I love to look at the timeline of a year and establish 'Seasons' by
major life events. May is the beginning
of Wedding Season and also Graduation Season.
It is a time marked by new beginnings and driven by passion. The passion brought into these chapters from
the very beginning is most effective when combined with a sense of
direction. Hopefully, couples entering
into marriage have an idea of where they hope to see their lives go together as
they prepare to build a home and family. But what about the new graduates about to
embark on the journey of young adulthood?
It is a time when one must start to lay the foundation for which he or
she will ultimately build their life upon.
If the momentous occasion of college graduation is an event of your
past then I ask you take a moment and look back and try to remember if you,
like many, had a passion and sense of direction fueled by hope and
optimism. Are those hopes and dreams
still related to how you live your life today?
Has life taken a different course by either choice or chance?
I lived in my sorority house my senior year of college with a dear
friend of mine and we shared a small room on the third floor. We had matching Pottery Barn bedspreads, hair
product galore, and many a night of talking about our hopes and dreams for the
future -- and boys, of course. I was
sitting on my bed working on a paper one afternoon when my roommate bounced
into the room with a huge grin on her face and stars in her eyes. Naturally, I inquired about her day and the
cause of her heightened energy. She told
me, in a very 'matter of fact' way that she had an epiphany during her writing
class and was so excited about this life-changing realization. She sat down, I braced myself for whatever
wild news was about to come, and she simply stated "I have decided that I
would like to be the Editor in Chief of Vogue one day. I know I will be good at it and I know that I
am capable of making it happen." I
smiled, provided some encouraging words, and the two of us went on with our
day. It was her 'Ah Ha! Moment' Today, I
am still in touch with this dear friend and she might not be the Editor in
Chief of Vogue, but she is a very successful branding and PR specialist in the
fashion and beauty industry with her own firm and list of clients. Sometimes I think she figured out that it
would be more fun to make the editors work for her and decided to change course
in order to make that happen.
Not all of us are so lucky to have an epiphany about our greater
purpose and destiny in life before grabbing our college diploma, but at some
point we have to look in the mirror and decide who we see ourselves to truly
BE. To all the upcoming graduates, and
those of us needing to look back and revisit the frame of mind leading up to
graduation, I offer this insight from Nelson Mandela and encourage you to
follow his lead:
There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a
life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
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