I have never considered myself a man of fear but a man above fear. One of my favorite movies, one I just watched recently with my girlfriend who has somehow never been exposed to a Batman movie, is Batman Begins. The theme in the film is overcoming your fears by putting them in their place and maybe even channeling them into a purpose. My fear as a child was the terrible, ominous dark. I thought I overcame it then. My dad, hopefully with my consent (although I can't remember), would put me in dark rooms by myself to overcome my fear. And it worked as far as I'm aware. I don't remember being scared of it all that much as a child, and it's been a long, long time since I thought someone or something was following me as I quickly ascended unlit stairs to the safe haven of a room with a light switch. (If your reader voice is out of breath from that sentence, then you understand the feeling of trying to get to that light.)
But it's not really the dark children are scared of, is it? It's the unknown. The dark is a stand-in for the unknown and all that comes with it. What I've realized--more recently than I would like to admit--is that the best way to overcome the unknown is to depower it by making it known. I don't mean making the unknown known in any particular way other than understanding the unknown exists for everyone. So in that way, the unknown is quite known.
My unknown for the longest time was my career. And actually, it still is. My takeaway from a career class I took in 2018 was that major doesn't matter as much as an ability to adapt coupled with a growth mindset does. I think I looked at majors as shackles rather than keys. I was so concerned about picking the right key for the right door that I didn't realize the door doesn't lead to a single path. A college degree, no matter what it is, propels a person forward. Forward is the direction I want to go. I shouldn't be scared of forward. There are many vehicles carrying me forward, and at anytime I can put one of them into park.
So yea. I'm a Management Information Systems major, and we'll see where this vehicle takes me.
Road to the Unknown
