I’m creative, I’m an artist. I just like to do things with my hands. I like to create, so I just have lots of hobbies and — like knitting, printmaking, sewing, quilting, like this kind of thing. And so often, people will — like their immediate response to that is, “You could make money off of this.” And like for instance, this is, this wasn’t even like a craft thing, but like I, I have very vivid dreams. I always have, so I write them down. And I wanted to make some sort of spreadsheet that could show what I can see. Like, who are the people — sorry, there’s a cat rubbing up against my phone because she desperately wants pets. Who are the people I dream about the most? Like, what kinds of things? So like, there was one time where I was reading back some dreams and I realized that I dreamt about stairs and elevators a lot. And if anyone had asked me if I had dreamt about stairs and elevators, I’d be like, “I don’t know, probably not. Maybe a few times,” but it was a lot more than I thought. And so I just, like, I wanted to see common themes, common, like, objects that appear, common like — like you know, how many times am I dreaming about flying or, you know, losing my teeth or, you know, things like that. An interesting aspect of this was that the people I dream about the most are my co-workers by far.
But anyway, we were at a, at a work meeting. We were talking about, like, what’s one thing that you’re currently working on that you’re excited about — like, a non-work thing. And so I was talking about my dream spreadsheet and even showed a page that was like highlighted, because I was printing out all my dreams and I was highlighting things like, “Okay if it mentions a co-worker, it’s this color. If it mentions a family member, it’s this color, and then if it’s like, you know, mentioning a place or –” anyway.
And the first reaction was so insane. You know, I know people who would pay for this like once you have this spreadsheet all worked out like, where they could just input their dreams and get like graphs and stuff, like, and someone else said that too. She’s like, “Yeah, you could sell this like on Etsy.” Like, the, the — I don’t even know what, but it’s just like, I find that so disappointing. Like, why would I — why would the first thing I want to do is to turn something that excites me into capitalism, you know? Like I’m doing these things because I enjoy them, because they make me feel alive, because there’s something that I want, you know. And it — to me, it just ruins it. Like, if I were to monetize that dream thing, I would have to think about what other people wanted not just what I wanted, and then I’d have to make sure that it all works perfectly or else they would want their money back or they’d be emailing me with, you know, wanting troubleshooting and I’m not — I don’t have those skills for that, you know.
And it’s just like, just even the idea of it turned this thing I’m so excited about into kind of like it felt more like a chore. Like, I had to step back from it just because of that suggestion and I just feel like people suggest that all the time and half the time it doesn’t even make sense. For the dream thing, it would make sense. I probably could make money off of that. But like for knitting or quilting, you’ll have to charge hundreds and hundreds of dollars to actually make decent money for the, the time and the, the you know — what do you call it — the materials to put into it, and that wouldn’t even count like paying yourself a wage. So it’s, it’s just — it’s a ridiculous thing.