Dislikes and Future Selfs

So Mary Hansen was okay. What really surprised me and I must admit greatly admired from her, was that she immediately sat down to talk with us. Presenters that have come to the class usually stand and deliver their lectures however, Mrs. Hanson immediately sat herself down and asked us what it was that we wanted to talk about it. I really admired that. She let us direct the conversation to our specific thoughts and ideas. Not many lecturers that I know have ever subjected their conversations to the will of a group of college freshmen. It takes courage to do something like that, to not follow a plan and just go with the flow, especially if you're the main speaker.

Though she gave advice that I had heard before, like "don't expect your life to follow a plan that you've laid out for it", she said something that I had never thought of. She said that in order to find what it is that we are passionate for, we must also find our dislikes. It makes sense. I mean, what if we become so focused on finding the things we like, that we completely forget to be more spontaneous and willing to try something new? And if we lose this spontaneity, could we possibly be missing out on opportunities to discover something that we could have loved to do? It was a very interesting thought. She was asking us to step out of our comfort zone and to realize that though we may be enamored with an idea that we hope to one day become, we must accept that every day is a struggle to define yourself and a struggle to let go of this vision of our future selves. For all we know, this vision that we hold for ourselves may be blinding us from other choices and options that we must take.