Why does everyone think they can do this profession of ours? Why is it that, to the public, it appears so easy to practice that almost anyone with a bit of aesthetic eye can do it? That all interior designers do is nudge a few things just a bit better than the able amateurs? And especially, that all the adjacent construction-related professions are considered designers?

I once was told that all interior designers do is arrange furniture and pieces created by others. That they are some sort of curators. Some are. But the profession itself is so much more than that.

One of the critical things that killed it is what makes it fascinating for the ones that get the difference: that artistic lightbulb of seemingly natural talents lurking in one's biological being, waiting to be rescued.

That affinity to the artistry that some of us feel, the one that propels us to career choices, is not enough to become a professional.