{"id":10919,"date":"2018-04-19T21:48:50","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T03:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=10919"},"modified":"2018-04-19T21:48:50","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T03:48:50","slug":"braver-than-you-believe-this-is-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2018\/04\/19\/braver-than-you-believe-this-is-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Braver than you believe | This is forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

My mom always thought I was weird for loving \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d so much. She preferred \u201cThe Wizard of Oz.\u201d But I loved that the story was full of inspiration and <\/b>metaphors. One of my favorites is when Alice asks the White Rabbit, \u201cHow long is forever?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cSometimes, just one second,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

I know, time is relative in Wonderland, so he\u2019s probably being literal about that, but I think it\u2019s true in the real world as well. Sometimes forever can be found in just one second.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like in the movie \u201cThe Perks of Being a Wallflower.\u201d There\u2019s a scene where the main character and his two friends drive a truck through a tunnel with the radio blasting. One of them stands up in the truck bed, and you can see the wind filling the space around her. The main character does a voiceover and says that, in that moment, they felt infinite.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, academics dominate our lives. We\u2019re constantly thinking about what internship we could possibly land for the summer or how low we can score on that last test and keep a B. This stress can consume our lives and make us feel stuck in this moment, unable to see where we\u2019re going. I think my roommate Hollee said it better than I could. She said, \u201cTime flies by when you\u2019re having fun, but when you\u2019re stressed, every moment feels like a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hollee and I have made a tradition of going to Little Rock the Saturday before dead week in order to let go of some of this stress. We call it the Idealist Trip\u2122 because our Myers Briggs personality types are INFP and INFJ, both of which fall into the idealist category. We hit up all the essential places: the River Market for bubble tea and that three-story book store, the mall, Kimchi\u2019s restaurant and Target. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That day allows us to step outside the stress and remind ourselves that, though we might feel like the stress will last forever, it will later feel like just another moment in our lives. Even though it\u2019s only a day trip to a town I grew up near, it serves as a way to remind us that there\u2019s more to our lives than this. Wandering around Little Rock, snapping pics of my best friend power posing on top of a stone bench by the river \u2014 it\u2019s exactly what we need to feel infinite, even for just a moment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

School has never been easy for me. I, like many others, grew up with an older sibling that set high standards in terms of grades. I don\u2019t think I ever really matched up to her in that regard, but when I look back at middle and high school, I don\u2019t remember what my grades were. I remember sitting on the sidewalk with her at lunch and talking about the boy she had a crush on. I remember spending afternoons at the library, exchanging book recommendations with her. It didn\u2019t matter if I made an A in AP Literature, which I didn\u2019t. What\u2019s important is that I made it through the class, which I did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written a total of 20 columns this past academic year. I started each before this one with the idea that this time in our lives is important because it will determine our future. Now, I\u2019ve learned that it\u2019s also important because this is the time for us to make memories that we\u2019ll one day look back on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of my very first column of the year, I challenged anyone who read it to take chances and push themselves in order to grow. I said this is your chance. To conclude my final column of the year, I\u2019d like to challenge you to continue this process. But I\u2019d like to add to it a reminder for both of us to take the time to make memories that will make us feel infinite.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll end this one the same as how we started, by reminding you that you are capable. No matter where you go from here, I know you can make it. And when you\u2019re not sure about that, remember two things. First, sometimes forever can be just one moment, whether it\u2019s good or bad. The stress won\u2019t last. And second, as Christopher Robin said, \u201cYou are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My mom always thought I was weird for loving \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d so much. She preferred \u201cThe Wizard of Oz.\u201d But I loved that the story was full of inspiration…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14924,"featured_media":9250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10919","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=10919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10920,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10919\/revisions\/10920"}],"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=10919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}