Anamika Goyal

Yes, And?

Posted by Anamika Goyal, Nov 10, 2011 1 comment


Anamika Goyal

Anamika Goyal

Stunned.

It’s really the only word to describe my reaction to all of the previous posts. As a newly-minted, 21-year-old college graduate, I become quickly overwhelmed by the plethora of next steps available to me.

And, after reading the posts from all of this week's bloggers--socially responsible, creative, like-minded people doing good and interesting work--I felt exactly that.

It’s odd to me that being presented with so many interesting and feasible options elicits such angst. I would imagine that many people in the same situation would be excited, elated even. I can’t help but feel immediately burdened by the inevitable ‘choice.’ I immediately start thinking that I need to pick one and begin to fear that I might pick wrong.

So yesterday, after Googling all of the organizations and projects mentioned in the posts and finding a number of groups doing things that intrigued me, I jotted down keywords of particular interest on Post-Its and stuck them on a wall in my apartment.

‘Community’, ‘arts’, ‘engagement’, ‘interactive’, ‘installation’, ‘industrial’, ‘design’, ‘redesign’, ‘urban’, and ‘group’ were all words that kept popping up.

It felt good to write them down, but then I found myself a little stuck again. I feel like this process tends to leave me with more questions than answers, which I will now pose to you all:

  1. How did you pick?
  2. How did you go about navigating the possibilities and finding something that combined vast and vague areas of interest?
  3. Do you ever feel like you picked wrong, and what did you do about it?

I think it’s important to live in the questions a bit, but am now starting to wonder when some answers will start to show themselves.

In the spirit of wonder, curiosity, and passion, I put together an interactive blocks installation in Duke’s Library last year. Basically, I put a pile of building blocks on a rug in the middle of the library and documented what happened.

It really was incredible to see what students came up with and to see how deeply engaged they were with the blocks, and with each other. I was also constantly impressed by the conversations I found myself having around the exhibit--they often seemed to become confessions of what students ‘really liked doing,’ as if admitting this was somehow a sin and avoiding it was acceptable.

Even though the goals of my project were vague and not too predetermined, it seems that it did what I wanted it to--it helped people in my community at Duke rediscover a sense of wonder, even if only temporarily.

I now find myself, however, unable to get away from that place of wonder. I have certainly explored what my passions are but can’t seem to define them for myself.

I ask now, what comes after wonder? How does one move on? Perhaps my next installation can be a way to explore that.

1 responses for Yes, And?

Comments

November 10, 2011 at 11:38 am

Hi Anamika, in response to your question "How did you pick?" ... I went to college in Iowa and after graduating felt overwhelmed by choices. Rather than deciding on one career path or another, I thought about what criteria were most important to me in any opportunity: -Livable wage, -Meaningful work, -Some creative autonomy, -The opportunity to interact with a professional creative community -Time for loved ones.

This meant I couldn't accept a full-time, unpaid theater internship in NYC (no livable wage OR no time for loved ones if I had to work on top of a 40/hr internship). Instead, I took a pr job in a small town so I could direct plays with a storefront theater. I never pictured myself working at a University, but I took a job at Wesleyan because it had all of the criteria that were most important to me.

If I could go back in time, I would add something to this list about mentorship. Learning from great bosses in my 20s (Howard Sherman at The O'Neill, Pam Tatge at Wesleyan) was extremely beneficial—who I worked with has helped me far more than where I worked.

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