Channeling my Inner Sponge – Tisch Global Jumbos

by Ashley, Tufts 1+4 Participant

I find myself repeating the phrase of an optimistic yellow sponge from my youth. Well, “youth” may be a bit of a stretch since the silly show can still be found playing on my screens. Nevertheless, “I’m Ready” has been the statement on my mind since mid-May.

The more I mentally and physically say this phrase the more I began to truly admire and reflect on the character behind the phrase. The show consists of the daily shenanigans of Spongebob and how he is able to experience his life with little to no unhappiness, even when life got a little rocky. In no way, shape, or form was he ready for anything! Yet, he continued to proclaim his readiness and took life head on. I realize that as a child I didn’t give this show enough credit and now, as this bridge year is about to begin, I find myself hoping that I can amount to this yellow sponge.

Weird. I know.

I am as ready as I think I am and the rest is up to me. In the face of a challenge or a change in ‘schedule,” I want to be able to say that I continued with the Spongebob mantra. I do not want to let expectations cloud or potentially change the outcome of my journey. It is so easy to sit back and think that the sky is falling instead of taking a good, hard look at the situation; sometimes the only thing truly stacked against us is our perceptions of the situation at hand. If we try to muster our pride and channel our inner Spongebob nothing could get in our way.

Now that I know that I have been repeating this idea for a couple months now I want to say what I am ready for:

I am ready to…

Be uncomfortable but find comfort within that.
Get lost and call it “exploration” instead.
Try at Hindi and potentially sound really silly.
Try again at Hindi despite the silly soundingness of my attempt.
Try new things.
Miss my family although I tell myself I won’t miss them that much.
Have moments where my expectations get the best of me because these things take time.
Be as ready as I can be.

This year is going to go by and I can’t know how I will emerge or what will come out of this time in my life. There are going to be moments where I witness something completely different from the society we live in and cannot say how I will react. At the same time, there are going to be extremely beautiful and rewarding moments that I also can not say how I will react. How do I know this? I don’t but nevertheless, I’m ready.