Condoleezza.

I'm so caught up in the business of graduate school applications and the first few weeks of the semester that even now, when I have a forty-minute break between class and work, I am struggling to just sit and relax.

So...I'll blog.

Condoleezza Rice came to my university today and spoke in a forum to over eighteen-thousand members of our student body.

I have heard mixed reviews on her coming, as well as on her speech.

From my thirteenth-row seat in that large auditorium, I found what she said inspiring.

By the time I left I felt validated in my efforts to pursue my chosen career, something I worry about often.

If I haven't told you, I want to be a writer.

I've tried many other career paths and this is simply what I want to do.

Problem: Unless you become a sell-out and write poorly composed books on vampires that appeal to large masses of average girls and women....the chances of making enough money as a writer to eat more than two meals a day are slim. (I usually go with five, I'm a hungry girl.)

And, since I base all of my decisions on how much food I will get out of the situation, this one is a tough call.

But good ol' Condie reminded me of something: Passion.

"Find your passion," she said. "And when you find it, worlds open to you, worlds you might never have imagined.

Things that seem impossible, in retrospect will see inevitable."

And she's right.

Writing is my passion.

It doesn't matter how illogical it sounds to the thousands of "pred-meds" here at BYU.

It's where I'm happiest.

The literary world is a tough crowd and right now it seems more than impossible.

All I can do is have faith in the fact that one day it might seem a little closer to inevitable.

Thank you Condoleezza Rice.

You were just what I needed.

And now blogging world, what do you want to be?

A better question: whats stopping you?

“I encourage you to find your passion while you’re here. Find what you’re passionate about, what will make you get up every day for the rest of your life…. You will find as I often did that I was more fulfilled in overcoming and mastering something difficult than something that came easy to me. When you overcome something that’s hard, you know you can meet life’s challenges, no matter how hard they are.”

-Condoleezza Rice

I don't mean to sound melodramatic here. I know this speech is something you hear a thousand times on the morning annoucements in middle school, "reach for the stars" and all that junk.

(My principle actually just breathed really heavily into the loudspeaker so nobody could understand him, while Kennen Warner threw spitwads into my hair)

All I know is somehow this message is important.

Somehow we really need to think about what we want to do and where we want to be.

I feel the weight of time lately, the fact that we never get it back.

So I'm going to do it. Now. Today.

Starting with graduate school applications.

Which I really should get back to.

Go do something cool yourself.

Love,

Katie