Last spring, I was fortunate enough to take a class with a dynamic yet difficult writing teacher at NYU. She’s a no-holds-barred kind of woman, whose passion to support her students to write well at times overrode a gentle disposition.
(My favorite note on one of my essays: This sucks! I don’t care about this… and neither does the New York Times!)
For weeks, I did everything I could to get an A+ on my essay. (An A+ was what was needed to get her permission to submit to The New York Times. . .)
I walked home from class on dark streets in the rain with my umbrella, fighting against the wind. Winter-not-yet-turned-spring froze my patience. I liked my teacher A LOT and knew I was being stretched, but I started to question if I was capable.
What do we do in these moments—when we’re doing everything we can to get to the next level, but feel so close to giving up?
What do we do when the going gets tough and start to question (like I did) whether we’re good enough?
As my painting teacher, Michele Cassou taught:
Don’t make resistance the bad guy—listen to it. Resistance is a bell ringing for change.
I reminded myself, I asked for this change. It’s why I moved to New York in the first place.
Though for a moment, I wished I could run back to sunny Southern California.
And even though I felt like I’d hit a wall and wanted to bail out, I knew I wouldn’t.
It was MY bell. And yeah, I was going to ring it.
Regardless if I was walking home in the cold rain with an A minus, I was growing… and that’s all that mattered.
Ring the bell. It’s worth it. Regardless of where you might end up.
‘Cause on the other side of an A minus there’s an A plus. By sticking with an uncomfortable feeling, even if you’re walking against the wind—eventually, you WILL transcend. And that A plus is right around the corner.
Wishing you a week of ringing!