Karen’s Story
I was born in New Jersey and have lived in Manhattan since 1984. I started surfing late in life, which is ill-advised at best. It wasn’t something I did casually—I reorganized my life around it, even when I knew I would never be good. Through the years of painful learning, though, I found reserves of patience, resilience, and tenacity that kept me going, which also became its own kind of learning.
I began to ponder why I persisted. I couldn’t understand why I continued—and even enjoyed—something for which I showed no talent whatsoever and performed worse than any other thing I had ever done in my life. I wrote a bunch of essays on the topic just trying to understand it, and all of that writing led to an essay that got published in The New York Times called “I Suck at Surfing”. The popularity of that piece led me to writing a proposal that eventually became my 2019 book, [It’s Great to] Suck at Something .
I wrote the book to encourage people to put aside the pressure they put on themselves to be “the best”, and instead to spend some time in the humble pursuit of something that they might enjoy but never excel at. It is certain that with persistence comes improvement—I can and do surf, but I will never be very good at it. And that’s okay. We live in a competitive culture that is constantly pushing us to do better. This is not necessarily a bad thing (indeed, that is how humans progress), but it is also important to play. And by “play” I don’t mean playing to win, I mean playing for the sake of play itself.
My surfing isn’t beautiful, I won’t win any contests, but by turning off that critic in my head I find something beautiful in turn, which is freedom. Freedom to suck at something and still enjoy the process. Along the way, I have made beautiful friendships and get to spend time in the beautiful ocean. So out of something that I don’t do beautifully, comes a lot of beauty. I wanted to share that possibility with others, in whatever it is they want to do but might otherwise forego because of that critic in their head that tells them they won’t ever be any good at it. I say, so what?
For more about Karen, check out her website or follow her Instagram accounts here and here.
Artist Notes
“Karen is featured in the illustration with her surfboard. The blue background symbolizes water and waves. Flowers and butterflies represent the freedom that comes with turning off the critic in her head. The berries, balloons, umbrella, piano, stars and candies shown in the picture symbolize the act of enjoying the process while sucking at something.”
Published Jul 1, 2020
Updated Sep 16, 2022
Published in Issue VII: Sports