“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu

Oftentimes I am frustrated with how much time tasks inevitably take, especially in terms of self-improvement. I am forever trying to be a better person, better designer, better student, employee, friend, daughter, writer, etc. Only this past summer have I realized how exhausted I am trying to keep up the idea that I am “Super Binaebi.” That I can get it done, whatever it is, with time to spare and a certain flair.

The only problem with this is that usually I can, and do, complete the task at hand with time to spare and a certain flair… but at the sacrifice of something else. Such as sleep. Or sanity.

Meeting the new first year HCId students this week and personally mentoring one of them has reminded me that I need to take things slower. Details are everything to me. Yet,  I’ve lost the ability to notice the small things that used to bring joy to my life.

I don’t want the first years to lose sight of the larger picture as they face the challenges of graduate school.

This isn’t to say that I know what the larger picture is, or that I’m doing a good job of keeping it in mind myself. But maybe by being the Jiminy Cricket (as it were) to the new first years… I’ll remind myself along the way that it is in the trying that we succeed.

And that failure is sometimes the best sort of success.