I’m a learner…

I’m a learner. I always have been. I guess it all started when I would break out the hammer and screwdriver on an old television, computer, remote or other non-cooperative electronic device. I’d always do my best to take it apart but the boy that I am sometimes took over, hence why the hammer was there. That’s probably why my mom always insisted I put a dish towel under whatever I was destructing: counter protection.

I’d take everything apart just because I was curious. What did a circuit board look like? Was there actually a tube in the television as we asked each other if anyone wanted “to watch some tube?” How many wires actually make this work? That’s all I wanted to know. I just wanted to know the answers. I didn’t much care about what it would take to fix the television that wasn’t working.

We’ve read stories like this before. Some billionaire spent hours as a child tinkering with gadgets to make them the expert they are today. Curiosity would make Bill Gates spend hours writing code on a community machine as a high-schooler. He would write and write and write. Any free time he had, the Microsoft founder would spend learning the ins and outs of the new technology that was a computer.

But that’s not me.

When I would take something apart, I wanted to see it and then I was done. The pieces would stay disassembled. I would whack some stuff with the hammer because I was a ten-year-old boy and liked to break stuff and then throw the pieces in the trash. I tried putting something back together once and after a couple futile attempts threw it in the trash.

And I think of that as the problem. I’ve always been interested enough in something to learn a little about it but never enough to truly master it. In a world of 10,000-hour experts, I’m more of a 100-hour amateur.

I know a lot about design, photography, videography, writing, coding, writing, speaking, history, math, golf, music, technology and the list could continue. But I know a lot about the sum of those things. Those are commas for a reason. They’re not periods because I can’t say, “I know a lot about design. I know a lot about photography.” And I easily begin to feel bad about my skills, talents, passion, dedication and grit to stick with something .

I work with some of the most talented marketers, designers, musicians, videographers, photographers and speakers that I’ve ever known, or even seen for that matter. So I look at my skill set and begin to feel lesser than those people. I can’t do what any of them do, and I’m not confident that I ever will. Not that I’m not capable. Just that I’ve never had the desire to stick with something until I’ve mastered every minute detail of it like these people have.

But I recently came to a realization. They can’t do what I do either.

I’m not less valuable because I only know a little bit about each of their areas. I’m not less talented because I only know a little bit about each thing. I’m not better either. I’m just different.

One of the things that helped me come to this realization was an interview I read recently. An ESPN reporter was talking with Golden State Warriors Head Coach, Steve Kerr. The reporter was talking to Kerr about the comparisons of his current Warriors team to the 1996 Chicago Bulls. The ’96 Bulls are still considered one of, if not the, best NBA team of all-time, winning an unprecedented 72 games. Now Kerr has a unique perspective on both the 2015-16 Warriors and the historic Bulls of the 90’s as he coaches the Warriors and played for the ’96 Bulls.

As Kerr talked about talked about defensive match ups for an impossible, hypothetical game between these two squads, he focused in on one aspect of the ’96 Bulls that stuck a chord with me: The Bulls often had four guys on the floor that could play any of the positions on the floor and sometimes all five could be interchangeable. Kerr was both comparing the flexibility in the Warriors lineup to this Bulls team as well as lamenting the potential matchup difficulties for the Warriors because people like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen could play anything from point guard to small forward. They were diverse. They could dribble, shoot or pass. They could play inside with the guys who were 6’10” or they could shoot from outside the arc. They knew each position well enough to play it if that’s what most helped the team.

Now, I am by no means putting myself in the same realm as one of the greatest basketball lineups of all-time. But I think there’s a valuable lesson in what Steve Kerr pointed out. Diversity causes problems for the opposition. Diversity makes a team better. Diversity creates success. And without saying it, Kerr noticed that diversity kept players on the floor.

I’m not an amazing designer. I don’t have the best voice or most musical talent. But I can do a little bit of each of those things. I can tweak a design when a designer’s busy. I can lead worship when no one else is in town on Christmas Eve. And with the skill set and attitude to say “I can…”, I make my team better, and I ensure that I always stay in the game.

2048 and keeping your eye on the prize

I haven’t written anything in months and months. The reason for that was a crazy summer trip and a move to Nashville, Tenn. where I started working at Cross Point Church as the creative team’s project manager.

