On A Personal Note

I am sure I am not alone when I say “wow, the universe really has been up to its old tricks during this eclipse season”. It has been a time of inspiration, dread, forgiveness, letting go, hopefulness, and facing personal truths. As hard as that can be all jumbled together, I am grateful for it. I am grateful because it gave me the opportunity to take a good hard and soft look at myself and where I wanted to move forward. I’m no longer in my twenties, thirties or forties for that matter, so how I spend my time is important to me. I believe that time is never truly wasted, but we do have to pick and chose where we would like to live within it, so that old saying of spending your time wisely does have a sensible tone to it.

I am now moving into the fourth course of the five-course program in Journalism with the Michigan State University that is offered online through coursera. I have also been offered a volunteer position as a mentor in the program. Pretty cool eh!  So I will be quite busy for the next three months involved with those two things. As I moved through the course I have been applying the different things I learn on a practical level. One of them being that I have engaged in going out to festivals and just approaching people randomly while also putting together a bird's eye view of the festivals. As fun as that has been, I have come to realize with the honesty within myself that this approach is not really for me. I’m one of those people out there who is sensitive to the energy around them and when put into a large crowd and having to interact, well, it takes a lot out of me.

I learned the night before the full eclipse that by forcing myself to go out and mingle and be somewhat assertive to get photos or talk to others was actually fueling anxiety as well.  At first, I thought that maybe it was my little ego who was afraid of pursuing my personal discomfort zone was just freaking out, but a few days later while I was at the Fringe, I still felt a heaviness of not wanting to be there or approach people to gather a story. Instead of ignoring this feeling, I took a couple of days to sit quietly and have a good look into why I was feeling this way, and what I needed to do about it. The interesting part was that during this time, my apple phone would not charge so that I could not post any of my pictures from the week. How’s that for being made to sit and contemplate. In the end, I decided that I still loved what I was doing, but only when it was more personable like a one on one interview. I love interviewing people. I love to hear their stories. Things they overcome. Things that inspire them to move forward. And I love to give them space so that they can share a part of themselves with others.

Understanding this part of myself, and this part of my project has given me the inner peace and inspiration that I need to move forward. I have no idea how this will unfold for the larger picture, but I do know how the smaller picture looks at this moment. I have a few interviews that I have done this summer that I am preparing to share and continue to gather more. And as I move forward, I will be continuing to pursue my personal interest in the symbolic meaning of tattoos. Having an eclectic spiritual background, mixed with my education in Communications and my love for tattoos, I am excited to continue with this part of my project.

Thanks for listening and I hope you continue to enjoy the interviews!