New York! It went mini-viral, so that’s not gonna get beaten anytime soon.) Anyway, we wanted to just say thank you for the support you’ve shown Little Bean and her work! More interviews on the way!