In a nutshell, I take projects from just an idea on paper to creation and execution. I work with a lot of details and a lot of people.

When I’m in the midst of assigning to-do’s, talking with four different people about the same task and making sure deadlines are being met, it’s really easy to think about only the every day task. And when that gets stressful and I need a break, there’s a little yellow icon under “Games” on my iPhone.

2048 is one of the simplest games I’ve played in a long time, and it gives me the chance to turn my brain off. Except when it provides a breakthrough about the way I approach things sometimes.

The goal of the game is to create a tile that reads “2048.” You get there by combining two tiles of the same numbers. For example, two “4” tiles are combined to make an “8”, two “8” tiles to make a “16” and so on.

It’s really easy to just combine two’s and four’s until your brain is turned into soup. If you don’t remember the goal of getting to 2048, you’ll end up both losing the game and mindlessly starting again to again no avail.

And in between two fruitless games of 2048 on Sunday night, it hit me. I lost sight of the big picture.

I was worried about two’s and four’s instead of 512’s and 1024’s and eventually a 2048.

It’s really easy for me to get caught up in making sure this person has designed their piece and that person has scheduled an email and another person has given their budget approval. In that, I start to drift away from the goal of a project. The project loses focus and things have to be done twice.

Every time I make a decision about a detail of a project, I need to remember that it falls in context of the bigger picture. The two’s and four’s of my project are important because without them, I’ll never get to 2048. But if I only worry about two’s and four’s, I’ll fill up my board with small pieces that never come together to win.

Hand over the reins

Another post from 20’s Church.

I left Heather and Maria last weekend for my roommate’s wedding in Williamsburg, Va. In my absence, I knew I would have to turn over the keys to the social media. I thought this wouldn’t be a problem because I knew there would be no hiccups in my absence.

Then I left.

I texted Heather more times than I care to admit about things to tweet and when to Instagram and how many blog posts were scheduled. I went into micro-management mode.

Why?

Our social media is my baby. I was the one who clicked on the “Sign Up” buttons on Twitter and Instagram. I was the one whotried five different variations until we landed on @20sChurch.

I imagine the same is true for many of your ministries.

Your ministry is your baby.

It’s hard to hand over the control of something you’ve raised. You feel like you care more about your ministry than anyone out there. However, for your ministry to be successful, you need to let others own it.

I stepped back from our social media on Saturday and Sunday, and of course, there were no problems. Our accounts sent out great info, and we gained followers through our new friends at Central in Las Vegas.

The same story happened at The Porch in Dallas. The Porch is the young adults’ ministry of Watermark Church and sees around 3,300 young adults each Tuesday night. This wasn’t always the case, though.

John “JP” Podluka, the  young adult pastor, told us that The Porch was stagnant for a while. JP sat down with his team to see what was wrong, and at the end of the day, they landed on one idea.

“We started doing ministry through people.”

The staff started giving volunteers the chance to own the ministry. We attended The Porch on Tuesday night, and every team meeting before the night started was lead by a group of volunteers. They now facilitate an environment where volunteers can do the heavy-lifting.

When this shift happened, JP and the whole Porch team said the ministry began to explode. For having 3,300 young adults in attendance every week, the Porch staff consists of only six full-time staff. And the humility of that staff is what makes them successful.

Throughout our time in Dallas, we heard the staff time and again say that they weren’t the most well-equipped people to do all aspects of the ministry. When it comes to video, lights, music, first impressions, finances or whatever it is, Greg Crooks, a member of The Porch staff, summed it up best.

“We need [volunteers]. They’re better at it.”

When you admit that 20’s may be better at some aspects of ministry than you are, you’ll stay humble as well as empower young leaders.

If you don’t trust your 20’s, they’re going to know that you don’t value their input and then won’t feel valued. Let your 20’s grow up. Don’t micro-manage them. Let them tweet. Let them make decisions. Let them lead. Let them do ministry.

Create. Articulate. Recalibrate.

What is your vision?

Don’t just read that question and truck on through this post. Answer it. Write it down.

What is your ministry’s vision?

Almost any church you go to or work for is going to have a vision statement. Many of the churches we’ve attended even have that vision statement plastered on the wall.

We read it. We memorize it. We become numb to it.

