There’s a moment in writing a column for a student news publication in which you think to yourself, ‘Man, is anyone even going to read this?’ The answer, of course, is yes. We do an editing circle, plus anything written for the newspaper or web has to be approved by our instructor. Somehow, however, that is not very gratifying.

The truth is, we all have hobbies nobody seems to care about. Maybe you’re on the freshman football team. Maybe you draw and post pictures of it on Instagram. Maybe you’re a columnist for the Pelladium. No matter how good you are at your hobby, it takes a lot of effort. Effort that doesn’t always seem to be rewarded. Sure, maybe your mom or your art teacher likes it, but they have to like it. It’s pretty disheartening.

The truth is, no matter how hard we try, most of us won’t be the next Picasso or Peyton Manning. We may never get a solo, may never be first chair, may never be a varsity starter. But that doesn’t make whatever we’re doing not worth it. Even if your art is bad, even if you can’t ever get your tone right, even if you’re stuck on the JV team, what you are doing matters. There’s a lot to be said for doing something that’s hard or that you aren’t especially good at, just because you enjoy it. You have to be proud of what you do and the effort you put into it, even if whatever it is isn’t objectively good or great. The fact that you care about it and put effort into it matters just as much as the quality. If you enjoy doing something, you don’t have to be great or even good at it, because that isn’t what matters.

So draw bad art, miss your free throws, and write columns no one reads. As long as you’re having fun, it doesn’t matter. What matters most of all is how you feel about what you do.