As time goes on, the need to be above the norm becomes so strong. As we grow, we want to be remembered.  

We want to do something greater than ourselves.  

“Average” by Sushi Soucy is a song that made me rethink how I have been approaching life. 

Lyrics such as, “God, it’s so hard to be good for your age,” can be relatable to so many young folks.  

Especially, when it comes to the people within the arts.  

As someone who wants to spend the rest of their life writing, it becomes a painful reality to look out to see how many make it. 

I am aware how hard it is to make a living on writing, yet still I want to.  

Yet, the fears still live loudly in my head that I am not good enough to make it in this world as a writer. 

That feeling is what Sushi Soucy was able to capture so perfectly.  

Being in the arts is so much harder than people realize.  

When you are in a profession such as a nurse or lawyer, you know quite early on if you are good or not.  

But in the arts, sometimes you can go your whole career thinking you are good.  

Just until someone comes along and tells you what exactly you always feared.  

Average. You get told that you are average and that there is nothing special about you and your so-called talent.      

Soucy has another lyric that twists the knife just a bit further in with, “You’ve got the skills of an idiot who got too much praise.”  

Soucy, like us all within the arts, got complimented for our ability to create out of thin air.  

Sometimes, when the compliments come rolling in, you cannot tell if they are genuine compliments or just what they have been trained to say. 

This song is for the ones out there who create to feel something.  

This song is for the ones who find a safety net within words.  

For the ones who have been told that they are just average in their passion. 

Being told that you are average is one of the most heart-wrenching things a creator can hear.  

Just this past semester, a teacher told me I was not any good at writing and all my work was sloppy. 

However, I have heard that my writing is no good and it is just as average as everyone else.  

Yet their words do not drag me down.  

Those words instead give me the motivation to get my work out there and to work on my writing.  

I like to believe that I am anything but average, especially when it comes to writing. 

So yes, we all long to be something great and to be remembered.  

Do not let some person’s words keep you from doing what you really enjoy.  

At the end of the day, you must fight for what truly makes you happy.  

In a world that isn’t always the happiest you’ve got to hold on tight to what makes you happy, so it does not slip away.  

Average.  

Such a small word with so much impact.  

But to all artists out there, you are anything but average.