To all of you who do not know me, one thing must be explained: I am the most OCD, structured and scheduled person you will ever meet. I rarely do things on the fly...and when I do I get anxious and stressed out about it. My whole life I have been that anal girl who uses her planner like its the Holy Bible. I go so far as to write down exactly when I am hanging out with a specific friend (which trust me, they all are annoyed by). To put it simply, I am the ultimate Type A personality.
That being said, I rarely can enjoy each day for what it is. I plan the next thing coming up, the next big event in the month, exactly what time I will be at the next place. It is exhausting and draining. I never let it get to me because, let's face it, I do it to myself. No one is to blame but me, yet no one has really sat me down and said "Ivette, you are not enjoying life because you are too wrapped up in controlling every minute of it". That is, until my mom smacked me with words in only a way mom's can do. I was stressing out about all I had to do in the next 3 months, yes you heard me, I was planning things 3 months in advanced. In the midst of my panic attack she asks me "how do you eat an elephant?" Frustrated that she was ignoring my pain I began to get angry with her; who asks such a dumb and odd question in the midst of a crisis?! Before I could get too many words in she, in a peaceful and reserved voice said "one bite at a time" BAM! Never have words stopped me so dead in my tracks as that. I can only do things one day at a time, I can only live one day at a time, I can only enjoy life one day at a time.
Thanks to the words of a woman much wiser than I, I realized that in order to be all that I can be and all that God has made me to be, I must eat my elephant one bite at a time.
Which leads us to reaching my dreams. Ever since I could talk, all I wanted to do was sing. Anytime of the day no matter where I was I would be singing, or humming, or talking about a song or band I liked. I am certain that every one around me was sick of my voice (sorry for that, loved ones) but I could not control my unquenchable love for music.I quickly discovered that I was not going to be able to making singing a career due to the fact that I have a lot of throat and vocal chord issues. At first, devastation and worthlessness were all that consumed me. Until one day I realized there are so many more options in the music world than just singing.
As much as I love to sing, I think I love to talk even more. So, why not talk a lot and do it in the industry I love most? And that is what I am doing as a Public Relations major. I want to work in the business side of the music industry. This will be a challenge for me if you remember how overly anal I am about things. This industry is always changing, follows no schedule, and is far from organized and precise. All of these things terrify the living daylights out of me; however, I have never been more excited to do it.
Now that I am taking life one day at a time, I feel that working in this industry is the most perfect place for me to practice what I am learning. Some days I am going to want to take three or four bites out of that giant elephant, but I know that one is enough.
