{"id":10754,"date":"2018-04-12T13:44:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T19:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=10754"},"modified":"2018-04-14T15:10:09","modified_gmt":"2018-04-14T21:10:09","slug":"braver-than-you-believe-empy-the-dreamcatcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2018\/04\/12\/braver-than-you-believe-empy-the-dreamcatcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Braver than you Believe | Empty the Dreamcatcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my best kept secrets is that I\u2019ve actually been writing something that I someday hope will become a book. I\u2019ve not been brave enough to really show anyone what I\u2019ve finished so far, or even to tell people that I\u2019m writing it. I guess I think that if I tell someone, I\u2019ll be obligated to finish it or even share it with them, and that\u2019s too scary for me. It\u2019s a story that is kind of important to me, and I\u2019m not brave enough to risk someone telling me it\u2019s actually terrible. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For this \u201cbook,\u201d I read a lot of suggestions from actual authors in hopes of improving my writing. I was going through a list that an author had made of all the things you should know about your character. The list contained questions like, \u201cWhat are their major flaws?\u201d and \u201cWhat would they make a scene in public about?\u201d I started asking these questions about myself to see if I knew the answers. What am I reluctant to tell people? What am I most afraid of?<\/p>\n

Most of the questions were actually hard to answer, but when I asked myself what I\u2019m most afraid of, I easily listed a ton of things and struggled to choose which topped the list. That kind of worried me. I\u2019m even scared of being scared.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I remembered one of my favorite columns I wrote in high school. It was about how I had always been afraid of being insignificant. It\u2019s a fear that has always kind of haunted me, like a whisper in the back of my mind, telling me that I will never do anything of real importance in my life. I think that\u2019s probably still my number one fear: that nothing I write will ever impact anyone.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been writing columns like this one since my sophomore year of high school, and sometimes I wonder if anyone ever actually reads them, or if I\u2019ve ever helped or inspired someone through them. A part of being afraid of insignificance is a strong desire to say something true, something brave. I hope to one day write something I have never had the courage to write before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of my favorite movies is called \u201cThe Art of Getting By,\u201d and it\u2019s about a boy named George. He\u2019s a misanthrope and a fatalist who doesn\u2019t do any of his homework. Eventually, his teachers and principal tell him that he has a week to complete a whole semester\u2019s worth of work in order to graduate. My favorite of his teachers is Mr. Harris, the art teacher. Instead of assigning George a stack of assignments, Harris says he simply wants one meaningful work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to look in the mirror, listen to your gut, and make an image that speaks to the real you \u2014 what you care about, what you believe,\u201d Harris says. \u201cAs long as it\u2019s honest and fearless.\u201d<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s not the best movie ever made \u2014 not even close \u2014 but it\u2019s just stuck with me over time. I think I learn something different from this movie every time I watch it. Most recently, it\u2019s told me that it\u2019s OK to be afraid, because fear tells you that you\u2019re about to do something brave.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After reading the list of things to know about your character, I continued to browse the internet and found a post about dreamcatchers. It said that, every so often, a dreamcatcher has to be emptied of the nightmares it has caught.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like dreamcatchers, I think there comes a point when we have to let go of the things that scare us so that they don\u2019t take up all the space in our heads and keep us from accomplishing important things.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Harris\u2019 assignment made me realize that it\u2019s OK to be afraid. In fact, fear is necessary because it makes the accomplishment even more powerful. We just can\u2019t let fear stop us from creating something honest and fearless.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my best kept secrets is that I\u2019ve actually been writing something that I someday hope will become a book. I\u2019ve not been brave enough to really show anyone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14924,"featured_media":9250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14924"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}