I’ve been thinking about something recently, and the more I think about it, the stranger it seems. Every now and then I hear someone say, “I wouldn’t call myself a photographer,” or “I’m not really an artist,” or “I’m just learning, so I can’t call myself a writer yet.” Every time I hear those sentences, I find myself wondering where that idea comes from. Who decided that these words have to be earned? Who decided they describe a level instead of simply describing what someone does?

To me, they’ve always been just words. A photographer is someone who takes photographs. A writer is someone who writes. An artist is someone who creates art. A musician is someone who makes music. None of those words automatically say anything about talent, success or recognition. They don’t tell you whether someone is famous, whether they make a living from it or whether they’re the best in the world. They simply describe an activity. Somehow, though, we’ve loaded them with so much meaning that people often feel they need permission before they can use them.

I’ve never understood that way of thinking. Imagine if we applied the same logic to everything else. If someone enjoys running, we don’t immediately ask whether they’ve competed in the Olympics before they’re allowed to call themselves a runner. If someone spends their weekends cooking, we don’t tell them they have to earn a Michelin star before they can say they cook. Yet when it comes to creative work, we often behave as if there were an invisible line that separates the people who are “allowed” to use those words from everyone else.

Maybe that’s because we confuse identity with achievement. We hear the word artist and immediately think of success. We hear writer and imagine bestselling novels. We hear photographer and picture exhibitions or magazine covers. But those things describe a career. They don’t define the word itself.

I’ve always thought language was much simpler than that. If creating art is part of your life, then you’re an artist. If you spend your time writing, you’re a writer. If you go out into the world with a camera because that’s how you like to see life, you’re a photographer. Those words don’t need to be protected as if they were exclusive clubs. They’re simply names for things that people do every day.

Maybe we’d all enjoy our creative lives a little more if we stopped treating these words like awards waiting to be won and started treating them for what they really are: ordinary words describing extraordinary passions.