Is “Following Your Heart” Always the Right Thing to Do?

Your Conscience Knows Where Your Heart Needs to Be

Follow your heart; a common adage and one I support for most life decisions. But it isn’t always the right thing to do, and it took me a decade to realize that.

I wanted to go to college to study art, but Virginia Commonwealth University’s Fine Arts School, one of the best in the nation, required a portfolio of my work and I did not have one.

I enrolled in their nearby community college.

It turned out that I did have some talent, enough that my instructor looked at my end of year portfolio, told me to bring it to her university office and I would d be admitted into the program.

To me, that was a big deal. To others, not so much.

Not being born with a “silver spoon in my mouth”, or even “middle-class”, I was fortunate to live rent free in a small trailer my mother owned. I worked nights to attend day classes.

One of my siblings thought the place I lived should be sold and I started hearing from family members that the phrase “starving artist” meant something, and I should take studies that would help me make a living.