Our vision becomes a nice statement that we say to make ourselves feel like we have purpose. And don’t get me wrong. This is great. That’s why we have vision statements, but the real question is, how do we accomplish our vision?

Again, don’t just read that. Answer it. Write it down.

Can you articulate your strategy for accomplishing your vision?

We’ve visited over 30 churches this summer, and when talking with incredibly successful ministries, they can tell us very intentional steps they are taking. They can articulate their vision and what they’re doing to accomplish it. And I can tell that they are forced to constantly communicate their vision and strategy.

When you articulate your vision, you’re forced to self-evaluate.

Think about even in your personal life. When you sit down with someone and share what you believe in, you’re forced to look at your own life. You have to ask yourself, “Do I actually live this out?”

If you’re truly passionate about your vision, you should base all of your ministry decisions on whether or not they will help you accomplish that vision. And if you’re sharing that vision with people, it will force you to consider if your ministry is making decisions to enforce your vision.

At the end of the day, share your vision as often as you can. And then recalibrate your strategy to see if you’re truly living out your vision.

The world is flat…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. In fact, my personal site here is rather atrocious at the moment, but that’s because all of my efforts have been focused on my summer 20’s Church project. The following is something I’m really passionate about and was something I posted on our blog for the 20’s Church. Check it out and hopefully I will be better about checking in here soon!

“The world is flat…”

Everyone just calm down. We know the planet is not physically flat, but the 2014 world that we live in might just be flatter than you think. Let me explain.

Thomas L. Friedman wrote a book a few years ago called The World is Flat. In a nutshell, Friedman says that technology has flattened the playing field where businesses compete. Globalization creates a marketplace that is not constrained by physical boundaries.

Globalization doesn’t just change the marketplace, though.

Technology gives us a global culture, too.

From coast to coast, people are watching the same YouTube videos, tweeting about the same episodes of “The Walking Dead” and ultimately engaging with the same content. Social media and the Internet have enabled the people in Walla Walla, Washington (yes, that’s a real place) to consume the same things as those in New York City.

Today’s culture is even international. The perfect example came this fall — remember that obnoxious song, “What Does the Fox Say?” (I’m sorry you had to relive the “ring ding ding” playing through your head again, but the point is worth it.) That song came from Ylvis, who’s basically the Swedish version of Jimmy Fallon. His song jumped “the pond” because YouTube can be accessed in Blacksburg, Virginia (I heard the song for the first time at a Virginia Tech football game) the same as it can be in Stockholm, Sweden.

So how does this affect the church?

We met with LifeChurch.tv while in Oklahoma City. LifeChurch.tv has 19 campuses in five states from Oklahoma City to Albany, New York. When we talked to Team Development Leader Jerry Hurley about the importance of relating to the local culture, he responded with a challenge to us.

Consider if the local culture is as important as it used to be.

His point was essentially that the world is flat. Even 20 years ago, the culture in Albany would have been incredibly different than the culture in OKC, but in 2014, that’s not so true. We have access to the same viral videos and internet trends no matter where we are in the world.

Being in tune with that global culture is incredibly important to the church and has allowed LifeChurch.tv to be very effective in a variety of different regions in the U.S.

I’m here to challenge you to look at the online trends and be relevant to the global culture that now exists. See what kids are watching on YouTube. Look at those trending topics on Twitter. Click on the obnoxious box of Facebook news. Engage the culture on the Internet because it might just be more pervasive than your local culture.

A sappy, I’ll miss Virginia Tech post

I wasn’t going to do this. I wasn’t going to join the masses. Talk about how college is coming to an end and what everything has meant to me. But I have a few minutes before my final class ever begins, so why not?

I’m not going to start at the beginning, though. I’m going to start with today. In just under an hour, I’m going to sit down at this desk:

Here, it’s hidden behind people. Those people are 21 of the best in the world. I got to be in a Video Studio Production class with them this semester. I walked in the room and already had a few good friends, but for most of the others, the apple that hung around their necks was the only way I knew their names. Before class started, I was so grateful to have Nolan in there. He’s been a great friend who I can bond with over sports, but more importantly through Bible study. Working with him in this class and in the Athletic Department was incredible.

After 15 weeks, 3 separate show formats and countless productions, these 21 people became a crew. I’ve never had a class like this where I’ve developed such amazing friendships with every single person in there. We had a homework assignment to watch the Oscars and look for things. We turned it into a party, and all of us packed into a living room to watch. That pretty much sums it up.

