Having an open mind

created by Planner5D app

​I am a very goal-oriented planner. Whenever I get an idea, a work date, or an event, I put it down, and I plan until the day comes for it. However, you can see the problems this mindset can bring about when what you expect to come ends up changing or not happening. I plan my day around all my other plans in the hopes that things are going to work out just the way I want them too, but I don’t account for the unexpected circumstances that come about. I’ve learned and grown a lot this summer in terms of having an open mind due to the circumstances I face each day as an Orientation Leader, future RA in Foster Hall (residence hall at TCU), and in my daily life.

---

​For one thing, I bought this app called Planner5D (it’s so cool, I’d still recommend) to plan out my entire room that I would get as an RA this upcoming fall. I went in with a friend to take all the exact measurements, and made a furniture budget list with dimensions to see where I wanted everything to exactly fit. I was so excited to come back in August and be able to place everything in my dream room only to realize that I was not accounting for any other possibilities such as the fact that Foster would go from less than 200 residents to about 230 residents to account for the biggest incoming freshman class. I was so focused on life going my way that I didn’t think about these unforeseen circumstances.

​Instead of having an open mindset about it, I was upset because I had everything set for my room. However, with time, I eventually came to the conclusion that there was nothing that I could do about this fact, and that it is actually almost an exciting thing that so many students want to make TCU their home for the next four years. Little did I know that one of the Orientation Leaders would be the additional RA in Foster! I focused so much on the negative instead of being open to what could be, and how I could make something positive with it. Although JT, the newest member to Foster will be taking my room in the Fall, I’ll be moving down to the end of my wing living in a suite with two other residents. This will be a great opportunity to get to know some people in my wing and cultivate community. It all works out in the end. Sometimes we need to simply press on to the fact that although there are things that we can’t control, we can always have an open mindset about the possibilities of what could be.

I’m reading Bob Goff’s new book “Everybody Always” and he said something that really resonated with me about the mindset of kids. He writes,

Children have mastered what most of us are just beginners at. One of the things about kids, in addition to their simple faith, is they aren’t afraid of the things many of us are afraid of. Their curiosity about what they don’t know outdistances their fears about what they do know by a mile”

(“Everybody Always,” Bob Goff)

I was so focused on this idea of sharing rooms with another person after hearing about how many students were coming to TCU, and I got stressed about it. Instead, I should have been been looking on the positive side such as the possibility of having an Orientation leader join the team, or getting to know my residents deeper because I am living with them, or just the possibility of the idea that no matter what happens, because I have such a positive mindset about it, it’s going to be just fine.
​
Mindset. It’s a powerful thing when you choose to be open about it.