Week 1 Reflection: New Beginnings

Beginnings have always excited me. There is something about having a fresh start that just gets me ecstatic! I have had some rough beginnings, I have had beginnings that are better than the middle and end, and I have had some, which are the best, the beginnings that set the perfect path for the intended goal, or whatever the "end", may be.

This week I started a new semester of college. Now, this year has been very interesting for me. Interesting in both positive, and negative ways. First off, I dealt with a severe family emergency (which I might write more about in the future, but that is not the intention of this post), I managed to land a good job and had a good experience, I went through other personal things, and the list goes on, like I'm sure many of peoples lists. The way I would describe it: chaos. It's how life can be. Many probably relate. well, I had a few moments over the summer that I consider to be revelatory, and the biggest one is simple: The only one who has control over you, is YOU. You are the start to everything that needs to be set in order in your life. You have to be the one to take charge. In the words of Micheal Jackson: "If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and make that change". Many other sayings such as "be the change you want to see in the world" illustrate this idea. 

So how do these things fall in line with what I learned this week? I feel a lot of what I read in my "Intro to Entrepreneurship" class really reflected everything I said above. How so?

Something I have always been passionate about is movies and books, specifically ones about heroes. From Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Iron Man, Batman, and many others, many of them follow something in narratology called "the hero's journey". This style of writing allows the hero to experience growth, nuances, hardships, challenges, triumphs, tragedies, and many other experiences that shape them into the hero the become by the climax of the story. R.K Davenport says it best: "Hero's aren't born, they're made."  Our experiences, trials, and hardships in life can either define us, or hopefully, they refine us. At the end of the day, the one thing that will never be taken from us no matter what is how we REACT to our experiences. This is truly what makes or breaks character. 

This truth and this teaching was not only the main emphasis on this week's lessons, but "the hero's journey" format is used for the entire curriculum of the class, which I find amazing. In a class about Entrepreneurship, the thing that stood out to me this week is when we take ownership and responsibility, and become the boss of our life, we BECOME entrepreneurs automatically. We begin to be able to provide  more value to the world, and we can better help others. We are INTENTIONALLY living, and life isn't just happening around us.

So how does this log relate to the title, if you feel you aren't on your own path, and life seems to be simply happening around you, begin NOW. It is never too early, or too late. You be the one to decide to begin, at whatever you feel needs improvement in your life.