On top of that, my favorite professor on the Virginia Tech campus led us through the whole semester. Derley has been amazing since my first day of Visual Media with her back in August 2012. She made our class fun, but she made us learn more than I could have ever imagined. Without Derley, I would have never considered working in television. It’s so difficult to describe the relationship Derley has with her students. She’s one of those rare professors that actually makes you want to be in class. When she sits in the newsroom and is working alongside us, it’s easy to strike up a conversation and joke about things as silly as her fictitious rap alter-ego.

Add Paul. Paul is our studio engineer. He’s hilarious and supportive and the best engineer I could have imagined. We come in to class and ask him how to fix things. He does it no problem and then talks with us about life. He’s the greatest. That’s all there is to it.

When I sit down at that desk, I’m going to be sitting down next to someone who was a stranger in January. But enter the Comm life. My co-anchor for today’s production has become a great friend over the past semester. Amanda is one of the kindest, most fun-loving people I know. Add in her roommate, Emma, and they’re a force to be reckoned with. I love that they’re a crew. They’re a packaged deal, and one without the other just feels wrong. Individually they’re great. Together, they’re my favorite pair.

At some point, we’ll toss the show over to Reza. There’s only one cliche way to describe Reza. He’s just Reza. Again, another stranger at the beginning of the year, he’s become an incredible friend. Always with a smile on his face, this guy is such a goof with an incredible heart to be himself no matter what. When he makes it big in LA, remember where you heard about him first. In this ridiculous picture thanks to the green screen.

And today, the weather will be read to us by Megan. Megan came into my life in the fall of 2012. She worked in athletic communications with me, and we talked probably two or three times. Then we had a class together and became only slightly less awkward. Fast-forward to this past fall. I couldn’t tell you the real reason this happened, but Megan has become one of my closest friends in the world. We spend hours together during the week, yet still get together after class. I can go to Megan with anything, and she’ll always be supportive. She’s made this past year more fun than any before. N.C. State is going to treat this girl well. It’s really hard to quickly describe what Megan has meant to me. She knows how important she is to me, and that’s most important.

I wish I could write about each individual person that I’ve become close with this semester, but that would turn into a short memoir, and nobody’s got time for that. Like Stephanie. A friend of a friend at first has become such a blast to spend time with. Wes, Nate, Ben, Tori, Danielle, Willie, Caroline. Add all of them in, too. That just scratches the surface, but I wanted to give them a shoutout. All of these people have brought something different to my life. They bring their own personality and blend together to make an amazing group that I love spending every second with.

After class, I’ll head home. Today is Avery’s birthday. It’s a perfect way to wrap up college. My roommates. They’re not into the whole blogging, sappy posts, emotional stuff, so we’ll keep it quick. I moved into 317 Graves with Avery, Brian, JM and Seth at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year. It couldn’t have been a better group. We’ve done countless things from hunting squirrels (and cooking them for dinner) to Friday morning Bible study. Living under one roof with a bunch of guys who love Christ and support each other has been the best community I could ever ask for. I love each one of these guys. Avery’s the most absurd and ridiculously crazy person I’ve ever met, but I don’t know if I’ve ever met someone who loves like he does when it comes down to it. Brian just loves life. He’s insanely busy with architecture life, but he always finds time to come home and hang. When we have serious life things to talk about, he always listens and offers advice whenever he can. JM was mostly “Anna’s boyfriend” when we met him. He agreed to live with us when he was only that, but we had no idea. This guy is fantastic to do life with. That’s what I love about JM. He just does life with you. Real life. If you ask him what’s going on with something, he’ll be open and honest. When you talk to him, he listens and is concerned. You can tell that when something matters to you, it matters to him. Finally, Seth. Seth had no idea what he was getting into when he transferred here. He came here barely knowing us, but has jumped in head first. This kid is an incredibly hard-worker, but it’s hard for him to turn down a round of golf. The golf course is a great place where the two of us have been able to become even closer as we’ve dived into life happening around and to us.

