Thursday, January 27, 2011

inspired by my little eiffel tower...

I’m taking a lot of communication classes, as in all of my classes this semester are COM. So my homework for my interpersonal class yesterday was to bring in an object that I thought best represented me. Such a trivial assignment should have been easy but somehow I didn’t want to bring in a typical thing like: a tennis ball “because I just love playing tennis”, or a spatula “because I think cooking is fun”. I didn’t want to limit myself to such simple items. So after days of contemplating such an important item I finally settled on a key chain my best friend had given me when I was a sophomore in high school.
I know, how lame is a key chain? I might as well have told the class I loved being in fifth grade and wanted to start the key chain collecting fad all over again. But the key chain was a miniature Eiffel Tower from Paris that she had brought back for me on her spring break adventure with her family to France a few years earlier. The more I thought about this simple key chain, the more I realized it was the perfect item to represent myself and what I wanted my class to know about me.
When I think of the Eiffel Tower I think of: ambition, hope, dreams, love, romance and beauty. The key chain doesn’t represent that I am all of these things, but that I want all of these things out of life. I want to travel the world, I want to be successful, I want to fall in love, I want to achieve all of my dreams and have the world at my fingertips. That’s what the Eiffel Tower means to me, and that’s what I want out of life.
If you haven’t read the book Eat, Pray, Love, you must. I’ve always been ambitious and hopeful but reading this book over Christmas break took that ambition and hope to a whole new level for me. It made me think about what I really want out of life and what I have to do and put in to get that. So I created a plan. Which is another thing my Eiffel Tower made me realize about myself; I love plans. I like having an overall goal and then knowing what my next three steps need to be. So this is what I came up with: I want to get an internship this summer (doing anything really, as long as it means I’m not at home), travel abroad for all of my junior year (but at two different locations, one continent fall semester, and a different continent spring semester), get an internship abroad for the summer before my senior year (once again, anywhere really, doing anything as well), and finish my college degree here at UNCW living on the beach and hopefully taking on some leadership roles along the way. I get antsy just thinking about “the plan” for the remainder of my college years. But at the same time, I can’t wait!
Thus starts my blog and the stories of my various dreams and aspirations over the semester. I was thinking about starting one this summer as the adventures hopefully will commence but now is as good of a time as any. So here is the insight into my plan, my ambitions, and travels. Even if this is simply a semester long class assignment, I hope to turn it into something I can continue and work at throughout my next few years. So I will leave you with one last thought and something I take to heart:
“The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try it and the faith to believe it is possible.” – Anonymous.
Erin.

3 comments:

  1. Erin this entry was so moving :) You are a great story teller! I have wanted to start a blog too, but haven't gotten up the guts to do it. Even though this is an assignment now, I do hope you continue because you never know where it can lead you. Take care and if you ever need any support in your dreams, ambitions and hopes...I'm always here!

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  2. I think that you have picked an appropriate item to draw inspiration from not only in the key chain but in the Eiffel Tower itself. It has a strong foundation and base from which it is built upon as do you and it was built in many steps of which you are attempting to create for yourself @ this point in time. The big goal may seem overwhelming when you're standing right next to it, but if you pull yourself back from it, you'll realize that you can see it from a much fairer vantage point and are able to accomplish anything you put your mind too. Keep up the blog I look forward to further entries. *thumbs up* Jeremy

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  3. wow, beautifully written. it was fun yet mature and inspirational. it read so fluidly that i was sad to find myself suddenly at the end. great touch with the quote, haven't heard that one before. can't wait to keep reading!

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