“You can do anything you set your mind to.” – Benjamin Franklin
I have had a debate with realism lately.
To briefly explain my predicament, I finally found subjects (journalism and creative writing) that I am passionate about teaching in the future. Education, a vocation that has enchanted me since grade school, has finally made its way into my decision-making during my junior year of college.
Considering that I have never taken an education class, I must decide immediately if I want to switch my line of thinking and toss out everything I have worked for in the past year.
Will I be going through the motions as a journalist in the future as I planned, or will I subject myself to a white-walled classroom teaching about books that I never read when assigned to me in high school?
In my acute anxiety and emotional spiraling, I asked many people, and I received all different results.
Some answers were complimentary in that I was accused of being “talented” in a journalistic setting. They said I could accomplish great things if I did not sell myself short to something that would extricate my creative writing.
This poses the question, can I possibly achieve anything for myself in a risky field, or are successes merely what life hands to me?
In Thomas V. Morris’s book titled, “Making Sense of It All: Pascal and the Meaning of Life,” while explaining French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal’s thoughts and journaling compiled into “Pensées de M. Pascal sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets,” Morris states:
“We all, in some way or another, adopt strategies for living. These strategies are all, to some extent or another, calculated gambles. We have no compelling proof that our strategies will work.” He continued, “None of them is a sure thing. We are accustomed to living without many true certainties, to the extent that we ordinarily forget that life is risk.”
I was led to Asbury by an intangible authority that has gently guided me through the many possibilities in my linear journey. So, is there anything making the substance grant me free will to produce my results?
There are so many caveats in the nanoseconds of our mundane day. Can we really achieve anything when time and space are against us?
Let me explain through an example. The pizza shop that I loyally used to work for closed in early July, which was about the same time the Strategic Communications Department at Asbury was looking for a student writer.
So, I began working at Asbury. Instead of cooking pizzas, I worked behind the scenes on an Amazon Prime show and wrote for the university website and magazine. It all happened jarringly fast.
But what if I missed it? What if the pizza shop was able to go on a little longer? My friend and I were basically running the entire small business, so I ignorantly turned down news station internships and other vocationally aligned jobs before. I did not consciously work to achieve my position in the department, yet God graciously gifted it to me.
Why was I granted this opportunity but have probably missed multiple others in the same period?
Clearly, I cannot elaborate on or explain the notions and opportunities that I have missed because it is impossible for an individual to have a concept of something that was never circumstantially incited or intended to come to fruition.
Eventually, I want to write something that has the components to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Will my life journey ever lead to a weighty and impactful enough experience to where I would be set up for journalistic success?
I can write every day, expand my vocabulary, and force my thinking and intellect to a higher level, but what if my intended life’s narrow pathway outweighs and overpowers my determination towards a personal end goal?
I “can achieve anything I want to” and discipline myself to write Pulitzer Prize material unless the intangible, personal confines of my life’s purpose do not allow me to achieve that goal.
So, what happens if I choose the route unintended for me and am stuck in intellectual limbo due to trivial details such as walking on the left side of the street instead of the right? Do I set myself up for a stable job or dangerously base my productivity and success on stochastic opportunities?
All of this to say, do I maintain my foundations in realism or take the risk? Can I truly achieve anything I want to in this lifetime? Or is my virtuoso caught in a deep puddle of viscous mud, and I cannot pull myself out?
Maybe I will stay in the mud a little longer.