Avery’s birthday dinner will see some of my favorite people too. “The Palmer girls” have been amazing friends since freshman year. Anna, Morgan, Erin, Christie, Lauren and Kristina. This is another group that comes as a package. Individually, I love all of these girls. Weddings for two of them this summer are going to be the best reunions for us! From tailgates to fires to Palmer house dance parties to Floyd to the garage sale a few weekends ago, I have countless college memories with all of these ladies, and I could not be more grateful for them in my life.

Then comes our neighbors. At this point, this post is insanely long. For that, I will not apologize! Anyways, neighbors.

When moving in, we barely knew any of the 8 girls who lived in the duplex next door. Courtney, Melissa, Carlee, Kristen and Gretchen have seen all sides of 317. They’ve come and hung out for fires, watched football with us, seen JM, Avery and I eat 22 gumballs each and always welcomed us into their home. Knock on the door, and we were always welcomed in to hang, eat food and talk about life with whoever was home.

The next door over was a wasteland for a while. Four random girls I didn’t really know lived there. That wouldn’t last long. Spring semester 2013. Enter Blair and Paige. Without diving in to how this relationship developed, these two have been amazing. Paige wasn’t really about the 317 life for a while, but she made her way over and has become an amazing friend. Our relationship is summed up in one phrase. The therapy chair. It’s a pink, round chair in Paige’s room that I post up in to talk with Paige about life. We cover it all, and she’s always there for me.

And of course, Blair. What can be said about this girl? She’s been there every second for me. She’s an incredible friend who cares about me and the people in her life so deeply. We can sing “Love is an Open Door” better than anyone out there, and “Royals” can’t be played without me thinking of her singing along in the passenger seat. We were lucky enough to have classes together and then come home and “play” fires, Cookout runs, DX runs, movies and life together. Once again, as brief as I try to keep these things about friends, it’s tough to sum them up in just a few sentences. They all know what they mean to me, I hope.

Blair and Paige apparently had another roommate who lived in the basement, too. I didn’t quite believe them for a long time because I had never seen Haley in my life until this year.

Haley has gone from stranger to one of my best friends in less than a year. Almost every day I get a text from her. “Wanna binge?” Of course this means, “Wanna binge watch HIMYM?” and the answer is almost always yes. Because binging with Haley is only sometimes watching HIMYM. It’s mostly conversations, that turn deep. She’s that friend who when I’m upset asks “Do you want me to tell you it’s going to be ok, or do you want me to just be mad?” I tell her and she does both roles so well. I love our conversations about life, but I love more that we almost always come back to the Bible. We go on drives with worship music turned up all the way. She’ll ask me “What do you think this means?”, and my mind then explodes trying to wrestle with what God thinks about that or means in that particular verse of the Bible. Yet again, I’m struggling to sum these people up so quickly.

1,767 words later, I want to make sure I mention only a few more people. Michael was my Bible study leader freshman year and then turned into my discipleship and this year an incredible friend. Thursday lunch at the Cellar with him and Avery and sometimes Mikey have been an awesome tradition. Chase that with wine tasting at the Vintage Cellar and Thursdays were great days. Michael has a great heart for God, and I love when he challenges me with how I should handle situations and deep theological questions. A trip to Typhoon with Michael brought Mikey into my life, too. Mikey’s an awesome dude who comes and plays blow dart gun darts and hangs with us, but is such a wise person when we get to the deep stuff.

Last but certainly not least. Rachel. I try to describe Rachel to others and the only way is my “boss”. The quotes are very important. Rachel is technically my boss, but she’s turned into a great friend. This fall, I was having a rough time with a lot of changes and uncertainty in my life. Rachel baked and baked and baked until I felt better, and listened and listened until I had no more words to say. We worked events on events together, but she always made sure to listen and be a friend, too. Hockey extravaganzas at Sharkey’s and Hokie House were a fantastic way to round out and sum up our year as we rooted on the Pens and Kings and talked about sports info things and life as a whole. I can’t begin to explain how much Rachel’s friendship has meant to me both in and out of the office.

This was about 1,400 words longer than expected, but I guess this is my way of dealing with the end of this chapter. College is coming to a close, and I wanted to share a small snippet of who’s been important to me. There are countless other people that I haven’t mentioned here, but please don’t think you’ve been forgotten. I’m thankful for every person at Tech that I’ve gotten to know.

So when I hop up on that anchor desk, I’ll end this chapter of my life. But I’m trusting that the best is yet to come. Stay tuned for the summer trip of a lifetime.

