For one of my classes we have to do a mission statement.
I have been thinking about this assignment ever since I heard about it, which was about 1 1/2 years ago...yeah, I realize that is a long time. Anyways, I just recently started really thinking about it. What my mission statement was and all of that...and then I learned we also had to present it. Originally, no lie, I thought Okay, that's easy..powerpoint. Boom. Done. Then I learned it wasn't that kind of presentation. No, this presentation was something much different. This presentation had to be real, had to be legit, and in some sense, had to have creativity in some fashion. Once I realized that, my first thought was Crap. I don't have a creative bone in my body. And then! To make it even more difficult. We weren't given any guidelines. No restrictions, nothing. Just go. Just do a mission statement.
If you know me at all, you know that I need guidelines. I need something! I don't do the whole "run with it" and just go with the flow thing. To give you an example, sometimes people say "just write". Just write whatever comes to mind, don't think, just write. Here's the issue with me: Nothing comes to my mind. Nothing flows from my writing utensil (or fingers when typing) if I am not given anything. Nothing happens. I'm telling you, I need guidelines. I need something. Something I have learned about myself over the recent years is that I can be "creative", I can stretch my mind and do kind of cool things. But only when I am given some guideline. It sounds weird and I can better explain it if you want, but it's true. If you give me nothing to start with, I will end up with nothing. If you give me just a little smidgen of something, I can end up with something neat and potentially beyond your expectations. But I need something.
So anyways, my point is that our only guideline was this: Do a mission statement.
Uh? That left me with 902358935830 questions and zero ideas.
Last week I was finally given some kind of guideline, some kind of starting point. I should pick something I care about or something I am good at and roll with that.
What I am good at:
I have been thinking about this assignment ever since I heard about it, which was about 1 1/2 years ago...yeah, I realize that is a long time. Anyways, I just recently started really thinking about it. What my mission statement was and all of that...and then I learned we also had to present it. Originally, no lie, I thought Okay, that's easy..powerpoint. Boom. Done. Then I learned it wasn't that kind of presentation. No, this presentation was something much different. This presentation had to be real, had to be legit, and in some sense, had to have creativity in some fashion. Once I realized that, my first thought was Crap. I don't have a creative bone in my body. And then! To make it even more difficult. We weren't given any guidelines. No restrictions, nothing. Just go. Just do a mission statement.
If you know me at all, you know that I need guidelines. I need something! I don't do the whole "run with it" and just go with the flow thing. To give you an example, sometimes people say "just write". Just write whatever comes to mind, don't think, just write. Here's the issue with me: Nothing comes to my mind. Nothing flows from my writing utensil (or fingers when typing) if I am not given anything. Nothing happens. I'm telling you, I need guidelines. I need something. Something I have learned about myself over the recent years is that I can be "creative", I can stretch my mind and do kind of cool things. But only when I am given some guideline. It sounds weird and I can better explain it if you want, but it's true. If you give me nothing to start with, I will end up with nothing. If you give me just a little smidgen of something, I can end up with something neat and potentially beyond your expectations. But I need something.
So anyways, my point is that our only guideline was this: Do a mission statement.
Uh? That left me with 902358935830 questions and zero ideas.
Last week I was finally given some kind of guideline, some kind of starting point. I should pick something I care about or something I am good at and roll with that.
What I am good at:
- Walking
- Okay, so I do trip...often
- Breathing
- Okay, so one of my favorite things about cold weather is that I can see my breath, which not only allows me to feel like a dragon, it also reminds me that I am breathing. (Soo maybe I am not good at breathing if I need to be reminded that I am...)
- Loving
- Well, sometimes. Sort of.
- How the heck am I supposed to tangibly present love to a class?
- Writing
- What am I going to do, write a paper and read it?
What I care about:
- Jesus
- People
- Injustices
Alriiiiiiiiight....so those lists were not the least bit helpful for me. The first list led me nowhere. That second list, how the heck am I supposed to put that into a "presentation"?
Then I thought, maybe I am thinking about this too logically. I need to just embrace irrationality and figure out a way to make something out of nothing.
Well, that thought failed. It may work for you all, but not for me. I am logical (usually...). So why would I get rid of my logic when I am trying to produce my mission statement? Why get rid of something that is part of me when I am trying to state who I am and what I am doing in my life? That seems silly.
So I thought. And thought. And thought some more. And I embraced my logic. And I think I have finally came up with something.
It may not be as cool looking as other people's. It may not be as impressive as some others. It may not be as creative, it may not even be as emotional as others. But it's my statement. It's going to be logical. It's going to make sense. It's going to be done in a way that I do my life.
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