External Hard Drives Part 1

by Jenna P

A few months ago, I took on the painfully agonizing, maddening, full of self-loathing for not-having-been-more-organized-ten-years-ago, and dreadfully boring task of reorganizing my external hard drives.

I found some incredible things. Many, many, MANY deletable sunk costs (“thank you but no thank you” gifts from my past self), a shocking amount of duplicates, and a surprising number of material that can now be repurposed. Material that comes with the following questions:

Why didn’t I ever use this picture?

Why didn’t I ever upload this clip?

Why didn’t I ever finish writing this post?

Why do I remember cringing and hating every second of this when I made it when now I see how great it is?

If anything good has emerged from this prolonged theatrical slowdown, it’s that we’ve been given the gift of distance- given the gift of perspective. For some, it’s given them an opportunity to think about their purpose within the industry and has helped them hone in on the specificity of what they’re chasing and why. For others, it’s confirmed the desire to follow the artistic path they’re on, or it’s confirmed the desire to try something else. For me, it’s allowed me to release how I feel about my work and focus more objectively on how to label it so that others can understand and appreciate it.

Replace my feelings with facts in order to more fully show up in service of other peoples’ creative visions.  

Because other people might not be looking as much for perfection as they are for potential. For possibility. And by scrutinizing and hiding my work on an external hard drive, I’m robbing them of the opportunity to see it on me.