What exactly is "success" in scrapbooking?

If ever there was a loaded scrapbooking query, this would have to be it.

What determines whether or not a scrapbooker is a 'success'? Is there such a thing as success in scrapbooking? If there is, does that also mean that there is such a thing as failure in scrapbooking? How can a success or failure meter be attached to memory recording?

In my little world, I consider myself to be a failure in the scrapbooking aspect of my life. Not because I lack adequate magazine publications or because I have a Twiggy thin scrap resume. No, I consider myself a failure because I have the attention span of a puppy with 6 tails when it comes to crafting. I bead, I sew, I scrapbook, I draw, I write and I am always looking for new ways to spread my creative spirit thin. My loss in the popularity poll is personal and is not influenced by external opinions. I think that would be the perfect time to add that I am a Gemini and therefore blame my constant need for change on my mother and father's timing.

Outside of my little warped world, that is always talk of so and so being a successful scrapper and so and so predicted to fail in his/her endeavours. Every time I read about the successes and failures in scrapbooking I do a Scooby Doo, complete with cocked head (huh?). We are preserving memories...or at least I thought we were. Some people have taken it a step further to include purposefully attempting to inspire others by their memory preservation skills. Still others have opened different avenues within the memory preservation metropolis for us to explore. Are they successful because they are 'known'? Is it the fact that they have moved their focus outside their personal sphere of existence (sort of)? Is it the fact that they are sought after?

In a perfect world, the success of a scrapbooker (providing such a thing exists) would be gaged not by whether the masses believe that person to be successful, but rather on whether or not that scrapbooker feels that they have attained all that they set out to attain. Once weight is given to the peer opinion, we are met with the dilemma of conflict between the people who feel that we're brilliant and those who think we need to hang out in a little padded room. When the determining factor of success is the number of people (outside of family/friends) who like what we do, I think we set ourselves up to be affected by the opinions of the people who don't like our creations.

What the heck am I talking about? Beats me, I'm just trying to clear out some mental clutter, so bear with me.

I remember in grade school I had this thing about collecting bugs. I was a shy child, so I didn't make friends easily, particularly because friends generally want you to talk to them and I wasn't fond of talking to people. I would spend my recess period behind school buildings collecting bugs and playing with them. Eventually I was joined by another socially reclusive kid, I think his name was Michael, and we would spend countless recesses collecting bugs together. I don't recall speaking more than 10 words to that kid during the school year. One day, a girl named MaryJo discovered what I was doing behind the building and brought her band of guppies along to do it too. I remember feeling popular because I there were a bunch of kids looking for bugs behind buildings with me. I was validated and I didn't have to change a bit! MaryJo and her band were rather talkative so naturally their fascination with me wore off pretty quickly. One Monday afternoon, MJ and the guppies confronted me and told me how stupid I was for collecting pill bugs and proceeded to snatch my little paper box and dump out the contents and stomp on the bugs that I'd put in it. That was the first time that I began to feel bad about doing what I liked to do. I stopped collecting bugs a few days after that and took to sitting on the sidelines on the playground.
The point isn't that I was doing something wrong. It's not even that I being a recluse is a bad thing. The point of my story is that up until the point where I gaged the validity of what I was doing on the opinion of someone else, I was happy doing it. The second that they withheld validation, I felt 'less than'.

I think that a similar phenomena is plaguing the scrapbooking arena. How many times have you read a disclaimer from someone posting in a gallery that states that their work isn't perfect or that a layout isn't their all time favorite? How many times have you heard people say that they aren't good at scrapbooking?

Being good or successful in scrapbooking, to me is a misnomer that does little to embrace the founding intent of scrapbooking. I'd rather that someone base their success (if they must speak in terms of success or failure) on whether they have accomplished what they set out to do with their craft, not on whether or not others feel that they are worthy. I had a publishing goal for a quick minute a while ago. I told myself that I would try to get published. I almost walked away because it wasn't happening for me. I began to compare the work of other published scrappers with mine own and came to the conclusion that I wasn't good enough, trendy enough, or versatile enough. I let others (unknowingly) set my standard for success, and I almost walked away from scrapbooking because I felt like a failure. It wasn't until my husband, in a brief moment of brilliance, explained to me that I was indeed a success because I did try to get published. That pearl of wisdom coupled with the overwhelming acceptance of my work from friends and family brought my way of thinking around full circle. I didn't toss my stash in the fire place. I didn't declare to the world that I'd quit. I didn't give up something that I love doing.
Instead I stepped away from that goal and reprioritized. I don't feel like a failure for not having been published, and after spending a lot of time evaluating what I want to get out of this, I've realized that I don't want to be published. I just want to be appreciated. I got that and I'm happy with it.

Now if I could just get a set of blinders maybe I could get some pages done.

There is nothing wrong with attributing success to the number of publications one has or how sought after a scrapper is, but there are dangers in it. The most significant of the perils resides in the arena of public opinion, and we all know how fickle that lot can be. When external factors weigh in on our success meters we put ourselves at the mercy of others. I personally find more inspiration in the scrapbooker who continues to keep doing what he/she is doing regardless of the level of appreciation/acceptance the masses grants him/her. My selfish perspective has allowed me to avoid the trend traps and the validation wars that are running rampant now.

And I like it that way... I like it a lot.

I am the last person to dictate what a person should or shouldn't do with their craft. We all have to do what is right for us. All I can do is hope that oneday, we will be able to stop grading each other's work because it truly is a gift to be able to see value in our differences.

TFR (thanks for reading)
CS