“Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.”
I find this quote very inspiring. How many times have you gone out of your comfort zone and tried something new? I can say over the past few years I have exceeded my comfort zone by what feels a million miles and with that, I have been scared to death.
When I entered grad school I had an idea of what I might want to do, be an academic advisor for a local college and maybe, eventually, teach in a community college. I had tried to get a job being an academic advisor for years. Applied at all the local colleges and community colleges and even went on an interview. It felt like that was where I was supposed to be, but it was not happening. So why not go to grad school and have better credentials where I would hopefully be offered a job. Sounded like a good plan or at least I thought.
For me my comfort zone was/is definitely school. I have been in it on and off since 1990 which doing all the math, that’s a lot years! So my quest began, mental health counseling and then I will be an academic advisor.
Let’s just start by saying that every class was out of my comfort zone. Having never worked in the field before I went off to school, I now found myself surrounded by people who were working in the field and working on getting a promotion with more education and a better role within their company. I was so scared! But I plugged onward.
When it came time for internship (one year working for free), I found myself working in substance abuse treatment, running groups, individual sessions and just in a field I did not imagine when I started. Then came the job offer. Is this what I want to do? Did I want to continue to work in this field? I was so out of my comfort zone but I took it. I was off on my new career, which has also recently included being a special guest instructor for my grad school (somewhat close to the path I planned but still not an academic advisor.)
So this is where you find me now. Working way out of my comfort zone on a daily basis, hoping I can contribute to someone’s life and make it just a little bit better. I have gotten use to being scared, if that is even possible. I am hoping this is courage or it could be just craziness.
To me courage has been and will forever be doing what I am afraid to do, facing things head on with a little flutter in my stomach asking, “Seriously! Seriously!! You want me to do what!”
