The Power of Intention | MDC Honors Orientation

Rocking the MDC Honors swag!

Over the past few days, I have solidified my commitment to the Miami-Dade Honors College program, both financially - I'm several hundreds poorer because of it - and mentally. Heretofore, the experience has been wonderful.

Orientation took place yesterday and today, a total of sixteen hours of truly engrossing and rewarding presentations, activities and experiences. That sole achievement - the production of a program with an audience of around two hundred high school graduates that not only felt coherent from beginning to end but also conveyed a fairly abstract message with aplomb - has been a demonstration of the integrity and capabilities of the staff and faculty at the program. To keep hundreds of kids interested for sixteen hours across two days is no easy feat.

The message conveyed was a powerful one, about the power of intention. The common theme throughout the orientation's presentations - which ranged from administrative staff delineating their expectations of the students; to speakers of all races, origins and passions that motivated us through their philosophies of, and ways they had achieved, success - was that the power of a human being to achieve and to excel is indomitable if properly aimed.

Taking the group picture on the steps of Building 3.

They spoke of financial, social, intellectual and personal capital; how for one person, success was the alignment of passion, profit, intellect and purpose; they spoke of community, of a mutual give and take (on levels in and beyond the classroom) that we as students of a common program must foster; they spoke of ways to perceive and to better our relationships with others, such as the middle seat mentality and the difference between networking across versus upwards; they spoke of practical matters, such as the cost of our education and how mechanically shuttling ourselves between class and home not only doesn't cut it in the eyes of the Honors college faculty but is also a waste of our time and money; they spoke of being part of a dynamic educational program that aims to build upon all the facets of ourselves, beginning with but extending well beyond the academic realm.

It takes a certain kind of mindset and a certain set of circumstances to be able to sit in a room for several hours at a time and have such topics be thrown at you and retained. But that's exactly how I felt yesterday and today, as if I was a bottomless wicker basket, that kept expanding and expanding as more and more valuable information was thrown my way.

Standing ovation for Jullien Gordon of www.julliengordon.com. 

I have been convinced that what I am embarking upon may seem one way on paper but is something much more valuable and much more costly in real life. On paper, I'm pursuing an associate's degree in journalism at the Honors program hosted at the local community college. In real life, I am putting my own time, much of my own money, my own energy and my own spiritual being headfirst - and past the point of no return - into an investment towards myself and my future.

It's a heavy responsibility unto myself, but I'm willing to take it. Through my intention, I will harness my power.

Here's to college.

The Power of Intention | MDC Honors Orientation