Thoughtful Thursday | When Opportunities Arise

“Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.” 

                                                                          –Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and author

I aspire to be one of the greatest journalists of our time. I do not wish for mediocrity. I wish to be the best. In order to accomplish this dream, it is my job to not wait for opportunities to come knocking. It is my job to chase down these opportunities, tackle them, and claim them for myself. I do not care if these occasions are inconvenient or require a little hard work and dedication on my part – it is the experience that will help me achieve my dreams.

As this semester draws to a close, I am forever grateful for the priceless experience I have received while working for the alumni relations department of BYU Magazine, and am ecstatic to see my first story in print by the time the next quarterly magazine is released. But the time has come to take these skills I have learned and build off of them in order to expand my talents. This summer I will be picking up and moving my life. Again. This time, to Kentucky. I will be a social media marketing intern through Bloc Marketing.

At this point, moving another 1,500 miles away doesn’t seem that bad after my recent moves from Washington to Utah and Florida. I am taking claim of an opportunity that I chased down, and will use these newfound talents to further my career in the field of communications. In this internship, I will learn to communicate with audiences more effectively and efficiently. It will definitely be a change from writing for a magazine, where which it is very passive and there is not a whole lot of interaction between me and the reader. Contrarily, this internship will successfully challenge me as I actively interact with audiences in real time.

So my message to you: Chase down those opportunities and take them! Do not worry about what others will think, the inconvenience it may cause, or the hard work it will require. If it brings you one step closer to achieving your dream, do it!

Growing Up

Like most other kids, I was continually anxious to become an adult. I mean, that is what everything in my life was culminating towards. Fourteen years of sports, hundreds of tests and exams, numberless honors and advanced placement classes, hours of volunteer work, and more extracurricular activities than I could handle. Nearly from birth, I was working to develop skills and gain knowledge that would get me into a suitable university.

Ok, I made it. Now what?

Almost two weeks ago, I walked into the College of Fine Arts and Communications here at BYU, and walked out not three minutes later with a different major.

Last year I was making money dishwashing. Last semester I was making pizzas and frying chicken nuggets at Walt Disney World. Now I’m sitting in a small cubical typing away at my keyboard, writing updates and small articles for BYU Magazine.

In August I flew out of Seattle, not fully comprehending that it was the last time I would live there for any extended period of time. I dropped everything and moved as far away as possible within the country: Florida. And after five short months, I am settled once again in Utah.

Faster than we know it, everything is changing. Before I could even understand where my life was taking me, I was already there.

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Today I decide to take a few short minutes to step off of this high speed train and simply watch it as it shoots past me in a blur. I look around at my life, not entirely sure how I got here, and with no idea as to where the train will take me next. Yet despite all of the confusion, I am satisfied. Even though it may travel through a few dark tunnels, pass over some extremely tall mountains, endure through storm after storm, and stop to drop off a few loved passengers here and there, I feel assured that I am going to love where this train takes me. And who knows, maybe we’ll pick up a few straggling travelers in a stop or two, with the hope that some of them will stay on this train until it reaches its final destination.

Yes, I am growing up. Yes, I am traveling on a train moving at a dangerously fast speed. No, I do not know where it is going. So now what?

I look up to see the train slowing to a halt. Before it takes off without me, I step off the platform and into the coach. I find a seat next to a kind stranger, and look out the window to see the vast landscape roll by once again.