(In)Finite Enthusiasm
I want to continue to be as thrilled as now about every aspect of college I am and will soon be experiencing. The food, friends, and faculty that make Indiana Wesleyan University what it is.
But if I’m anything, I’m a realist. So I know I won’t be riding this high for long. The lack of personal space and quiet will get to me. I will feel overworked and/or unable to keep up. Something might challenge me (I might lose at bananagrams!) I might put too much on my plate in the cafeteria or in the metaphor of time distribution. The possibilites are quite endless for things to go wrong, but also to go right.
I heard this past week that the best way to approach classes is with an “insatiable desire to learn and grow”. There is always something to learn, you just have to be open to learning it. That can be a struggle. Maybe the prof is a bit monotonous and his voice soothes you to sleep… during a lecture. People who’ve seen me in classes know I tend to lounge, occasionally put my head down/close my eyes… and then go on to be completely engaged and attentive all the while. I know it will come across as disinterest to many, but the interest is there. Some lessons are too slow is all. Everyone learns differently, the way I do it is just quickly in most areas, and with a LOT of behind-the-scenes studying and researching classmates don’t typically see and I don’t need to share. For art classes, I’m not sure how I’ll be, because the demos are normally very attention-grabbing and interactive. We shall see.
I know the enthusiasm will be there for art, and even if I’m not a fan of a project result as a whole, I’ll still find a part of it to be excited about. Maybe an improved skill or one little bit I’m proud of. There’s no way I can be enthusiastic about everything. Some things are meant to be less interesting. It’s like contrast in art: things look a lot lighter with a dark background and vice versa. Similarly, events in life are a lot happier after you’ve experienced far worse. You’d only know to expect better if you’ve experienced it. I hope college will be my “better” and I can…
continue to be healthily and heartily enthusiastic.
“Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around.”
