Jumping out of Swings
posted by Michael Schneider | | My Thoughts
Remember when you were a kid? When you could sing. When you were an artist with your work displayed on the refrigerator. When you were an architect in the sandbox. When you could sell anything. When you jumped out of swings.
What happened? What happened to that kid who could do anything?
When I was a kid I collected stuff. Some notable collections included rocks, bugs, ball point pens, hats, insects, bottles and baseball cards. (My baseball card collection funded part of my McPherson College education.) At the age of 7, I decided to turn my bedroom into a museum where I could display my collections. I turned a 10 x 20 room into the Smithsonian of Rossville, KS. I invited people over—mainly my parent’s friends and family members to start. After a while word got around about my little museum and at the peak of its success my spiral ring note book had 6 pages full of visitor names. Then one Saturday a friend came over. I asked him if he wanted to tour my museum. I took him to my room. He laughed and said, “that’s stupid.” So, what do you think I did? I closed the museum.
So, who told you that you couldn’t sing?
Somewhere along the way we lose something. Maybe it is confidence…maybe courage. Maybe we just decided to do as we are told.
What if you could get some of that back? The college days are the sweet spot of life. The time when we can get some of that back. What if you went to a college that didn’t dock you for making mistakes? What if you went to a college were there weren’t all those rules—discipline, but not so many rules. How about a place that placed more value on ideas than majors? What if you were a liberal arts graduate—an entrepreneur.
What if you just closed your eyes, kicked your legs out and jumped out of that swing—you might fly.
Leave a Reply
