Contending with Possibilities

First of all, I’d like to thank Meg McGinty for introducing me to Blogspot(check out her blog “Invigorate the Ordinary”)...it took me two months to garner the courage to write this first entry. If you know me, you know I’m neurotic, in the oddest sense of the word. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and writing and publishing this blog with MY NAME on it, frightened me tremendously. But here I am, and I’d like to explain why.

Over the past few months, I’ve shifted from embracing all the opportunities and experiences my college education continues to offer me and become defensive – desperately trying to hold on to my dreams. Let me define those for you: I want to be a journalist. I want to be a traveling, story-telling journalist. I want to see the world and embrace people of all walks of life. I want to fight for them. I want to tell their stories. And above all, through these stories I want to help the world to become a more compassionate, understanding whole – together mending all injustices.

I know. It’s a bit ambitious, but those dreams ultimately drive me and I’m worried they are slipping out of my reach. I don’t want to get lost in the shuffle. I’m lucky to have so many opportunities continuously permeating my realm, but they have required me to make difficult decisions. What should I do? What do professional journalists recommend I do? Is this really the path I want to start treading down? So many choices! I feel as though I’m continuously contending with possibilities.

I’d like to take you on this journey, but I have to warn you it will get pretty rocky at times. I may get down to the menial choices such as which metro to take, whether or not to eat another cookie; but I’ll also rant and rave and advocate ways to not lose sight of your dreams. Hopefully, at the end of all of this, I’ll succeed and some of these dreams will come into fruition.

I sure hope not all of you are as frightened as me of your dreams just withering away…

My inspiration for the summer (printed on the cover a beautiful diary Michael Mercuri and I found in “The Islander” on the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk):

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” - Eleanor Roosevelt