On the 18th of April I was lucky enough to be apart of the Genius Project Forum that took place at my high school. The senior class were tasked on giving their TED talks to us in groups for 3 reasons. The first was to see who should be nominated to compete for scholarship money for certain universities. The second was to share their ideas with the junior class to inspire us into doing something great for our communities. Lastly, the forum was for seniors to educate the juniors in what our projects should look like, what they shouldn't look like, and how to manage your time wisely so you don't have to rush and cram a month before it is due.
My biggest take away from the forum has to be time management and passion/inspiration for my project. I have a greater understanding that I need to complete my project more than ever before and that is due to a senior named Branden Korf. I was fortunate to listen to his presentation and the ironic thing is that he didn't do anything. He originally wanted to write poetry, but he found that he wasn't passionate about it, so he ended up procrastinating so much that he didn't have time to do a different project. However, by not doing anything he was able to find his true genius project. He inspired me by explaining to everyone, if you aren't interested and passionate about it then you are wasting your time. I believe in his speech he asked us, "If you don't know what you want to do in life, then are you truly passionate about anything?" This made me really question how much I really wanted to make my genius project from a dream to a reality. What I learned is that you need to find something that screams out to you. I don't mean that in a harmful way, what I mean is you need to find your external outlet from the world, whether it be playing a certain game to meditating. Take me for example, there are many pressures placed on a teenager. We have to find a way to balance school, work, and sports or other hobbies. Not to mention on top of that you need to find time to see your friends or make time for your girlfriend/boyfriend. All this builds up stress and tension on your body and you need something to help release that and mine is basketball. The minute I hit the court and the ball starts rolling, it's like time freezes, and you can just lose yourself. This is my passion. Basketball is such a great sport, it builds athleticism, it brings people together, it builds competitiveness, and I want to share it with my community, giving me the fiery desire to complete my genius project. Now it's my turn to ask you, what are you really passionate about? If don't know, don't get discouraged... keep looking. Everyone has something special inside them, it just might take a little longer for some to find it and if you know what you want to do in life then follow it, nurture it, strive to get better at what ever you want to do and most importantly, don't EVER let anyone tell you can't do something. Who says you can't be a professional athlete? Who says you can't make a living playing chess? It's up to you to decide whether you shoot for the stars, or end up following the person that flies everyone to mars.
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AuthorCristian Johnson Archives
November 2017
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