Tag: thoughts

Thoughts From Places: Passions, January Edition

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

So lately I’ve been thinking.

Now, I know as well as anyone how dangerous that can be, so just stay with me here.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my future (like, with jetpacks), and what I want that to look like. Now, I haven’t come up with any definite conclusions, but I do have a few basic requirements:

  1. I have a job. It sucks, but I can’t do anything in this world (like, say, live in an apartment) without money, so I have to have a job.

  2. This job has to be something I enjoy. I can’t be waking up every day, hating my own guts because I have to drag myself to the same old crummy job every week.

That’s it. Since practically my kindergarten days, these two things are all I’ve wanted for my life. But the funny thing about life is that it changes…like, a lot.

I used to think that if I ended up working in an office it would be the death of me and all I consider fun and exciting, but now I’m (slowly) acclimating to the idea of working in an office…as long as it’s an office working on something I enjoy as well.

I also used to think that I’d become an actress, but that dream is almost all but gone. Would I go back to the stage if offered? In a heartbeat. But am I at college just waiting for my big break on Broadway? Not so much.

But recently, I’ve been coming to a different conclusion. I love to write, in case you haven’t noticed the weeks and weeks and weeks of columns I’ve written, and I decided to become an English major so that I can get a degree in something I love so I can get a job in something I love. That fulfills both of my above requirements. I thought becoming an author would make me just as happy as if I were acting on stage.

But I love writing for this blog too. I love writing about art, something that I’m really passionate about (see above potential jobs), and I love getting to have deep, meaningful conversations with other people who love art just as much as I do. And although they don’t make much, being a cultural/pop culture journalist is sounding really, really cool to me as a junior looking at a job market I’ll soon be entering.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m trying to get at, and I know this only loosely coincides with my task of writing about art once a week, but I guess I’d say that finding passions is not something that automatically happens. I didn’t wake up one day knowing I was going to get a job at arts, ink and love it more than any other job I’ve ever had. Passion is a process, which is something I think most people don’t understand. Art is a passion, but it’s also a process.

So I guess I’m saying find your passion. But don’t give up if it takes longer than you expect it to, because all passions are different. And don’t reject something when you haven’t tried it. Did I want this job when I applied for it? Yes. Did I think I was going to like it so much that I’d want to turn it into a career goal? Not a chance. But am I glad I did it?

I think you can answer that for yourself.

Feelings…and What to Do with Them

Erika Bell Leave a comment

So.

I have come to that periodic point in my life where I feel emotionally stifled. You know when you have so many thoughts rushing in and out of your head, and you just don’t know what to do with them? There’s school, there’s home life, there’s work, and all you can really do is go to sleep just to get some peace and quiet from your emotion-filled day. Well, I’m there. I guess when I think about it, I could address everything as it comes. Collectively go over why that made me feel this way and just be done with it, as soon as it occurs. But, I guess I’m just human.

So.

What should I do about it? In the past when I’ve gone off the deep end, crying one minute and jumping up and down to a Beyonce song the next, I took to my favorite pastime to get me by. Blogging. Tumblr, specifically. Yes I’d write a long, passion-infused text post about everything I’d endured that day. From the moment I got up, to the time I took to sit down and write, I’d jot down everything. I’d write down my thoughts on why I felt that way, and then forced myself to come up with a better way of how I could go about the situation next time. The beautiful part about this emotional outlet is that no one really follows my blog, and if they do, they have no idea who I am. I could be as boisterous, cynical, selfish, and pathetic as I want because it was my blog, no one else’s. I still go on there from time to time and enact some of my online journaling, but this time I don’t think it’ll do the job.

I could put my feelings into my apartment? Okay, that sounds weird, but follow me on this. Even though I moved into my apartment two months ago, I haven’t gotten around to decorating it. I have high aspirations for what I want to do to the place, yet whenever I get around to buying a pillow or a flower plant, it doesn’t ever seem to come together. Maybe my emotions can open my creative abilities. I could put time into researching what works and what doesn’t work, what I like and what I don’t like. It could be freeing and fulfilling, and it could let me escape the hustle and bustle within my head just for a little bit. Possibility?

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Dealing with emotions are very hard. We’re all human, we all have them. Some more than others (pointing at this girl). But finding fun, creative and, most of all, fulfilling ways to deal with them will always be the challenge. First, we have to come to terms with the fact that we need to deal with them at all. Second, we need to take the time out of our day to do all we can to comfort ourselves. It may not seem like a difficult task to start, but who really wants to go through everything that’s upset them or made them sad that day? But, then again, who really wants to let it build up continuously, to where it becomes difficult to function.  Find your outlet. Blogging, decorating, painting, dancing, it could be anything. I’m still figuring out what I should do with mine, but to be honest, I feel like writing this little post on Arts Ink helped a lot.