Do Whatever You Want, All the Time

If we’re in the golden age of the internet, then it’s a chaotic El Dorado. Equal parts gold rush and illusion, where everyone’s chasing fame with a ring light and a dream.

We’re in a time where teenagers become millionaires for shaking their hips, trying life hacks in 20-second clips, lip-syncing to trending songs, or creating storylines and characters we love to hate. It has never been easier to claim your 15 minutes of fame.

I’ve “gotten ready” with so many strangers online, it almost feels like we know each other. You forget they’re alone in another part of the world, speaking with excited abandon to the front-facing camera on their phone.

It seems like the world has collectively become its own talent agency, and every person is both the manager and the client. There’s a niche for everything and anything, available whenever you want it.

I watch in awe as raw talent rises, and sometimes falls, through the lens of my phone. And I watch with horror as another over-manufactured TikTok dance turns someone into a star overnight. They’re free to influence the next generation with paid ad campaigns and brand deals, often without ever creating anything meaningful.

For awhile now I sat and watched people with incredible talent push out impressive creative projects online. What began as silly videos with a partner or a friend would somehow grow into full-blown short films, crowdfunded and beautifully produced. They moved into glamorous homes and took exotic vacations, all because they became “creatives.”

My lifelong dream of living a creative life always revolved around going to school for it. I imagined myself in a diploma program for creative writing, eventually landing a job writing articles for a publication. But that dream started to feel quaint, even foolish, when someone like Jeff the accountant starts writing, directing, and producing a feature film without any formal training or experience.

It becomes easy to sort the world into two categories: the people who can, and the people who can’t. For a long time, I put myself in the latter.

My dreams felt too far-fetched. So instead, I worked. I watched. I let other people live the life I could only imagine.

Then, I think as happens to everyone eventually, you wake up one day and realize: you don’t want to go out into the real world. The dream has become more appealing than reality. And all you want to do is roll over and fall back asleep.

I won’t bore you with the details. But sometimes, simply doing the thing nudges you in the direction of something you never thought you deserved. Something that wasn’t meant for you, but you touch it anyway. And maybe, you get to keep it.

Nobody wants to be the cringe weirdo on TikTok posting videos that no one will watch. Or worse, that people will watch and cringe at. But depriving yourself the joy of trying is a disservice to yourself, and to that one person sitting alone in their bedroom, doomscrolling through socials, desperately looking for someone who’s just a little bit like them.

A beginner.

Someone who doesn’t know how or where to start.

Someone who starts anyway.

So maybe it’s time to recategorize the world, not as the people who can and the people who can’t, but as the people who do, and the people who don’t.

The question is:

Which one are you?