Read, read, read

It’s 2014. One of the most significant things about this date in history, I think, is how limited our attention span is getting. I wrote a 726 word blog post a while back and apologized at the beginning because it was going to be long.

We want our info fast, and we want it visually if possible. We don’t want to sift through a bunch of words to get to the main point. We love pictures and bullet points and headlines.

So when you read this headline, you probably thought I would be talking about the importance of reading to learn more about what you do and all that jazz. Which, if I’m honest, was the idea I originally had for this post, but then I started thinking.

There’s a certain level of discipline that goes into sitting down with a book and actually reading the entire thing. Complete openness on my end right now: I have three books in my bag that I’ve read 20 pages of and haven’t touched in a week or so. I’m not the best at this, but I’m trying to get better.

Why am I writing this and emphasizing reading and trying to get better? We need structure in our lives. I talked about the importance of a schedule, and I am a big advocate for keeping structure in your life to make you more productive. Add a book into that mix, and it’s an excellent start for making yourself disciplined.

I’ve found that if I just plan to read these books when I have free time, that free time is never going to come. If I make it a point to sit down and intentionally read so that I can learn some new things, I’ll actually do it.

Take the time out of your day to read a chapter, 20 pages, whatever it may be, and you’ll find the rest of your life can fall into that structured pattern. And of course, let’s not downplay the fact that you’re making yourself a better team member as you learn new things and bring them to the table.

Schedule your day

Think about your most productive days. Did you wake up with a plan or did you just do whatever came to mind throughout the day?

Chances are you had a plan. You had a schedule for every single thing you did that day. Times and places and what needed done were laid out for you.

The structure of a schedule makes us more productive. If there are no deadlines or check-in meetings, there would be no reason to get work done in a timely fashion or even at all.

As a college student, I was a professional procrastinator for a long time, and I sometimes still am. Big projects would sneak up on me and entire 10-page papers would get written in a night. And then I decided to get it together.

Now, an entire window of my computer is dedicated to Stickies. I have a Stickie for each class and project and one Stickie has my daily schedule with all of the tasks that need done. My roommates give me a hard time about being overly organized, but it’s my life on a computer screen, and it makes sense to me.

In reality, it’s how I get things done. It’s how I keep my research paper moving forward while also designing logos for my project this summer. All of this before going to the athletics communications office to prep for the women’s tennis match the next day and then heading to work that evening’s baseball game. I have a lot going on, and I’m not complaining about that at all.  But if I don’t write these things down, I’ll inevitably forget something.

For example, on Friday I didn’t open my computer the entire day. It was good for me to take a step back, but it also stressed me out when I realized it. I thought about my day and didn’t think I missed anything. But then, my boss, Rachel, walked into the press box for lacrosse the next day bearing my tennis programs. I totally forgot to go in and take care of that because I didn’t look at my schedule, but luckily, she’s got my back.

Moral of the story: My computer and the schedule on it keep my life in order. I take note of everything I need to do on there, and it helps me be productive.

This exact method may not be your thing, but I can guarantee that a schedule in your life will make your days more productive.

What scheduling tools can you use to make your days more productive?

Nothing’s gonna hold me back

This song has been running through my head for the past few days.  It’s one of those songs that I can turn up to 11 in the car.  When I’m doing things like that, it’s easy to just get caught up in the music and forget that there are words with meaning that were each chosen to carry weight.

Yesterday, I really listened to them, and then, I realized the weight they can carry in my life.  The pre-chorus is where the song gets its title, and they just repeat, “Nothing’s gonna hold me back”.

And then I started to think of what’s holding me back.  Mostly, it’s myself.  Why won’t I just completely let go?  Why stress myself out about where I’m going to end up working next year?  Why listen to the world screaming at me that I’m not good enough?  God “gave everything for me”, so why does the world’s voice get to tell me what I am.

“I am chosen, I am free.  I am living for eternity.”

If I could just get myself to live by that opening line of this song, I could truly break away and not let a single thing hold me back from God’s plan for me.

Luckily, I recently got an opportunity to let go a little bit when I committed to some amazing summer plans.  I’ve been working on those daily, and I can feel God pulling me forward.  I’m not being held back by anything there.  There are some struggles, but they don’t end my world or even ruin my day.

