Ena's Little Journal

A Little Comfort

Ena enters her room first while you clean the dishes. You also want to prepare hot sweet tea to drink while she talks. You enter her room bringing a box of tissue, two glasses of hot sweet tea, and some cookies you bought a few days ago.

"Oh hey! You're here", said Ena enthusiastically. You smile at her and sit at her study chair while Ena sits on her bed. "So... Feel free to complain or cry to me, I'm open", you say to her. She replies, "You can also tell me anything that's on your mind, Rie, tonight, we share all our burdens that has been on our mind, okay?"

"Okay", you said.

"So, the reason why I've been so stressed about this whole thing, to the point I'm skipping school... Is because...", Ena sighs, "I really, really, want to be good, I don't want to disappoint the people I'm commissioning. But like, I'm so confused, no matter how much I draw, it will never be good enough for me", said Ena.

"...I understand, as an artist myself, I sometimes think that my drawings are always so bad, even if my friends say it's not. You see, Ena, at high school, there was this one person in my grade that drew so well, she inspired me to start drawing. Sometimes, I get jealous of her, she's so talented, I always do my best, I believed my drawings were better, but she still got much more recognition. I tried everything. She gets better grades, her art even got into the school exhibition, mine didn't somehow. When people compliment her, I feel so much jealousy towards her", You say.

Ena looked away for a few seconds, they say, "Honestly, same, I know I'm an attention seeker, but what can I do about it? You're older than me, so you know more about these stuff", she chuckles, "Deep inside, I want everyone to recognize me as an amazing artist, but I know I have to try harder than this to achieve that".

You eat one cookie while listening to her, "Yeah I get it, but that doesn't mean you have to overwork yourself, you gotta enjoy your life before university", you say.

"I get it but, you know what, I'll just tell you a little story about when I was in middle school", Ena says, "I had loved art since I was little, and I loved it even more in middle school, I drew all day and loved it. One day, I showed it to my dad... you know what he said? 'You don't have enough talent to become a famous artist', It's ridiculous, he literally killed all my self-esteem, I want to prove my dad, that I have what it takes to be a good artist", She says.

You hand her a cookie and say, "Well, I think that you shouldn't care about what other people say about your art, after all, it's your art, what right do they have to say that your art is bad? Only you have the right to say if it's good or bad. So, don't ever think your art is bad, okay? Just remember that there are still so many people who love your art".

You watch as she nibbles her cookie like a hamster, and she lets out a tear. After a few seconds, she starts to cry even more. You give her a tissue and lend her a shoulder while she's crying.

Ena stops sobbing for a second to say, "Thank you, although I don't know if I can actually apply that to my daily life, but I will try to remember it whenever I feel down".

You look at the clock and realized that it was 1am, "Hey Ena, don't you have a meeting with nightcord?", you ask. Ena looks at the clock, "Oh yea! I almost forgot", she chuckles. You get up from the bed and say, "Alright, I guess I'll get going". "Thank you for tonight, Rie", replied Ena.

╰▽*)╯❁◡'❁

Ena opened her laptop to talk to nightcord. When she opened it, there was no call going on, so Ena was confused. Then, she went to read the messages that they sent.