Whenever an artist said “I was put on this earth to create art”, I had a slight reaction. I am not quite sure what it is—was she being overly pretentious (which nowadays is an overly used word) or was it my sudden jealousy of her clear awareness of her self?

Nonetheless, I feel this now. I have been put on this earth to write. Quite often, I often state something a little pompous: I write to live. I live to write.

For me, it is true. I know that I love to create. And in first attempt to create, it was through words. The stories that appeared in my mind. The books that I stacked when I went to the library. I wanted to be an author when I was a kid and told everyone so when any adult asked. And yet, as I got older, pressures and expectations from an Asian family meant that art was not an option. It was not successful and not financially sound.

And so for years, I pursued the more appropriate profession that boomed of success and money…and stability. I studied computer science initially. The lack of creativity was still surging with me and that very reason led me to product design. And yet, I was not CREATING. I was creating for a company—mobile phone companies, washers and dryers, car companies, retail stores.

Several months ago, I was troubled by a response to my desire to be a writer.

But today, I saw this talk from Elizabeth Gilbert. People have fear of creativity. As she describes, no other profession has creative geniuses falling into emotional despair. Sure, accountants, software engineers, servicemen…may have despair with their colleagues. But really, in an artist, we are in the profession where creativity comes within.