My secret is that if a post of mine- especially art -gets 10 notes, I consider it a success. That includes likes, reblogs, replies, etc. Even if they’re all from the same person. 

Which means, for the 711 followers I have, if 1.4% (with a margin for error given the double notes from some) of them interact with a post of mine in some way, I am completely satisfied. 

s4wdust:

plantconstellations:

i imagine getting my own place all the time and going down to the grocery store early in the morning before everyone else and to the coffee shop and having a really small place with wide windows and lots of plants and shelves of books and a tiny kitchen where i can make tea and noodles and a bed with a pile of blankets and just a place i can make uniquely my own or maybe a place i could share with someone but i just think about this place a lot idk

One of my professors is an extremely famous, well-known painter who has been in galleries since he was a young man in the 80s. He once asked me in class, “Alyssa, what are your dreams and aspirations for the future?”

You should have seen the puzzled look on his face when I described something similar to the post above.

“Why so humble?!” He laughed. “You know you’re talented, right? You could aspire to a lot more than that for sure.”

And I had to take that moment to explain to him that this is what my generation is given, this is how low our standards for happiness have to be. A humble existence, a small piece of the world for ourselves, and comfortable stability are just as out of reach for some of us as fame and reknown was for him in the 80’s. His face went somber immediately.