Summary: Finding Your Howl
In Jonathon Flaum’s FINDING YOUR HOWL, he references the story of the wolves. The wolves have been bred in captivity and as a result have “lost their howl”, where they lack leadership because they did not grow up living in the environment they were meant to live in. One wolf goes on a quest to obtain his Howl. He must achieve and endure hardships that he did not want to face in order to earn the ability to earn his howl. The point that Flaum is trying to make is that we all must endure and experience things that we would care to not have to go through in order to become able to live a meaningful and productive life.
"The key then is to find your own mountain,
other wise you will be competing
with people who are not even in your event,
and running up against
the 'shoulds' and 'oughts' of that world,
and the inevitable frustration and depression
and feelings of failure.
A person can be complete or incomplete,
but one thing is sure;
he cannot be someone else."
George Sheehan M.D
This quote explains what it was like for me to realize what I finally wanted to do with my life. I originally went to a small private school my freshman year of college intending to major in theatre, since it had been a favorite hobby of mine. For the entire senior year leading up to my freshman year of college, I was under the impression that I wanted to be an actor, and planned my first year of college according to that plan.
When I finally arrived at college and the theatre program, it was not what I expected. The atmosphere was completely different from the one I had experienced in community theatre. In this theatre program, everyone was striving to become a successful actor. While there is nothing wrong with that, it made the atmosphere uncomfortable because the people would act like they were your friend, but when you turned your back they were plotting ways beat you at the next audition. There was no true friendship because the entire experience was a competition, rather than a collaboration. As a result, I found myself feeling like I did not belong. I had not found my own “mountain”, but rather I was doing what I was being taught, and not fully appreciating it because of the disconnection I experienced from the art.
After the first semester I left the theatre program and joined (of all things) the physics program. Why? For a while I had this mindset that I should do what makes money. I was taught that any science would be a much bigger moneymaker than anything in the arts. I found that I did not enjoy physics, and my disappointment with the way my college career was going started to mount. I felt as if I was “running up against the ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’ of the world”. I felt like I was battling against what I was told to do rather than what I wanted to do.
Then I decided that I needed to rethink my college career. I needed to do what I truly enjoy, and I have always had a knack for creating interesting videos. Back at the beginning of high school I was under the impression that whatever my future career would be, it would involve videos and media in some capacity. I should have listened to myself, rather than wait to figure it out all over again.
The area I decided to specialize in is video editing for TV news. I find the news fascinating because it connects us to what is happening, locally and around the world. To be involved means to help shape the story through the use of the creative process. Video, even the simplest of news clips, tells a story which will be viewed by thousands of people, so even the simplest story can make a difference in how people perceive an issue. For me, being involved and having the ability to create that story is a mountain that I aspire to live on.
No comments:
Post a Comment