Find Your Recurring Theme
I’m still reading The Game Of Life & How To Play It. I can’t help it, it feeds me daily doses of encouragement and challenges me to love perfectly and completely.
Today I reached the part where she discusses the imaging faculty and how our imagination plays out in our reality even as children. We must guard our imagination like treasure because the things we see in our fantasies will ultimately come to pass.
I have a friend who says he has always known that he will die before he reaches old age. I pray that he will receive the truth before his time comes because by his words, he is forcing his own prophecy.
I remember the splendor of youth. It was me, a plate of cookies and milk and all the books I could ever read. My Grandma started me out young, allowing me to read her set of children’s Bible stories. She never let anyone else read them but me and everytime I would go over there, she’d set me up in the living room and hand me the set of books and I’d read all the Bible stories over and over again while my brother and sister and cousins all played outside.
I have but a faint memory of me giving my first speech at the age of 5. My Mama says that I did a great job but I embarrassed her. It seems that everytime I practiced my “Martin Luther King’ speech, one of my aunts was there and she’d add an extra line to the end as a joke. So when the day came for me to say my speech, my Mama says I paused and looked out over to the audience and said, “And he helped all the poor people just like my Mama!”
The audience roared, according to my Mama, but she wasn’t too happy about that.
I remember the first time I stood in front of a camera. I was in the 3rd grade and my teachers all raved about my reading and speaking abilities so the activities director came by to hear me speak. The next day she interrupted my class and led me by the hand to the television production studio. I heard her speak to the TV teacher and even though the requirement to participate in school activities was 4th grade, he pulled a white chef’s apron over my head and tied it around and around. Then he placed a chef’s hat on my head and told me to look into the camera and read the paper when he pointed to me.
And I did it. I did it just right. When I was done, everyone stood there somewhat in shock. I was like, “What?”
I’ll never forget the time I was about to graduate from 6th grade and we were practicing for our commencement ceremony. I was asked to give the commencement speech so I practiced and practiced. During the practice run, I said my speech and walked off of the stage. As I walked down the aisle one of my classmates mother grabbed me by the arm and sort of shook me. “You…you have a gift!” she exclaimed. “You’re gonna be somebody.”
I was like, “Ok, lady.”
The same thing happened in middle school. I had so much experience in newspaper and television from elementary school that I was ready to go! I had even produced videos and directed short plays. I walked confidently into our middle school’s television production office and introduced myself. For the first few weeks I just watched as they did the morning news show. No one knew me. I was new to the school. I was only in the 7th grade. So one day, the TV production teacher smiled at me and told me he’d like to give me a chance. I shrugged and took my seat at the anchor desk. When the teleprompter started rolling, I spoke.
When I was done all of the 8th graders stood quietly, staring at me. I ran into one of those “8th graders” when I was in college and I was up in Tallahassee visiting Tamara at FSU and she remembered me. She told all of my friends how “Tee came up in the TV office and took over.”
I would read every book I could get my hands on. I’d look up all of the words I didn’t know and teach them to my mother. She would always look at me and ask, “Where did you come from?” I would read my Mama’s Jet magazines and when I’d flip to the wedding announcements, I’d fantasize about one day being in one of those pictures with a really smart man. I figured that you only got into Jet if you were a leader, so I planned to become one.
After the big birthday cakes were all gobbled up and all that was left was the box with the big window, I’d force my little brother and sister to sit on the bed and watch me as I set the window up on top of the dresser and stood behind the dresser and pretended like I was on TV.
In middle school I auditioned for the drama program and got in by performing a monologue from Dirty Dancing. But by the 8th grade I didn’t feel challenged by the drama program so I convinced my Mama to sign the papers so I could switch to creative writing. That program didn’t challenge me either so I would make up assignments for myself and my classmates and they’d do them.
We didn’t get a television program in our highschool until I was in the 11th grade so before that I joined the newspaper. I actually remember sitting in our newspaper class arguing with this dumb boy after I was chosen as the co-editor. He told me that he would be class president during our senior year. “No you’re not!” I told him. “Watch.” What do you think happened? ~poppin my collar~ That boy was always trying to compete with me. Now that I think about it, he was kinda nerdy, with glasses and very smart. I think I liked him a little bit. ~blushing~
Once they introduced the television production program I dove right in. I learned everything. Besides being the staple anchor person, I would run the mixer, the teleprompter, I’d edit, write the copy for the scripts and even fill in as the camera person every once in a while. I taped reports which aired the next day. It was kinda weird sitting in class with everyone and watching myself on TV. But I loved it all!
In 12th grade I was nominated for a Silver Knight Award in Journalism. I represented my school in the county-wide competition but I didn’t win. I didn’t take the loss so badly. I got the bad news when I called Tamara and Anna. They both attended the awards ceremony in my place. I hung up the phone and shrugged as I walked back to the beachhouse on the beautiful island of the Dominican Republic where I was a guest of the Ambassador as an exchange student.
By the time I was ready to go to college, I knew I had a decision to make. Which type of journalism would I study? Print or broadcast? Print or broadcast?
I decided that I didn’t want anyone writing the words for me because I had a lot to say…so I chucked broadcast to the side and went with print. But then I had another decision to make. News or Magazine? News or magazine?
Even though magazine was not a popular major at the time, I chose magazine because I wanted to write about people instead of events.
That didn’t stop me from joining the school newspaper. Ahh…The Alligator. I was mad because they never offered me a staff spot. I continued to be a contributing writer for a long time and I loved it. I tried radio broadcasting in college too. I was a reporter for a radio show but since I could never wake up early enough to actually hear my reports when they aired, I lost interest in that.
By the time I took my first magazine class, they had hired a new instructor. He had moved to Gainesville and used to be the editor of Men’s Health magazine. I know I annoyed him so much with all of my questions! I loved how he loved magazines and I lived for those classes.
I never knew how much I learned until I became a professional. Now..I can look at a magazine from cover to cover and tell you exactly what’s right and wrong with it. From font choices, to color choices to the photos and organization, I know how a magazine is supposed to feel from the inside out because I love them so much. And websites are not immune to my scrutiny. I know what will engage me and I know what won’t.
Although my work is all over the internet and in print publications across the country, I still haven’t been published in a national glossy mag (a magazine with a shiny cover) like Essence or Seventeen. ~sigh~ I haven’t lost site of that goal. I can see my byline in bold lettering: By Ms. Tee.
Yep, your imagination does precede your reality. So consider what you meditate on daily. Is it failure? Is it lack? Is it loneliness? Whatever your mind is focused on will be multiplied. If you think he’s cheating, he is. If you think they all hate you, they do.
Don’t think your intuition was right, realize that your imagination FORCED that thing into being.
As a child my imagination mapped out my destiny. God placed tiny seeds of interest in me for the thing He has purposed in my life. All of those activities that I love to participate in: community service, website development and organizing businesses and even the type of man that I imagine: handsome, nerdy, smart and extremely successful, those weren’t just coincidences, those were signs from God.
That’s how I know what He has planned for me. That’s how I’ll recognize when He presents His divine gifts for me.
What is the recurring theme in your life?
Where is God trying to lead you?
