“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma- which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
– Steve Jobs
At orientation, Dean Brady discussed why do we blog? I may be paraphrasing his response, but I believe we blog so that we can grapple with complex constructs, begin to feel comfortable with our opinions and ideas, and have the confidence to articulate these ideas and defend them.
Now I consider myself to be an opinionated person, so when I first heard this I thought “Of course”. However, now that I’ve been reflecting a lot on our first class, I recognize putting your thoughts into actions may be harder for me than I originally expected. Although I thoroughly enjoyed class and learned a lot from my classmates, I barely said anything.
Do my opinions matter if they never get heard? I won’t influence anyone if I remain silence. Yes I recognize these points are fairly obvious, but I think they are important reminders for myself and others. Especially in a crowd of well-educated, strong-willed personas, I need to give myself that extra push to speak up.
There was once a point in time when I didn’t consciously question my thoughts before I spoke; if I had an idea, it just came out. I think most people call this having “no filter”. This changed as I grew up and matured. Mainly throughout high school, and especially through out our rhetoric and civic life course freshman year, I became increasingly aware of the complex dynamic and difference between what I want to say, and how others may perceive it. I have come to believe there is this strange grey area between your brain and your mouth that sometimes does not fully capture your vivid thoughts. Now knowing that this grey area exists, I am almost constantly analyzing things like word choice, tone of voice, and posture because I know the power it has over other people’s perception of me.
I do fear now that my new awareness is transforming into a self-consciousness inhibiting me from even trying to translate my thoughts into words. I guess I could have worse problems; I could have no thoughts at all, but I seriously need to muster up some courage!
Recognizing this makes me excited for PLA next week, and the rest of my three years. I have three years to practice and work, and hopefully improve.
I have the next few days to read, read, read about national security and form a confident credible argument. And next Tuesday evening, I promise to voice my opinions. I want to spark conversation. I want to be a catalyst for thoughts.