imagine if...: the tightrope

As a little girl, I remember the smell of summer. The pleasant pungent smell of California's coastal shrubbery and eucalyptus trees with a hint of fresh cut grass. Yes, that's the smell I remember. One random thing to know about me: I am obsessed with the way things smell. I remember it and associate each smell with a memory. We all do this, but I do especially. Among my favorite smells (besides my crazy collections of perfumes, candles, linen sprays, room deodorizers, and lotions): fresh clean laundry, the air after it rains, baking cookies, men's cologne/after shave, sea salt in the wind, the mountains, campfires, Disneyland rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain, old places like museums or libraries, etc... I know, trust me, I know! haha

To get back on track, today, the smell of summer circled the globe faster than our calendar days. Today, at least for a moment, it was summer again. It was an escape into another place in another time. My favorite time of year... summer. Growing up, summer was that transitional period when we ended one school year looking forward to the next. This was the time we were released from our labels in school. This second identity per se, was one in which we were just free to be whoever or whatever we wanted. We had the freedom to label ourselves.

After years and years of these transitional periods, I no longer have these kinds of summers. I am finally at the exciting point of being in an amazing career. A career I'm happy with... and it only took walking on a tightrope to get to this point so far.

Life can be a circus act. By being suspended hundreds of feet in the air by a wire where every step counts, reminds me of that saying "don't look down". So, don't look down. I have been told by several professionals, "When you're in the middle of something you have to commit to it and you'll come out just fine". Just like performing a song in front of a stadium crowd, writing a dissertation, taking the MCAT, or tumbling in gymnastics. The moment we hesitate, is the moment we fall.

This tightrope we all walk on provides us with two options. 1. Look down or 2. Look ahead. I am the type of person to not let rope tie me down, instead, extend it and walk on it to let us continue this forward momentum. On our journey, we can fantasize of the places we'll go so we can go there. Look ahead and use this tightrope to see the effervescent views of today and tomorrow. Go at your own pace and I'll see you along the way!