I've seen so many ships sail in, just to head back out again and go off sinking

Salutations!

Today I am sharing a beautiful (and thought inspiring) letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his daughter, Scottie.

"Things to worry about:
Worry about courage
Worry about Cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship
Worry about…
Things not to worry about:
Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions
Things to think about:
What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:
(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?"

                                                                                             (F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters)

I think this advice originally composed for his eleven year old daughter is timeless and certainly can be applied to my life in a number of ways. I tend not to be too much of a "worrier" per say, but I do often find myself being completely preoccupied by things that I don't necessarily hold in high esteem or value.
A great example of that is dating, I find that I can be completely obsessed with the concept of dating, and generally I feel that my returns are not worth the investment. But, for one reason or another I keep doing it
(I should mention that I am specifically talking about internet dating, not dating in general which will obviously be necessary for me to engage in for going from a "single person" to a "person with mate"). And, while I wouldn't say that I don't hold dating itself in high esteem, I think what I am more concerned with is creating a real bond with the person that will ultimately be my life partner. Unfortunately I feel that my approach is somewhat faulty, and that seeking something like that out as voraciously as I am will yield emptiness.
So, why worry about it?
Good point!
I will start my attempts to refocus that energy I place on finding a potential mate to becoming more adept at things I am interested in.
Things like

1. Design thinking
2. Data visualization
3. Museum activism
4. Evaluations
5. Technology and it's applications/implications as manifested in our daily lives
6. Exercise 

That said, Fitzgerald did not imply that Scottie should lead a worry free life, and while I do indeed value and believe in cleanliness, the worry of particular note to me in that set was courage.
I feel I am generally a pretty courageous lady, ready to bound head first into the unknown depths of what have you, but there is a new arena emerging in regards to my personal courage that needs nurturing. I am in dire need of cultivating the courage to put myself out there career-wise. I find that I am often hesitant (scared?) to take risks because I am wary of rejection or failure. This needs to stop now.
Recently I was turned on (by my good friend Ivy) to IDEO's (a San Francisco based design company) slogan of "Fail often to succeed sooner", this has been a revolutionary thought in my life. Eureka! Of course it makes sense! But putting yourself out there and being vulnerable to rejection is never easy... So, I have been critically thinking about how to tackle this internal hiccup. What I came up with is the following: I need to apply my theory on dating to my career obtaining strategy: try a lot, be yourself, and don't be surprised (or discouraged) by failure. All held together by the underlying (supremely reassuring) belief that there is someone/something out there for you after all.

We'll see how that goes.

Conversely, speaking to another one of Fitzgerald's "worthy worries", I had an interesting conversation the other day with my good friends, power couple Casey & Karen, about the concept of efficiency of thought. I have been obsessed with the concept of efficiency for a while now, and found that I could derive a significant amount of satisfaction by maximizing the efficiency of my efforts in my job as a barista. The point in doing that ultimately was to save valuable energy, in the hopes of having more of it to expend. I was thinking about how that translate to thought processes, if one could minimize the traffic of thought and get to your destination quicker, wouldn't that imply that you could achieve more in a shorter amount of time?
Casey had a good point, sometimes the best ideas come up during that fumbling through. If thoughts didn't meander, perhaps the genius would never spring forth, and if you were all caught up in the preoccupation of accomplishment perhaps creativity would remain elusive.

Food for thought.
Do you have any? Leave them below!

Bye till next time! Until then, expect great things!

Summer of Science

Salutations!

I was going to wait to be on the plane to DC to write my first blog post, but then I visited the Natural Sciences gallery at the Oakland Museum of California.
All I can say is, OMG OMCA!

Of course I'll say more, this is my blog after all...
It was just too beautiful. I had been anticipating the opening of this gallery for a while, and even though it opened June 1, I had not made it out there because I was waiting for the right time. This morning when they posted a picture of a tasty looking sandwich from their Blue Oak cafe, I knew the time had come.
I went straight there, got in free with my American Alliance of Museums (AAM) card, and headed straight for their cafe. I sat at a shady table in the outside patio and reveled for a moment in the fact that I am graduating school in about a week.
So much has happened to me in the past couple years and I am astounded at my progress and growth, we are all ever evolving (ideally) beings of course, but a really profound transitional moment such as a graduation can turn a usually pretty introspective lady such as myself into a really contemplative powerhouse. So I ate my ham & brie sandwich (delicious!),  pickled vegetables and salad with my hands (that is so fun sometimes!) and was finally ready to roll.

The first steps into the gallery filled me with such joy, now, I'll start with the disclaimer that i <3 OMCA, and they can really do no wrong (or at least haven't yet) in my eyes. But seriously, it was so beautiful. I spent like, 15 min in the first two panels and then kinda glided the rest of it knowing that I have to come back at least 12 more times to really soak it all in. When I got to the back of the gallery I sat on one of the rocking chairs on the Yosemite wrap around porch (!) and tried to gather my thoughts about why I loved this museum so much.
I came up with the following list:

• Touch me Touch me! One of the things I really appreciate about the OMCA's approach is their penchant for engaging kinesthetic learners. They have tons of things you can touch, smell, play with, listen to, all to get you to understand the message they are trying to convey. Just today I smelled cedar, kelp, and pickle weed, created an animated short about Canadian geese flying over a bus, and rocked in a rocking chair on a porch while reading about Yosemite National Park.
• Creating Connections. They really place an emphasis on making sure the visitor knows that this experience is first, about California, and secondly about them. However you came to California, you are now forever engrained in it's history. I am not even a Californian and I can't help but feel a sense of pride. And that is not an emotion I am too wont to feel either, so good job!
• Share your POV. All over all the galleries there are little posts set up with prompts that ask you questions about the exhibits. Topics range from share your thoughts about your favorite California trail, to what do you think these specimens smell like, to how do you think we can fix the economy. It is simple, just a post it up on a wall, but the effect is a very powerful one. I take the time to read through the notes and at the same time I understand the community around me better.
• Artfully Displayed. They really have an aesthetic sensibility that resonates with me, it is accessible, it is comfortable, classy but not pretentious, polished but not pristine. I dig it.

My face was hurting from smiling so much, I chatted with the security guard, a California native, Eliseo (who I had chatted with on past visits) for a minute about how great the new wing was and what I was up to. He was super warm and very interested in my life, which felt really nice. There is something contagious about elation. I lasted a total of two hours, if that, and had to leave. I was overcome with emotion, which is one of the reasons my preferred museum experience is as a solo flyer. I really like setting my own pace and sometimes it happens that I need to leave right away. I headed over to the gift shop and showed them some more $$ love by purchasing a t-shirt and a travel mug ( I needed one! I lost mine!) and a magnet.
Then I walked home around the lake smiling all the way.

Bye for now! Until next time, expect great things!
:)