Yoooo! Peace fam.

So my daughter is in kindergarten right now.

She’s learning how to write.

& nah not “write” like content.
Obviously not “write” like publishable thoughts.
I mean literally…. write.

Holding that pencil.
Sitting upright.
Figuring out where her hand goes.
Why some letters lean…some hang, some cross.
Why some letters even fight back.

Yall should see her face when she concentrates.

The “S” is harder than the “L.”
Spacing is still chaos.
The grip changes every few minutes.

I know I’m a dad,
but it’s so fricken beautiful 🥹

Now…. imagine me looking at the child and saying:

“Okay, bet. By next year you need to sell this.”
“You need to write a book.”
“Your handwriting better be monetizable.”

Yooooo. That would be insane 😂

Like, we’d all agree that’s insane.

So why we do that to ourselves with art???

y’all remember middle school?

Now this might be one of those cringe questions, but…

Do y’all remember 6th, 7th or 8th grade?

A lot of people be saying high school was the best years of their life…
and homie like foreal?
But I get what they mean.

More freedom.
Later curfews.
You start tasting adulthood a little bit.

I understand that.

But middle school?

Middle school was that in-between.

You weren’t a little kid anymore.
But you definitely weren’t grown.

You had big kid dreams.
Teenager wishes.
Adult curiosity.

All inside a little kid body.

Puberty happening.
Voice changing.
Limbs growing weird.

Just… awkward.

Still to this day, [insert your inevitable Deonte Wilder meme here] middle school feels like the universal symbol for an awkward phase.

You don’t really know what to do with yourself yet.

And think about this:

What if you went straight from elementary school to student loans college?

No middle school.
No awkward years.
No in-between.

Even if you were “smart enough” to do it…

Does that actually mean you’re ready?

I know people skip grades.
I know some folks thrive doing that.

I’m not talking about the logistics.

I’m talking about the lessons.

What happens to the lessons that live in the awkward years?

Because those years teach you how to be uncomfortable.
How to not be good yet.
How to keep showing up anyway.

Those years matter.

And I think art has middle school too.

Get yo money tho…

There’s nothing wrong with artists making money.

I love that.

Every time I see somebody get paid from their gift, it feels like a win for all of us.

Nobody gets to tell you what your art is worth.
You decide that.

That’s part of the art.

But somewhere along the way, we started confusing value with velocity.

If something shows promise, we rush it.
If something gets attention, we package it.
If something gets good, we scale it.

We don’t let it stay awkward long enough.

We don’t let it be in middle school.

Stop skippin class yall

Apprenticeship energy is sacred.

It’s when you’re allowed to be bad without consequence.
It’s when repetition is about rhythm, not revenue.
It’s when the room is quiet and nobody is clapping yet.

Apprenticeship is slow hands.
Crooked lines.
Practicing the same chord for months.
Writing songs nobody hears.
Making stuff that never leaves your hard drive.

When we monetize too early, something shifts.

Learning turns into proving.
Experimenting turns into optimizing.
Joy turns into metrics.

And sometimes we don’t even notice when it happens.

Capitalism will ask a baby what their five-year plan is.

Capitalism, at its core, is about turning things into products that can be bought and sold.

It’s efficient.
It’s powerful.
It’s everywhere.

But it does not know how to measure apprenticeship.

It doesn’t know how to reward middle school.

It wants output.
Growth.
Conversion.

And I’m not saying money is evil.

I’m saying timing matters.

You’re allowed to learn longer.

You’re allowed to practice without posting.

You’re allowed to create without proof.

Burnout is… not imaginary.

I think some of us didn’t burn out because we weren’t good.

I think we burned out because we were still in kindergarten with our gift…

And tried to open a storefront.

We were still figuring out our grip…

And started selling handwriting.

That doesn’t mean you can’t ever monetize.

It just means maybe you don’t have to yet.

Maybe the early stage isn’t a delay.

Maybe it’s just the foundation yo.

As I conclude…

When I watch my daughter write, I don’t think about profit.

I think about posture.
Patience.
Repetition.

I think about how much grace she’s given while she learns.

And I wonder why we stop giving that grace to ourselves.

You’re allowed to be a beginner longer than the system wants you to be.

You’re allowed to be in elementary or middle school with your art.

You’re allowed to weather time before you chase lightning.

-Gold

I’m currently world building yall… here are the continents:

→ Grand Vibrational Design (GVD) is a system I crafted for creatives who want to build from alignment, not pressure.

→ The GVD Creative Care Package - FREE DOWNLOAD
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→ The Book - The 12 Laws of GVD
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→ The Gold Giraffe Music
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→ Good Vibes Dealer Incense
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