Just Another Little Girl With Big Passions by Rosebud Anwuri #100DaysOfGrowth

All my life I heard: Set goals. Set short term, middle term, half way in between, long term and after-you-die goals. It made me a little bit depressed because while I was a really passionate person (a nice word for very crazy), I never seemed to be able to reach goals I set for myself so let's say I was unmotivated. I kept trying to understand why I was not this highly driven person in life, why I wasn't like every other smart person and at some point I just stopped bothering.

My passion have always changed. It always scared me because people seemed to have figured out their life from when they were 6 years old because they wanted to be doctors and lawyers and at that time, all I wanted to be was a shoe maker. I sort of just accepted to be average and do what I could in school. 

Then 2014 came and I developed a very strong reading culture (which has died now. Sigh). I read at least two books per week and it was a beautiful time for me because I stumbled on beautiful books, bad books and books that should have never been published. But in that time, I came across a book that I can say changed my life forever which was Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. The whole book was glorious to me but really what struck me was a particular part of the book when she heard bad rumors about her in the media and went to tell her boss, Mark Zuckerberg and knowing that she's a cries when she's mad, she told herself: 'Today I will be a professional and not cry' and the next thing she knows when she walks into his office was her wailing and Mark hugging her and comforting her. I could totally relate! I cry when I'm angry a lot and all I thought to myself when I saw that part of the book was: so people just like me succeed in life and that was my tipping point. I began to delve deeper into finding myself and unlocking this potential I'm supposed to have. 

And I learnt so many things:

1. Love what you do. I learnt that for you to be really productive and achieve what you want you must really really enjoy what you're doing not what you think you should love. When you find that thing that is your 'craft' you would push boundaries to be better at it. Anyways I've heard of people that can do things they find boring very efficiently. What do I know, I'm just a lazy person full of passion. 

2. Accept the randomness. Like I said I was always scared that my passions were always changing and to me the changes seemed really drastic. But I realized when I was writing my statement of purpose for school that every single thing I did led me up to the point I am today and I love it and would not trade it for anything. Life will always converge so long you learn to do and not overthink it. 

3. Be flexible about your goals and your process. I once read a quote that said you shouldn't set too strict goals for the future because life can change very drastically and you could limit your potential in what you want to be. We are all very scared of change. Maybe you've told all your friends you want to be the CEO of Microsoft and now what you really want to be is start a clothing line. Do you know how hard that is to start explaining yourself to everybody? Believe me I get it, I've had that problem throughout this year when people ask me why I'm no more a chemical engineer in a sense and what the hell is data science. Don't be afraid to own the person you'll become today and the person you can become tomorrow. Even if it means not telling anyone. Just don't get stuck in the person everyone expects you to be. 

4. Enjoy the process. I once read an article that talked about setting goals. It said once you set a goal, you are a failure until you complete that goal. Gosh. How depressing. But we can't go through life not setting goals. What I learnt is enjoy the process. Don't think about what you haven't done or dwell on the things you've done, just focus on putting on foot infront of the other and enjoy looking at your feet move. 

5. Be the right person. I owe the person I am today to having some AMAZING people. People that made me believe I could be anything I want to be and shaped me into the person I am today. But as I look back I realize that it was about the person I was as much as it was about the people I met. I'll explain. At the beginning of last year I made so many vows to myself after having one of the most candid yet eye opening talks with my classmate. I was one of those idiots that complained about how I never had friends or good enough ones but during the period of this growth mentally, physically and spiritually I began to see that I was attracting some awesome people in my life. It works like this, the world is give and take and you must have something to offer as a person to someone you call your friend (no, not that. Jeez your mind is dirty). As the bible says 'Iron sharpeneth iron'. Nobody that is on level 10 life-wise will come to level 1 to pick you up, it's not charity. You come up to level 10 so you and the level 10ers can grow together. Even when you want to fall back down, you're on a level where amazing people can hold you up. Friends can make or mar you and when you hear that statement also remember that it not only applies to your friends but to the people that call you friend and make it a point of duty to facilitate the growth of others around you. 

6. Most importantly, Everyone's journey is unique. It's a little bit counterintuitive with all the 'advice' I've given but I'm just sharing my story and it may inspire someone, someone may not agree, someone may try it out and call me 419 so yeah. Keep on doing the thing you love, you'll fall, you'll make mistakes but you'll learn what would keep you going. 

I learnt to do the things I love, I learnt to accept myself, I learnt to enjoy the process, I learnt to be the right friend and I learnt to own the person I am today and the person I could be tomorrow. That is how I learnt to grow.