Thursday, March 11, 2010

A strange and wonderful thing happened to me today. Today is the day I started to truly believe that dreams do come true.

I'm not sure what it is, but I have been lucky in life. I've always achieved what I've been striving for. Unfortunately, in the past couple of years, the pressure of getting into advertising, and the mere concept of working and doing something amazing with my life had worn down my faith in my own abilities. I began to doubt my skills as a writer and as a creative. I was surrounded by people who were talented, and began to think of myself as less talented than them. I'm not sure if its true, but its the way I felt about it. One thing I did have going for me was this: I have and have always had an amazing passion for this industry. So much so, that I was willing to change everything in my life so that I could do better work. My whole lifestyle encompassed only advertising and nothing else for the past two years. Make no mistake though, I loved every minute of it. The craze, the drama, the ideas, the inspiration and even the stress were all exciting to me. In the end though, even after working as hard as I did, I wasn't sure that I would make it or that anyone would think of me as a brilliant creative.

Then, out of the blue, I decided that I wanted to learn differently. I wanted to learn from someone who I admired more than anyone else in the industry. The best thing my professor Anthony Kalamut taught me is, ask, the worst anyone can say is no. So I went ahead and asked Alex Bogusky if he would be kind enough to be my mentor. He graciously agreed. In the past few weeks, I've realized one thing. When good people achieve great things, everyone benifits. If Alex wasn't the gracious and compassionate person he is, I would never get to see the humanity in advertising like I have today. He gave me hope and encouragement in ways I never thought I would feel again. My work and my portfolio have become something I am proud to display, and that confidence has come because he believed in me.

Finally, this has all lead to the pinnacle of all great moments. I found out that I've been selected for an internship at CP+B. The Agency my dreams were made of. It's like everything I ever wanted my career to be, is starting to come true. I don't know if it's luck, if it's the fact that I have great teachers or the fact that I have an amazing mentor. I hope it has a little to do with me too, but the bottom line is that I've been given the chance to life my passion and persue my dreams. Something I still can't believe. I walk into this new chapter in life with a renewed sense of hope and excitement. I know that with hard work and a little bit of talent, this is going to be the start of something wonderful.

So to those of you who have wanted something badly enough, have some faith in yourself and go out and get it. If you can't find it in yourself at first, then look around you. The world will push to where you need to be and you will find your way. Also, if you find someone who believes in you, take strength from their conviction and inspire yourself. Amazing things happen when inspiration burns bright.

So here's to dreams coming true.

Cheers!

3 comments:

  1. Shivani,

    I enjoyed reading your post. Congratulations again! I'm going to share this entry with the world (insert cackling laugh).

    Your post gives students (like me) a chance to feel more confident and have hope, especially because we feel overwhelmed quite often.

    I really do like that mantra "What's the worse that they could say?" It really works! Now I sound like I am giving a testimonial on an infomercial.

    Susan
    http://satisfeye.tumblr.com/

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  2. Congratulations Shivani!
    Make us proud; never forget who you are! (The Simpsons).

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  3. Congrats (like, AGAIN) Shivani! You're my knight in small, light shinning armor.

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