One of the things I most vividly remember from the National Student Leadership Conference (NSCL) I attended in Washington DC. a couple of years ago, was something that Dr. Marfuggi said: visionaries are people who turn their dreams into reality. From that moment on, it never left my head and I became determined to become a visionary.
While sitting in class last Tuesday discussing about how we would present our final thesis project, Designing our Life, we were torn between presenting our final plan to an audience of our classmates and families, just our classmates, or not presenting at all. However, although we didn't come to a final decision, we did come to an agreement that sharing your dreams helps you accomplish your goals because you start to be held accountable for them. As soon as this was said, I thought of Glazed. I had always wanted to start a baking business but never knew what niche I wanted to be in. I was always interested in cupcakes but that wasn't a new market. Then there was gluten free food, but that market was going to be way harder to break because it's not as desirable. After stumbling upon a Buzzfeed article on the deliciousness of donuts, I immediately knew I wanted to sell donuts. There was no way of not doing it. My point is, that I've come to some difficulties which have hindered my ability to sell: not finding a vanilla recipe that I feel is good enough or not finding satisfactory boxes to package my products in or taking the magic of Facebook for granted and thinking that my page would have a lot more likes or my closest friend believing that it would not work out and constantly try to change my mind about it. Regardless of those struggles and setbacks, I had already spread the word. I had sent out my Facebook page to my friends and shared pictures on Instragam. There was no turning back now. I wasn't holding myself accountable as much as other people were. Now, I've gotten to a point where my classmates are constantly asking me when I'm going to start selling and as soon as I do, they'll place their order. There really is no turning back. For our final thesis, we knew that if we presented, we were a lot more likely to follow our plan and accomplish our goals but somehow this project felt a lot more personal and not just another POL or TedTalk. NSCL was a conference in leadership in Health and Public Medicine and at that point in my life, I had my heart set on becoming a surgeon. That August I started the IB and had chosen courses based on what I wanted to study rather than what I really wanted to do. After my worst year in school, I realized that medicine was not the right track for me at that moment. A year later, as I was looking for different schools to apply to, I came across a major that really interested me: international studies. My brain got to work and I knew that this was what I wanted to do, and as I was looking for internships, I thought that focusing on health was what I was most interested on. So I came around full circle. Sometimes we lose sight of our goals as we get caught up in the moment and we get knocked down struggle after struggle. Or it might just be that we have too many dreams, becoming overwhelmed by them, we lose perspective and end up not being able to realize any of them. Sometimes it's necessary to change paths and directions for a short while, accomplish other things or find other goals, and you never know, it might take you back to your original starting point because sometimes, we are meant to come around full circle.
3 Comments
Corey Topf
4/18/2015 08:42:25 am
Hey F! I read a quote the other day that said, "Whoever tries the most stuff wins." And it makes me think a lot about career choices. I think the more jobs we can experiment with early in life, the better! Each experience is an opportunity to find out if we love something or if we hate it! Cool post!
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Carolina Ferreyros
4/20/2015 09:55:17 am
Corey! That's such a great quote, and it's so true!! We have to experiment as much as we can before it's too late--whever that may be.
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Andrea Hurtado
4/19/2015 01:38:04 pm
WOW F, I was thrilled by this entry. It was concise yet inspiring. You star of with a great anecdote that opens up your topic really well. I've seen you extremely passionate these past week as you've worked on your business and tried new donut recipes. This is one of the many quotes that stood out to me: sharing your dreams helps you accomplish your goals because you start to be held accountable for them. I agree, the more you make your goals visual, and viral the more committed you feel, because since they've been displayed there is an urge to accomplish them. Sometime I really enjoyed from the entry was how you balanced anecdotes and reflection. In the beginning, like I said, you started with a an anecdote and then reflected upon it and how it has changed you life since then. And then also when you mentioned how you wanted to be a surgeon and then how you came to the conclusion that it wasn't your best fit. I loved the entry, I about to sleep, and I'm super inspired.
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Author"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." Archives
June 2015
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