How Depression Led To My Creativity 

Bullying is so detrimental. I'm so happy and excited for you, the life you've created and you healing journey. Thank you so much for sharing your story and know you're always helping someone by opening up. It gets easier, I promise. :) Also, nice editing, sir.

This was so good...not that I’m surprised. ;-) Way to put yourself out there and be vulnerable. I know it wasn’t easy, but I found it super helpful in reflecting upon my own experiences, too. Also, sorry I didn’t know you were having such a hard time back then. I guess I was already away at school for a lot of that, but I still wish I would have known so that I could be more helpful...though I might not have had the wisdom in those days to know how to help. Anyway, I wonder if identify formation is one is the reasons that depression is so common among teens and 20-somethings. I definitely didn’t have the mental strength to handle identify challenges at that age. I really clung to my clarinet, and I don’t know what I would have done with myself had I lost it. We have to get better at raising kids to construct identities in healthier ways. Even if something is deeply personal...and sports and the arts are soooooo similar in that regard...those are things we DO, they aren’t WHO we ARE. I still struggle to make that distinction sometimes. That really peaked for me in grad school. When I ran out of school, I still didn’t feel that I was competitive enough to make a living as a musician. In actuality, I may have been, but I hardly tested that before I went in this other direction. I was too terrified of the possibility of finding out that I wasn’t talented enough (well... that and I was broke, LOL...). Some days, I regret that but other days I don’t at all because I really love my current work and I see arts entrepreneurship education as one of the most powerful tools we have in combating exactly what you are talking about...but annnnnyway...GREAT VIDEO!!!