It's nine in the afternoon/
Your eyes are the size of the moon/
Dear reader,
Yes, I know, nine is not in the afternoon. What I am alluding to (it is a bit obscure) is a song. Nine in the Afternoon is a song by Panic! At the Disco, a pop/rock/punk/vaudeville band. The reason that I bring it up is because there is one particular line in that song which happens to fit in perfectly with my yearlong theme of exploring the "final frontier", or breaking boundaries:
You could 'cause you can so you do.
In other words, why not? Why not do everything you can do? Why not put 500% effort in everything? Why not take risks? Why not become anything you want to be?
I tried to keep this in mind as I progressed through this past week. Lately, we've really started becoming more defined. Some in the ISM program have already found mentors, and all of us have done display boards designs and compiled the beginnings of a portfolio. Slowly, but very surely, we are determining our personal brands for the year.
In the beginning, I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Of course, all of this is necessary to be successful. But one of the things I hated about defining myself is that it closed off possibilities. For example, I knew that my theme colors were going to be black, blue, and purple. This doesn't mean I can't use other colors, but I knew that black, blue, and purple would have to be more prominent (unless I changed it).
However, as the week progressed on and I could feel myself becoming boxed in, I decided to change my perspective. Instead of viewing my decisions as limiting, I embraced them as opportunities for why not? Why not keep black, blue, and purple and the theme colors but also put a separate rainbow section in my board to break the monotony? Why not use my decisions to open up new realms of possibilities? People say that as one door opens, another closes. That may be true, but as one door opens, so does an infinite amount of other doors in the new hallway you've discovered.
Until next week,
Eileen Bau
