Note: I discovered this buried on my hard drive, a nostalgic token from a freshman year writing course at Northwestern. I’m pretty amazed at how applicable these words feel after three additional years of school, six years of real-world experience, and a total career change.
Always be one step ahead. Be ready to do anything and everything—to be anyone and everyone—they ask of you, as if you would have done it anyway. Forget your insecurities or desperation; forget the feeling of sheer terror as you stand, seemingly unarmed, on the front lines in war against your own vulnerability. Leave the you who you hate at the door; leave the chill from the 20-minute frigid walk there; leave the pain from the muscle you tore by squeezing in just one more workout; leave the crushing fatigue of another night spent up and wondering if this job will be the one. Leave the world outside and give yourself to the empty room; this is your world now. It is your job to transform it. It is your job to transform yourself; it is your job to transform those people behind the table–the ones sighing and tapping their pencils–into your audience; it is your job to turn those notes on a staff on a black-and-white page into a story. This is how you impress the right guy; this is how you land the job; this is how you get experience; this is how you meet the people and make a name and get the call that makes your whole world explode. Ground yourself, in spite of the height of the heels that are integral to the claim of “fight-foot-five” on your resume; ground yourself, in spite of the vacant stares that threaten to snap you in half. Remember why you love it, when your legs start to tremble and your dress is all wrong; when your PMS is so bad that even your cat doesn’t want to be around you; when you wish you could just this once take a cab instead of the subway and pay off your debt and make mom and dad proud and make all of your dreams come true.
Show ten thousand versions of yourself, but never show an imitation.
Remember the words as if you’ve said them a thousand times; feel as if you are saying them for the first. Breathe in and breathe out and two minutes will be gone. Breathe in and breathe out and it’s over; it’s over, and you can eat something; it’s over, and the slate is clean; it’s over, and you start to remember why you love it; it’s over, until tomorrow.