March Goal Post

My last journal, “A Simpler Start” marks the first of a 250-word challenge from my coordinators after the journal, “A Desire to Obtain What I Have Admired.” When I received this challenge, I’m positive that despite how much I tried to hide it, my face fell. The reason being, words are liberating. But there’s danger in taking advantage of liberation. At any given moment, my brain is crowded by multitudes of thoughts and anxieties, although mostly questions. To that, writing is my outlet. I’m not the best speaker when trying to orally make sense of my thoughts but either way, I need words. Whether they’re scribbled, typed, or spoken incoherently, I’ve clung to the fact that there’s a seemingly infinite amount of words to help characterize my thoughts. With great availability though, comes great possibility for lack of purpose. Words are liberating, yes, but they can also be muddying. When we hear or read too many words, that usually means we can’t focus on the important ones. One of my most daunting questions is; how do I make people care about C. elegans and glial cells? Answering this question is going to take far less words and far more listening on my part in order to discover what people actually care about. My goal for the coming time is to deliberate exactly what makes this subject matter so important to me and understand how I can show that to others through few words and much listening. (247)