Luckily, I woke up in a writing mood today. Unfortunately, that 10-15 pager due on Tuesday didn't seem all that appealing. But I do think I have an idea for a college essay, so that's productive enough I think. I really despise these essay questions the way I don't care for those trick questions they ask you during job interviews. I never know what they want to hear and I don't like the questions that seem to be asking for your life's pity-party story, or the ones that want a 600 word brag about how awesome you are. But I went to sleep thinking about quilts and I woke up thinking about how much I like to do and make things, so here's the question and my brain-storm/first draft.
Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you? 250-650 words.
(Connecting concepts to real life things, applying knowledge to life. <-- that's kinda what I'm trying to communicate, that I can do that. But then also that I know when to calm the ef down and just do something...)
I am most content when I am learning. I have a tendency to over complicate my life and stress about things I cannot fix and things I cannot control. I find when I am learning a new concept or even applying an old one to a new thing I've never tried, I am able to find some peace. In these moments I can slow down and center myself. Being a student is difficult at times. Feeling the pressure of endless deadlines and massive papers and complicated projects, I find that it is important for me to step back from it all. I do this with learning. I find myself a new task, one I can handle and one that can be completed, and focus my attention there. While I am working on this new thing, be it a small painting or a giant quilt, I can refocus my thoughts and energy into one tangible thing. When I complete this new project, it fills me with a sense of accomplishment and a boost of motivation that gives me the confidence to finish my other, more pressing, tasks.
I have always liked to draw and a few years ago I taught myself to paint. I like building things and discovering how things work. I like creating things with my hands and learning to cook new meals. When I set out on these new tasks I find myself forgetting the stress I feel and I can focus and engulf myself in this one thing. I like to think about the first person who discovered the particular course of action for whatever project I am working on. When I cook a new recipe, I think about the first person who ever thought of combining the ingredients and I wonder why they chose what they did. When I taught myself to reupholster a chair I had, I wondered about the people who do that sort of work all the time. My fingers were so sore and the only thing that kept me motivated was the vision of how beautiful it would be when I was finished. I wondered if they felt the same way I did; if they liked to take something old and used and turn it into something brand new. I learned to make "crazy" quilts a few years ago around this time in the fall semester. I wondered if this technique was discovered through necessity or if it was just a creative impulse. I wondered if the first quilt maker had run out of fabric and had to finish their last piece or if they simply had a family to keep warm and could not afford to buy the larger bolts of cloth. I learned to make chocolate truffles and wondered about the chemistry that goes into keeping the chocolate in temper so it doesn't melt at room temperature.
Every time I finish a project I feel refreshed and motivated. It does not always matter if I was good at it or not. Sometimes I never do the same thing again. But sometimes I do. With the painting and the chocolate making I have found quick and simple projects that will help me refocus and put my life back in balance when I need it. This is my meditation. It may sound silly to imagine fictitious stories about people who may have never existed. It may seem more practical to research and attempt to discover where this stuff really came from but for me, that would defeat the purposelessness of it all. For me, it is not about the facts, it's about the discovery and the imagination. I try to save the evidence for the classroom and the research for the paper. When I need contentment and peace, I make something just for the sake of doing it.
(639 words) Whadda ya think?? Opinions and constructive advice if ya wanna!
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