{"id":734,"date":"2014-03-28T16:13:49","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T16:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/?p=734"},"modified":"2014-03-28T16:13:49","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T16:13:49","slug":"focus-then-glance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/2014\/03\/28\/focus-then-glance\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus, Then Glance"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know what\u2019s crazy? I\u00a0just\u00a0returned from spring break, and suddenly in four weeks I will have officially completed my freshman year of college.\u00a0That\u00a0is crazy.<\/span><\/p>\n

This home stretch is such an interesting one \u2013 it\u2019s full of preparing yourself to say goodbye to the routines and comforts you\u2019ve developed over the past seven months, and also time to say hello to countless new opportunities on the horizon. I\u2019m a quarter of the way through\u2026 And yet, it feels as though nothing has changed, and I\u2019m still just beginning this college journey.<\/p>\n

One example of an opportunity is one that\u2019s been on my mind almost constantly over the past few weeks.\u00a0A friend of mine and I are looking into studying abroad in Europe next Spring via a program that CBU has an affiliation with\u2014as\u00a0if CBU needed to add to their list of incredible opportunities!<\/p>\n

Since we\u2019re both graphic design majors, Caitlin and I are having so much fun sorting through the various art schools in\u00a0Rome\u00a0andFlorence, jittery with excitement at the idea of living in\u00a0another country for a semester.\u00a0To wake up, pick up a mug of Italian coffee and some delicious Tuscan pastries before glancing over our shoulder–only to see the silhouette\u00a0of the coliseum in the distance.\u00a0What a daydream!<\/p>\n

Therein\u00a0lies\u00a0the problem. I am\u00a0so\u00a0much of a daydreamer that I often struggle to remain firm enough in the present to focus! Focus on the here\u00a0and\u00a0now,\u00a0focus on the present,\u00a0focus.<\/p>\n

I wrote in an earlier blog about how my mom used to tell me when I was in elementary school, after I\u2019d complain about how the school days drag on forever, that, \u201cWhen you are older, time just seems to go so much faster.\u201d I never believed her\u2026 until I did.<\/p>\n

With that reflection in mind, and especially\u00a0realizing that an entire year of college has nearly escaped my reach, I\u2019m learning the importance of balancing what consumes my mind between the present\u00a0reality and my future daydreams. This is no simple feat for me, as I learned in my FOCUS class earlier this year. We were required to take a personality test which revealed our five top strengths \u2013 two of mine were Ideation and Futuristic. Enough said?<\/p>\n

So if, having almost completed my first year, I have enough credibility to give some advice to graduating high school seniors, it would be this: when it comes to going to school for the purpose of\u00a0planning\u00a0<\/a>a future, exercise focusing on the here and now so that you may succeed in whatever it is you intend to do.<\/p>\n

But also, learn to daydream if you haven\u2019t already, because that\u2019s what will ultimately propel you through every homestretch.<\/p>\n

Focus, focus\u2026 then glance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know what\u2019s crazy? I\u00a0just\u00a0returned from spring break, and suddenly in four weeks I will have officially completed my freshman year of college.\u00a0That\u00a0is crazy. This home stretch is such an interesting one \u2013 it\u2019s full of preparing yourself to say goodbye to the routines and comforts you\u2019ve developed over the past seven months, and also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/lancerdiaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}