“Just because you can’t imagine something doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
It’s 2:42 am as I write this sentence. I’m lying in bed reading Hank Green’s new book An Absolutely Remarkable Thing when I came across this line one of the characters says to another. And I had to stop and write it down because of how important I feel it applies to my life. I spend a lot of my time with my head in the clouds, so to speak. I am usually stuck in my head imagining any number of scenarios. That seems to just be the way I am, though I am attempting to make more of an effort in changing that.
In my life, I often visualize what I think is going to happen before it happens. I am usually wrong, but it doesn’t stop me from doing it anyway. And one hangup that I have is that, if I have trouble picturing myself doing something, then I have much more trouble actually doing that thing. It’s something that I think has held me back in a number of scenarios. My relationships with my friends are more complicated for me because I cannot imagine myself being the type of person who freely hugs people or gives out compliments, even though I want to be. But this line in Hank’s book really has me thinking. Just because I can’t see the scene in my head doesn’t stop me from being able to do it.
I did something this year that I normally never do: I made a New Year’s Resolution. I didn’t even make it until recently, so it’s really a January 9th Resolution. Same difference, really. Anyway, I’ve made this resolution-thingy. And the resolution-thingy is for me to be more attentive. I want to get out of my head and really involve myself in the interactions I have with other people. Plus it really couldn’t hurt to pay better attention in my classes. I’m not asking you all to point out when I talk about myself too much or don’t appear to be listening; my own mind has been doing a good enough job of pointing that out for me. What I ask from my friends is that you be patient with me as I work to develop this new habit. I’m hoping that, with practice, I can get better at this thing and really be able to ground myself. One step at a time. The spring semester is coming up, which is also the final semester of my undergraduate career. There will be plenty of opportunities for me to practice.
That was a lot of words right there, so to reward you for reading, here's a picture of a Christmas ornament I took with my brand new camera. Enjoy! I greatly appreciate you all for reading what I have to say.
