Start something!

Browntrack, St. Regis Falls, NY Mar 2023

"The most important step of all is the first step. Start something! What if that idea you have in the back of your head is a really good one, one that might end up helping tens of thousands of people? You owe it to the world ot act. Or maybe it will help only a few people: The same advice applies. If you don't do it, you are missing out on something big, and so are the people who could have been helped." ~ Blake Mycoskie

And so it is. This blog now begins with this first step. I like this quote because in many ways it is a reflection of this blog, my current journey and I'd like to say, my general take on things.

First the blog. Full disclosure time. The reason the blog is starting here and now is in order to fulfill a homework assignment. Yes that's right. After more years than I will disclose on this blog at this time, I am once again a matriculated student in an institution of higher education worrying about enrolling in classes, meeting with advisors, ordering text books and completing homework assignments on time. I would be lying if I didn't say it feels a little weird at times. Mostly because returning to school hasn't always been on my ultimate bucket list. But just as I recall from my first trip through college, it is amazing what the experience does for creating new capacity in your mind and your thinking, and how those things translate into new actions and doing things you haven't done before. Say like, starting a blog....

The Journey. So that gets me to the start back to school. The start for me began two summers ago when I enrolled in a 200 level technical writing course. My reasons were clear, it was online, the subject matter aligned with my professional development and it was paid for by my employer. Above all, it was a fairly low stakes way for me to see if I could still do it. Seriously, I had been out of school for so long - I truly wondered if 'it' was still there for me. I also wondered if I would be able to balance the additional work load with my family life. We had all adjusted to my working full time after many years of being stay at home, then working half time, taking classes would be something new in the ever changing dynamic of raising a family. So it started, I jumped through the hurdles necessary to make it happen and guess what - I loved it. I had fun stepping back into that role. I had the opportunity to meet some other fellow students, many of whom were international students trying to fill some requirements prior to their arrival in the fall. Talk about challenges! I couldn't imagine their stress and it gave me a new lens for students who study internationally. Anyway, taking that class gave me the confidence to continue, and so shortly after that I figured out how to apply, get my old transcripts (turns out you don't need to stand in line at the registrar's office anymore) and the rest is history. So it all begins with a start, and before you know it you look back and you can't remember what it was like before the start happened.

So I share all of this because I hope it motivates someone thinking about starting something. Getting started can seem like a very scary thing. There are unknowns, with questions to be answered and potential missteps. It's that awkward, first date feeling. Not sure what the right move is, and not sure it will be worth it. My thought on this is to just do it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you try something and it doesn't work out, well you've learned something on that. But if it does workout, well you have all the potential you dreamed about at your fingertips.

I hope to be back again in future posts to share more on my experience as a non traditional, grad student and what I am learning to enhance my interest in learning design. I'm having a blast and can't wait to see what the next start brings me.