Tension is who you think you should be.  Relaxation is who you are.  ~Chinese Proverb

Curt Rosengren shared this proverb recently, and it just really struck a chord with me. Honestly, it fits well with his belief that you should do what you’re passionate about, and it’s been my experience that your passions tend to uncover themselves in what you do when no one expects anything from you.

(In my case, this means I should somehow or other be deeply involved with animation, since that seems to take up quite a bit of my free time. Or perhaps I should find a way to get paid to sit around and read books or play video games. I do a lot of both of those as well.)

Actually, I think it was taking the time to relax that taught me what I loved doing. In college, I spent much of my free time volunteering in planetaria and museums. I led tours, taught classes, and then started helping develop shows and workshops. In fact, i spent a seven-year chunk of my life pursuing museum education from a volunteer perspective while I tried to get through grad school and into a paid museum education position.

Fate did not turn out to be with me. I left grad school too qualified for most museums to seriously entertain my resume. The problem was, I’d spent so much of my free time involved in museum education that I’ve been left wandering a bit lost since I left grad school. Now, I think I’m somewhat afraid to do anything in my free time for fear of going through this cycle all over again.
Somehow, I have to figure out what brings me the same kind of giddiness that museum education did.

Posted by Rebecca in Uncategorized