(Sometimes) You’re Just Okay
perzine, jj Chau, 20 pgs, IG: @jjchau, $6.50
jj Chau felt like a pretty big loser after she graduated from art school. The jobs and success that she felt her talent deserved did not come to immediate fruition. She spent months feeling like a failure. She was consistently rejected and downtrodden. Her social worker’s brand of “turn that frown upside down,” and “suck it up, princess” counselling didn’t work. She had to forge her own way to health, and she chronicles that in this zine.
Feeling like you don’t have a purpose isn’t the best feeling in the world. It’s something that every person has to face, often after graduation. Chau shows us that when you’re at school, you’re a being of potential and promise. Post-graduation life confirms or contradicts those expectations, or at least it can feel that way. The reason they call it the “real world” is because while you’re at school, your future is limitless and once you graduate, those limits start to close in. It becomes time to stake your claim to a specific corner of your universe. If you can’t find it right away, it can cause anxiety and depression.
For some people counselling works, but for those like Chau, the road to healing is paved with episodes of Boy Meets World and making sure to eat breakfast. She knows she isn’t Oprah (who would want to be?), but sometimes it’s just nice to hear about people’s journey to better mental health.