Contradictions ^Featured

I once stumbled across a quote by Walt Whitman, on Instagram. It read, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large. I contain multitudes.”

This quote caught me off guard for many reasons. My main connection to Walt Whitman’s words was that they made me think back to moments in my life. These Moments when I believed one concept to my very core, and through life experience, now, believe the total opposite. The very concept that you can weave in and out of your own beliefs, is mind blowing. Change! That’s what we call it.

Since childhood, I firmly stood beside the notion that you must go to college in order to succeed in life. To complete your education through an accredited institution meant that you were a scholar, and a force to be reckoned with. Any other avenue would show laziness, regardless of the many public figures that had met their goals through alternative lanes. My understanding stayed the same, until life took a turn on its own, forcing me to believe otherwise. Change!

This new way of thinking opened a vast highway of limitless possibilities. My experience has shown me that one avenue could lead to an intersection leading to a variety of other avenues; all expanding somewhere completely different, yet, in the same region. For example, I dropped out of college in Miami, to find myself working in a career that had nothing to do with my field of expertise. That job led me to quit, which gave me the courage to move to New York City. New York made me strong enough to venture out into new found passions. Those passions opened doors to networking with new people. Those newly found people eventually directed me to new opportunities which ultimately brought me back to the career I began studying in college and back to Miami. I had successfully reached my goals even though I contradicted my own personal beliefs.

Society fosters a traditional mind-set on certain developmental issues. We are taught that one must change in order to grow as individuals, yet, should modify our transition only a few degrees to the right, not the left. The left, being alternative choices. In general, there’s a slight contradiction to lessons in evolvement. Staying the same will tarnish personal growth; nevertheless, too much change will affect the path to success, leading towards a more inglorious route. The foundation to which we build our convictions can be changed. This means that faith, opinion, and values can be processed differently, depending on what avenue life is on at the moment.

All in all, perhaps Walt Whitman’s quote is a wise one. If we can embody this perception that we may very well be as ever-changing as a mere thought, then why couldn’t we comprehend our vastness? Find a path and choose that path. Or, change your mind and make a new one?