Behind the Art: Follow Your Heart

Hey! It's Heather here with you to share my first page I made with the new May kit! 

The first topic I thought about when I found out that this month's kit was entitled "Intuition" was a situation that I was in a year ago (wow!). I was graduating high school and didn't know if I should go to college or not. I didn't plan on having a career for life, and therefore felt that going to college really wasn't for me. Well, there's also a LOT of pressure in high school to go to college. Everyone wants you to go to college. You are a failure if you don't. Honestly I think that is society's opinion this day and age. But, I personally know people that did NOT go to college and still have good paying jobs. My dad's a perfect example. He has had a lot of training on the job, but he doesn't have a college degree per say. And he's not dumb, either. Plus, so many people go into debt going to college. I didn't want to go into debt! 

Then there was also the pressure of me being Valedictorian. #1 in my class. And am I going to college? Umm…

So, I toured two of the colleges around where I lived. First I visited the University of Montevallo. And oh. my. goodness. It was awesome! I loved every single thing about it except the money I would have to spend to go there. I would have had to stay on campus, which makes the cost skyrocket! This college was built in the early 1900's (or late 1800's) and it was set up like a private college. You can just imagine. SO beautiful. 

Then I toured UAB. University of Alabama at Birmingham. I could drive there. But I hated the campus. Nothing seemed as cozy as Montevallo. Honestly, it was ugly. I didn't like the atmosphere. I did not fall in love with it like I did with Montevallo. But I could still get an education. So, I decided to go to UAB. 

But, it still didn't feel right. Why should I go to college just because other people are pressuring me to go?! My heart was telling me to skip college. I didn't want to go into debt to go to college and I didn't like UAB. So why go? Plus, if you know how tired I got of high school, you'd understand why I didn't want to go. So, after I had already enrolled in classes and went to orientation at UAB, I cancelled. I decided not to go to college. 

Now, intuition. How does that tie into all this? Originally, I didn't want to go to college. Something inside me (which I label as intuition!) didn't want to go. And I ended up listening to my gut. And I'm SO glad I did! I have worked in that year and saved up some more money and I have learned a lot. Things I couldn't have learned going to college. And you wanna know something? I got a full scholarship for this fall to attend our local 2-year college! Yeah, baby! And my gut says, "Go for it!" I'm SO excited about it. I did NOT feel like this a year ago.

Listening to your heart isn't always easy. At least it isn't for me. I question myself over and over. I guess because it was hard to accept the fact that I wanted something contrary to what others wanted for me. And sometimes I'm a "pleaser" too much. But, I learned that it's OKAY to have different plans for yourself. It's ok to follow your heart. 

On this layout, I used some very cool symbols to reflect some different things. I used the lightbulb on the photo of me at Montevallo to symbolize that I definitely had a "lightbulb" moment at that college. That is where I wanted to go (before I realized it was too expensive to go, LOL). Then I used the Dear Lizzy thickers in the kit to add the ?'s to the page. 'Cause I sure didn't know what to do. And probably my favorite symbol? The title card. Look at the lovely tangled mess that houses the title. That looks like the path I took in my decision making! I don't know how many times I woke up and said, "Yep- I'm going to _____." And then the next day, "Nah- I'm going to skip college for now." Indecision, indecision…

One more symbol! See anything different on the journaling close-up? It had the words "love love love love love" all over the top of the card. And I marked some of them out. Because believe me, there were sometimes I didn't love the situation. ;P

So that is my story! I hope you enjoyed reading… I wrote what was in my heart… :) I'd love to hear your thoughts!