Every single day we are wrapped up in mundane, but necessary, tasks that become all too daunting. We stick to our “norm,” our routine, and our comfort zones because we question what else there is. Why take a risk if you don’t have to? But I challenge that question by asking, “why not take risks if you can?” Jumping from school to school, job to job, meeting new people, and losing old ones, I have learned that we aren’t truly living unless we make changes. Getting stuck in a rut seems to be what everyone eventually does and ultimately accepts about their lives. Well I am here to tell you that you don’t have to get stuck in that rut, and it only takes the smallest peek out of your comfort zone to escape it.
Yes, feeling comfortable in your life is important, and it is a goal that most people will strive for. No one wants to struggle, I understand that. However, I also believe that we should take those small moments to act on a seemingly outrageous or sometimes ridiculous thought. For instance, I’m sure many of you have heard someone say, or maybe you have said yourself “well you know, I have always wanted to go parasailing”…so…who’s stopping you?! The answer, 9 times out of 10, would be yourself. I, like anyone else, gets stuck in the fact that even though I have these thoughts, it doesn’t mean I need to act on them; but actually…it kind of does. I would personally like to learn how to let go, so I feel this post is very important and extremely relevant to our standard of living right now. Being around kids more often than I have been, I notice that they do not hold anything back, nothing is too far fetched that they can’t take it and run. We really need to come back to that way of thinking. That idea that anything is possible, because really, it is! The only one’s telling us it isn’t is ourselves.
I want you to read this and to make a mental list of the things you want to accomplish in your life; the things that make you feel your heart beat in your chest and smile so hard that your cheeks are sore. Our lives should revolve around those moments we enjoy in unfamiliar places with people we love, or new people we have just met. Everyone is here to learn as well as to teach, and we need to start teaching each other how to live, and not just to accept. I told myself recently that I wanted to write a book. The thought crossed my mind, I let it sit for a second, then brushed it off because I thought it would never happen. Well of course it wouldn’t if I said it wouldn’t! So I reevaluated and guess what…I am in the process of writing a book, and let me tell you it is something completely new to me but I am thrilled I stepped out of that comfort zone, because it makes me feel happy; like I am living. So do not allow yourself to brush off your brilliant ideas; whether they be for the world to enjoy or simply for yourself, because very often we discover new things but rarely do we act on them, but if we start acting they will no longer be mere discoveries but necessities in our journey to really live.
Although this post seems to have nothing to do with Art Education, it was actually inspired by that idea of letting go and being imaginative that I learn from my students each and every day. Once again I want to thank then for allowing me to see that anything is possible, nothing is too far fetched, and that creativity, art, and adventure are every where.
