Vulnerability

I feel like I'm in that moment where you have to speak in class for a presentation and somehow get stuck going right behind the best speaker in the class...thanks Emma...

Bringing it back to another serious topic (this is always a sign that I have too much time on my hands to think deeply about these things), one word that has been on my mind a lot is vulnerability. One of my favorite things to do is to listen to people just talk about things in life and lately vulnerability has been popping up frequently. 

I had mentioned that I few weeks ago amid procrastination, I was looking through the top TED Talks of all time. One was titled the power of vulnerability and it focused on our inability to accept imperfection stating that after deep research, psychologists found that happiest people were the ones who were able to allow themselves to be vulnerable. Thinking about it, I definitely agree with the study- some of the happiest people I know are the people who put themselves out there when meeting new people and are ok with laughing at themselves. However, this seems to contradict basically everything that society tells us. It's funny, but for some reason, I am a lot more self conscious of who I am in college than I ever was in high school (though this may have to do with that fact that by the end of senior year I was just livin life and to be honest really didn't care much except for having fun and getting out at soon as possible). We are obsessed with the idea of not being vulnerable, putting ourselves out there too much, showing mistakes or keeping tagged photos up where we look less than profile picture worthy. 


Despite the fact that it is freshman year, people in my class are already thinking about life beyond Bucknell- what they want in a career, what they want to study in grad school and even when they want to get married. They have their lives figured out and know where they want to go, trying to piece their future and find the path to get there, and I'm not gonna lie, I do too. But at the same time, one of my goals is to try to do something different-to explore and see the world. I've asked older adults what things they wished they had done when they were younger that they would do if they could go back and many said travel the world, and though it terrifies me, my dream is that the year after I get out of college I can take a "post college gap year" and travel. 

I hope my clearly developed and experienced 18 year old mind has left you something to think about, but I highly recommend watching this TED Talk for more. I also apologize in advance for any typos because I am writing this while listening to an Econ lecture... To quote Ms. Frizzle: take chances, make mistakes and get messy. Happy Mid Week!

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