Like most other kinds of art, crocheting tends to be written off as a hobby. And I can't disagree with that, but in opening my Etsy shop I've realized that it can be a lot more than that. Not only is it a passion of mine and a big part of what I put my time and energy into but a few weeks ago I saw that my Etsy shop was making a difference for the first time.
It was a slow month on my shop, only one measly, less than 15 dollar sale. A few weeks after she placed her order, I received a review. And of course, I love reading my customer reviews. I've always gotten five stars and it just makes me happy to know that my products are making other people happy. But when I opened this review, it put a different feeling in my chest. The review said that the woman's daughter had suffered from a stroke and now had poor circulation, so her hands were always cold. It continued on to say that she has horrible tremors and can't put her fingers into gloves, so now she uses my fingerless gloves every day.
One sale. One, fifteen dollar sale. But that one sale meant more to me than all the other ones combined. Because I'm not in this for the money, despite it being a nice perk to my hobby. My crocheting had made a difference in someone's life. And honestly, I never thought it could do that. I thought that I'd make some money and make some people happy...but helping people that are disabled or just need a little pick-me-up? I never thought that my work could have this kind of impact.
All I want out of life is to make some kind of difference, even on mundane things like helping one person relieve a little stress or changing one person's perspective. I hope that this isn't the last change I make with my crocheting. I've worked really hard to put passion into my work, but it's not always a perfect system. The thing that I enjoyed making the most with crochet was my Rosie the Riveter hat pattern, because I got to speak out about why feminism is so important to me and hopefully inspire other people. And usually, when I set out to make a difference I do it because I'm stubborn as hell and don't like giving up. But now I'm making a difference without even trying. I'm just doing a hobby I love and it's making a difference in the world. And that's powerful because at only sixteen years old I'm helping people. And I can only hope and work insanely hard to spend the rest of my life doing the exact same thing.
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