It’s an amazing feeling when you let go and realize God has control.  I would strongly recommend trying it someday.  Actually, today!

What’s holding you back?

(Of note: I wrote a whole blog post about letting things go and didn’t make a single “Frozen” reference. Good job, me.)

Do what you love

I want to start with a tiny apology.  Ever since Heather and I officially decided to make this trip a reality, my life has been consumed by that.  School work has taken a bit of a back seat (I apologize to any professors reading this), and spring break in Colorado with two of my roommates was a much needed break.  All that to say, I’m sorry that I have not been keeping up with writing here.

It’s 2:45 a.m. EST, and I’m on the plane from Denver to Boston.  I’m writing now in an effort to kick start myself into paying more attention here.  Anyways, tangent over, and let’s get into it.

When you’re growing up your parents and teachers tell you that you can “be whatever you want to be”.  That’s the American Dream, too, right?  We start life out with a blank slate, and we can choose how to fill that space.  Then, you start to grow up.

My cousin is in 10th grade.  Jake’s a very unique kid in that he’s incredibly smart, and he’s amazingly creative at the same time.  He has the brains to be an aerospace engineer at Boeing and the creativity to write the 2025 Oscar Best Picture.

He’s very bright, as I mentioned, so he gets a lot of pressure from teachers and administrators to start preparing for a career in engineering.  Why?  Because we keep hearing statistics about how the U.S. is being outpaced by countries like China and India in producing jobs that drive the economy like engineering.

But here’s the thing.  Jake doesn’t want to be an engineer.  He takes math because he has to and does well because he’s a good kid and always does his best.  He doesn’t love it or even particularly enjoy it.  He spends his free time playing every stringed instrument I can think of and making videos with his Canon T3i.  He’s a creative at heart, but he’s constantly hearing the world telling him to be an engineer or a doctor or something with the “hard sciences”.

There are two very important voices in his life that don’t pressure him, though.  They let Jake be Jake.  That’s my aunt and uncle.

My parents were exactly the same when I was going through high school and even college as I was trying to figure it all out.  I left high school thinking I wanted to be a chemical engineer, mostly because I felt pressure to be an engineer like Jake does now.  But it wasn’t where my heart lies.  Could I have done it?  Probably, but after two weeks in Vector Geometry my freshman year, I called my mom and told her engineering was not in my future.  Without a second thought, she was on board.  After quickly dropping that class, I started exploring my options.  Two major changes later, I’ll be graduating with a Communication degree in May.

It’s one of the best decisions I have ever made, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my parents.  That sounds really cliché, but it’s so true.  If they would have scoffed at my decision, I probably would have stuck with something that I hated.  Instead, I love the thought of going to work every day in the communication field.  Doing things like directing live television, writing a feature story or managing social media gets me fired up.

To this day, when I tell people that I’m a “Comm major”, I get that look that says they’re thinking, “Well, you aren’t going to get a job, and if you do, you won’t be making any money.”  To those people, I’ll get a job.  God has a plan for me, and I’ll find a job somewhere doing something that I love.  Will I be making a lot of money?  Probably not, but I don’t care.  I would much rather be doing something I love day in and day out than going to a 9-5 and hating every minute of it just to get a big paycheck.

Sure, my engineering friends have jobs lined up that pay significant sums, and I’m incredibly excited for them.  They were wired to be engineers.  They’re doing what they love, and that just happens to be something I hated.  I’m not saying there is anything wrong with engineering or any other hard sciences.  I just want people to realize that it’s not for everyone.

The world needs people who write exciting stories, produce the news, paint, draw, sculpt, design and bring joy to others through their art.  Imagine a world where no one creates things like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the 20/20 Experience or even a smooth-looking newscast.

Ever since day one, Jake’s parents and my parents have been supportive of us choosing what we want to do.  It’s meant the world to me, and I know it will to Jake, too, even if he doesn’t realize it yet.

I don’t think that this post is going to change the pressure that parents, teachers and the current economic culture puts on high school students to go down a specific path, but I hope that it will encourage those of you who know you want something different.  And hopefully, one or two people will be able to take some pressure off of some of the young adults in their lives.

Bottom line: Follow your dream and do what you love.  I haven’t been doing this for very long, but I can already tell you that “work” isn’t work when you enjoy doing it.