Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be an artist. While my siblings and friends played, I sketched. I sketched people, places, nature and still life. I could spend hours and hours just sketching but, I always did my chores.
When I was older, I painted watercolors, which my father hung on the walls in our house. My mother was displeased. “Don’t you want to be a doctor or a lawyer?”
“No, I want to be an artist.”
“Foolish girl!”
“Let her be,” Father said.
Today, I’m a successful artist and my work hangs in several museums.
100 Words
This post is for the Friday’s Fictioneers hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. You can find this week’s prompt here. To read other stories or to participate, click here.
Notes to Women 
To do what you’re called to do is extremely important. To be who you’re called to be is perhaps even more so. Your story illustrates this well.
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You’re so right. We all have a calling and it’s up to us to pursue it. Thank you 🙂
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I’m glad she didn’t let others crush her dreams. It’s sad when parents lay guilt trips on kids.
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And it was good that she had her father’s support too.
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I took a similar route this week. Seems no one sees art as a viable career choice!
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Yes, you did. Your story was an absolute gem. And you’re right, no one sees Art as a good career choice.
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Thank goodness for artists, in the many ways they show up, making our world more vibrant!
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Yes! They do brighten our world.
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Glad that at least one parent is happy to let her follow her own dreams. Nicely done.
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Yes, it was great that her father supported her. Thanks, Sandra 🙂
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Is it not lovely when someone so young has decided on their life’s path.
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Yes, it’s truly a blessing when someone knows what they want to be so early in life.
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Beautiful!
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Thanks, Bear 🙂
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I hope her mother has learned to enjoy her daughter’s talent.
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I hope so too.
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It’s a brave move to follow your dream, but it’s also wrong to be dictated to by others so your artist did right.
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You’re right, Jilly. It takes courage to follow one’s dream especially when there is opposition. And, she did right.
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Foolish Mother! I bet she boasts about her now.
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I hope she does.
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It always awes me when people know exactly who they are from a young age. While I’m glad she had her father’s support, something tells me it wouldn’t have mattered. She would have been an artist anyway. Well done.
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I’m with you, Dale. I admire people like that and am inspired by them. And you’re spot on. She would have pursued her dream whether she had his support or not. Thanks 🙂
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🙂
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Wow! It’s nice to see that her hard work paid off.
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Yes, her hard work paid off.
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And, her father encouraged her. Lovely!
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Yes, he did. Thanks, Brenda 🙂 And thanks for your photo which was truly an inspiration.
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Lovely outcome. Oh, that such eventualities were the case for most artists of all types.
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I love happy and uplifting endings, Bill 🙂 And, like you, I wish that more artists had such endings too.
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🙂
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Letting creativity be is often the better parenting. … I wish more had such happy ending.
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I agree with you, Na’ama and like you, I wish there were more happy endings.
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Amen to happy endings!
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Dear Adele,
I could relate to your MC as a child. While my mom encouraged me to draw and paint, she discouraged it as a career choice. She urged me to take secretarial courses in High School to have a career to “fall back” on. (Does anyone take shorthand these days?) Needless to say, I refused to take those courses. It was actually my dad, a cook and restaurant manager, who unknowingly gave me that fall back on career when we took a cake decorating course together.
Good for your MC for not veering from her calling.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
Yes, it seems like so many people don’t think that there can be a career in Art. I’m happy you, like my MC, didn’t veer from your calling. And I love that you and your Dad took a cake decorating course together.
Shalom,
Adele
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Yes, unfortunately used to steer their daughters to more housewife duties. Anything that smacked of a professional career was to be avoided.
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Danny, it’s funny that you should mention housewife duties because, initially, I was going to have the mother tell her to focus on being a good wife instead of pursuing Art but then, I decided that she would try to persuade her to pursue what she felt were more worthy careers.
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dreams come true, sometimes
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Yes, they do.
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in this case, father knows best rather than mother knows best. 🙂
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Yes, he does 🙂
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