Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The Big Year

January 1, 2015

 

By your junior year, final exam weeks are nothing new. The two weeks of little sleep and tons of studying, have become part of your life. Luckily, I have been blessed with three semesters on the Dean’s List. However, let me remind you that making the Dean’s List, doesn’t come from hard work during finals week, but hard work from day oneJ.

During Christmas Break, I watch a significant amount of movies. Old and new movies make the list, and occasional Christmas flicks. A few days before Christmas, I stumbled upon a movie called, The Big Year. For those of you unaware of the movie, The Big Year, it stars Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson. The three men are professional bird watchers, and are all chasing a “big year.” A “big year” in their eyes, is seeing the most bird species than any other watcher in the world. Each day they each see beautiful birds that they have never seen before in their life. For certain species they have to travel to countries across the World, just to see one single bird. To the three bird watchers, their “big year” is much bigger than seeing hundreds of birds. It gives each of them a new purpose, and outlook on life.

As I watched the movie, it occurred to me that it’s time I went for a “big year.” Not a year filled with bird watching, but a year filled with exploration to new lands that will propel me into my future.  My year will be filled with new challenges, new excitements, and more importantly new adventures.

Last year, around this time, I made an “I will” list. The list was used as my form of a new year’s resolution. I wanted to prove to myself that I could stick to doing new and exciting things. As I reflected on the list, I found that most “I will” list items had been completed:

Get into business school, Go to London & California, Master Granny Kat’s biscuits, Watch God’s sunrise at the beach, and Go to Luke’s birthday.

However, they’re not as special as the unexpected things that happened last year:

See a wonder of the world, create a friendship with your Granny Kat that you’ll one day tell your kids about, see a play in London that took your breath away (you didn’t believe your parents), have my first alcoholic beverage in the tallest building in Europe (Yes, I was legal), work for a start-up, start a start-up, and win a BIG check for that start-up.

My “big year” will be a year full of expected activities, but more importantly, and much more appealing, are the unexpected events. The actors in The Big Year took their journey day by day. They followed weather patterns to find certain species, they maxed out credit cards to see remarkable things, and in those opportune moments, they dropped everything, and went all-in.

I will have a “BIG YEAR,” and it started 55 minutes ago.

P.S. I challenge you to have a “BIG YEAR” yourself, wherever you are in life, have faith and go all-in.

Happy New (big) Year!