Graphics Editor Jake Hunn dives into new experiences.
By: Jake Hunn
Graphics Editor
If this ever-changing world in which we’re living makes you give in and cry, you are not alone. As college students, we are exposed to changes everyday that don’t always seem to be congruent with the lives that we want to live. Whether such changes are positive or negative, they are universally inevitable. Fortunately, there are ways to use change to develop and grow.
One must find their comfort zone and avoid it at all costs. Comfort is the antagonist in the tale of one’s development. In order to develop, one must try new approaches to whatever the problem may be. In most cases lives are not at stake, so why not try something a little different? As a rule of thumb, if something makes someone uncomfortable, chances are that they are on the right track. The most experienced people in any line of work know not only the right way to solve a problem, but also all the wrong ways. Discomfort is a necessary part of growth and without it one remains in complacency for the duration of their comfort.
Turn and face the strange. Never pass up an opportunity because it “doesn’t seem like something you would normally do.” One cannot develop a craft by practicing the same things every day; there is always something to be learned. As John Mayer put it, “I’ve tried every approach to living and I’ve tried, tried it all. I haven’t tried everything, but I’ve tried every approach. Sometimes you have to try everything to get the approach the same.” By trying everything, even if it deviates from what one considers “their thing” one can find a new approach to whatever their thing may be. As the infamous cliché goes, all is well that ends well. If it takes 100 tries to get something right, one also learns 99 ways to get it wrong.
“It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.” Ira Glass put it best in his famous quote often referred to as “The Gap.” Each and every person striving for development experiences a gap between the quality of their work and the work they would like to be producing. The only way to fill such a gap is to show up everyday and finish as much work as possible. It is easy to avoid work out of fear that it may not measure up to personal standards. However, it is important to overcome that mentality because by creating as much work as possible one is bound to stumble across something that satisfies one’s own ambitions.
