During our recent Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, three amazing Emma Willard School alumnae returned to campus to share sage advice with our students. The theme of the day, “Your Life’s Blueprint,” was inspired by a speech delivered by MLK to a group of students in 1967. One of the questions we asked of our panelists was: “What advice would you give to current students who are beginning to draft their own life’s blueprint?”
Linda Gill Anderson ’77
Oh my gosh, you all don’t need advice; you've got it under control! You've got it. I know you do.
My advice is to seek and find JOY. Three little letters in the word sad. Three big letters in the word JOY. It’s simple things for me—sitting with coffee in the morning. That's pure joy. The little things COVID taught us: how to be in and inward, how to find things in yourself that matter and that spark joy. Lean into that because there will always be challenges. Animals bring me joy. Plants bring me joy. Coffee brings me joy. My friends bring me joy. Being of service makes me feel purposeful and that I'm accomplishing something. Three big letters. Joy, JOY.
Jana Dorsey ’09
See art in everything. The way that you cook, the way that you dress, the way that you take notes, the way that you keep yourself organized, the way that you are chaotic, but it works for you. That's beautiful. That is art. I'm huge on romanticizing your own life. What does that look like for you? Is it a rainy morning and just enjoying the stillness of the morning before people start talking your ear off? Maybe it’s reading something that is not necessarily for class, reading something for the fun of it, for the joy of it. Just romanticizing your own life.
Dream big, but also don't be so subscribed that your blueprint has to be that way. It is beautiful to have a blueprint, and the beauty of that is that it will evolve, it will change, it will move in the direction that you move in.
And then this is a really big one. I don't know if you all are familiar with horses on a race track, but they have blinders on so that they can only see directly in front of them. Keep your blinders on. It does not matter what this person to your right is doing. It does not matter what this person to your left is doing. That's their blueprint. That's their trajectory. Yours is yours no matter what that looks like, and it is beautiful. Focus on that. Try not to compare yourself to others. No one has it harder than young people right now as it pertains to social media and the messages that they're seeing every day. It's great that we have a lot of information out there, but sometimes it's information overload. Just try not to compare yourself. Your journey is beautiful. It's gorgeous, it's stunning, and it's yours. Focus on that. Keep your blinders on. It does not matter what others are doing to your right and to your left.
Sabine Stain ’16
I'll share one from my favorite philosopher, Beyonce! In a song of hers called “Pretty Hurts,” at the beginning, it says, “What is your aspiration in life?” And she says, “My aspiration in life is to be happy.” And I think that that's kind of my theme. Life is long. What I value when I'm thinking about planning or what the blueprint of my life would look like is: Will this thing make me happy? Will it spark joy, as Linda said? That will be individual to everybody. Keep focused on what will make you happy and what will help you enjoy the time you have.
Click here to listen to a clip of Martin Luther King’s advice on creating your life’s blueprint.
"If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving." —Martin Luther King Jr.
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