You\u2019re currently being propelled. Surprise. You feel like you\u2019re independently flying and making your own path, but soon that gust is gone before you realize how much you relied on it. At least, that\u2019s what I experienced.<\/p>\n
Our whole lives are mapped in front of us in the measurements of milestones and achievements. I\u2019ll be the first to say, that isn\u2019t necessarily a bad concept. Both provide the comfort of structure and are often celebrated. I loved and craved the structure, pushing for something and knowing exactly what that something was. I hit every checkbox there was without realizing I was doing it, because that\u2019s what college is designed to do. And when I hit those marks, I was propelled.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When I succeeded in class, I heard, \u201cAwesome! You\u2019re going to do big things.\u201d When I got my dream internship, it was \u201cFantastic! You\u2019re going to impress them.\u201d When I got academic awards: \u201cAmazing! We\u2019ll all work for you someday!\u201d When I got a job before graduation, people said, \u201cWow! You\u2019re going to be so successful!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And you know what, it felt great; it\u2019s supposed to. Your friends, family, professors \u2014 whoever \u2014 want to support and encourage you. But as I got older, those remarks became scarier. I was being propelled further and further into the sky and I was starting to realize how high I was. I felt like I absolutely could not fall.<\/p>\n Now, there are fewer milestones. I got the diploma, the job, the accolades and all of a sudden, I didn\u2019t realize what I was striving for anymore. There was no clear checkpoint for this next, major chapter in my life, and all I knew was that I was expected to continuing soaring into the sky with no idea how I was going to stay in the air. I was flying free and flying blind.<\/p>\n I began constantly looking for affirmation in work to ensure I was doing things right and living up to the expectations I thought had been placed on me. I fell into the ever-expected comparison game on Instagram and felt myself participating. I needed people to think I was high in the sky, loving my job and doing well in my social life. It got harder when the reality hit of crying in the bathroom at work because I was exhausted and I messed up. It got harder when I realized I didn\u2019t love the job I had been striving for and wasn\u2019t even sure if I was in the right field.<\/p>\n I wish I had a, \u201chere\u2019s the secret tip to success\u201d sentence for you, but I don\u2019t. You\u2019re going to have a hard time when you leave school. And so is everyone else. We all experience different kinds of propelling and we all feel the same heart-drop moment of fear when it\u2019s gone. You have to learn to create your own wind and stay in the air and it\u2019s going to take a while. Create your own milestones and celebrate personal achievements. The scariest part: realize they aren\u2019t what you thought they\u2019d be.<\/p>\n It\u2019s finding your \u201cpeople\u201d in your new town, it\u2019s buying your own car, it\u2019s working your way out of a scary situation, it\u2019s your first solo vacation, it\u2019s your first interview at another company when you realize it\u2019s time to move on \u2026 it\u2019s whatever you want it to be.<\/p>\n So keep being propelled. Get as high in the sky as you can. And begin to brace for impact, because it\u2019s going to be terrifying when you\u2019re free flying. But you can soar, whatever your definition of soaring may be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Written by Maeghen Carter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You\u2019re currently being propelled. Surprise. You feel like you\u2019re independently flying and making your own path, but soon that gust is gone before you realize how much you relied on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15068,"featured_media":10865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863","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\/15068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10866,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863\/revisions\/10866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}