Put Yourself Out There, If Only Because It Feels Good

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Put Yourself Out There, If Only Because It Feels Good

Putting yourself out there may not result in any tangible or immediate reward. You may not connect with a new job opportunity or love interest, you may not find exactly what you’re looking for or what you you think you need. But do we even know what we need? Or should we be open to the ebb and flow around us, take from it what we can, and make the best of it at every turn?

In my very early twenties I joined a meetup website so that I could put myself out there professionally. I wanted to write about and photograph food, but I had no idea where to begin. I decided that one of the best things I could do was to just put myself out there and meet people.

I found an impromptu party on the meetup site where any type of artist was invited to come, drink wine, and display their art. The room was maybe 15 x 20 feet, located in an old low rise office building near OCAD (an art school in Toronto). It was packed with people like myself who just wanted to start somewhere. I hung a few of my printed photos on the wall in a prime location and stood below them, chatting with every person who walked by. I met a guy who shot some of the creative for the Auvi-Q launch in Canada. I met a person with clearly fake business cards who was just there for the free wine. I met OCAD students. I met spit talkers and close talkers. I met people with tech ideas going nowhere. I met a guy who said that my picture of zucchini flowers looked like chicken, and maybe I could re-shoot it with chicken because it's a more delicious food.

It was a ridiculous night full of characters and I left it feeling so proud of myself for confidently sharing my creations. Nothing came of that night professionally, but it felt like a step forward.

I have met so many people who want to know if their novel is worth writing because they aren’t sure whether a publisher will ever want to sign them. Or who are afraid to let others read their work or look at their photos because they don’t look as professional as the ones they see in magazines.

I think it’s a shame to let your talents sit on the bench. No one was born with a Pulitzer prize in their hand, or a movie franchise contract thrust at them by a random person on the street. Most people aren’t spontaneously “discovered” at an airport. An editor is not going to stumble upon a box of your writing samples in a dusty attic. In order to make leaps you have to put yourself out there.

Anyone you look up to as an expert in their field at some point put themselves out there and kept persisting. That’s why I keep trying to put myself out there at every turn, putting my hand up, sticking my neck out. Not because it has made me a celebrity or won me any awards or accolades, but because I am satisfied knowing that I am always championing myself, and putting myself out there, if only because it feels good, and propels me to continue moving forward.