In Pearlspective

A s an entertainer, my job is to give people a reason to smile. Many of the songs I sing are to help my audience either forget their struggles or find new courage to face them, and any emotion I feel or convey from the stage is dictated by that principle. If only emotions were that predictable off stage. I grew up hearing cliches like "life is what you make it" and "happiness is a choice", and I guess I just assumed that was true. I still think it is - to a degree - but not every emotion can be called a choice. I know better than that now, and so does anyone else who's struggled with depression. I know what you're thinking: "What do you know about depression, Pearl? You're one of the funniest people I know. Do you even know how to not smile?" Well shucks, thanks for complimenting my sense of humor! But yes, I have actually experienced very smile-less depression, and more than once. I never woke up one day and said "I think I'll...

Fear of change. Fear of failure. Doubt. Hesitation. Sound familiar? Maybe that's because I talked about this at the beginning of this year. If you missed my most-read blog post , may I suggest you go catch that before reading on? Photo by Nick Tiemeyer on Unsplash At the time I wrote that, I was facing a very pivotal decision in both my career and my personal life. I wanted so much to quit and run away, to find a place with no risk and little responsibility, but I couldn't. The decision had already been made. So as I wrote that slightly ambiguous blog post, I was trying desperately to silence my fears because I had to move forward with that decision, with or without them. I did move forward. Almost 9 months ago now, two of my siblings and I split off from a 14 year career with our family bluegrass band to forge a new path in our musical journey. It was frightening to effect a change that would affect both my family and my music in ways none of us could entirely...

I t seems like an unspoken rule that the first post a blogger publishes in a new year should be goal focused and extremely motivational. I'm not usually a rule breaker but I'm really not feeling very motivational (a possible factor in the lateness of this "New Year's" post). Photo by Isaac Holmgren on Unsplash Honestly folks, I'm ready to quit. Maybe I'm stressed. Maybe I'm tired. Maybe it's just time for a change. Maybe it's different every day, but everyone has their limit and I've reached mine. Like so many people do, I've tried setting goals and tried my best to achieve them, but my best never seems to be enough. The things I accomplish bring little satisfaction and I always feel like I should have done more, but if I set bigger goals then I'll only increase my stress and my chances of failure. I can't take it anymore and it's just time to quit. After all, it's better to quit than to fail, right? WR...