VISION BOARDS… MY FAVOURITE TRADITION
When I think of vision, I think about a pile of Frankie Magazines spread across a messy bed and colourful popcorn mixed with paper chopping pieces. I also think about what I value, who I want to be and what I feel called to.
I love putting vision onto paper through vision boards. I’ve made one every year since 2020 when I was seventeen and heading into my final school year. I don’t think I’ll ever stop!
Growing up, I always had ambitions for my life. I knew I wanted to do something creative, and that one value has remained strong.
However… even though I’ve had dreams and goals from a young age, my sense of vision isn’t always firm. It often dulls as my eyes shift to comparison and I constantly have to remind myself of who I am and what I value. I’m quite an impressionable person and throughout college I noticed that what I valued and wanted for my life would shift depending on the people I was close to. When I spent time with people who valued good grades, suddenly I chased academic validation… When I was around people who pursued popularity, I felt like I needed to make heaps of friends… When I surrounded myself with people who placed value on their appearance, I would strive to be beautiful in the eyes of everyone around me. Even now post-college, I often find myself looking through aesthetic pictures on Pinterest and Instagram, and things that never interested me suddenly look so appealing!
During these seasons and moments, my vision for my life is overwhelmed by what other people value and it’s exhausting! In Ecclesiastes there’s a verse that talks about ‘pursuing the wind’… and that’s exactly what it feels like! A thirst that’s never satisfied and a chase that never ends.
Spending time each year reflecting on what I value and putting it onto paper as a vision board has helped me to slow down and turn from the ‘wind’ in those moments. I still (very often) have experiences where my vision waivers at the sight of someone else’s dreams, but placing my vision board on my wall, I’m reminded of where I want to go and where I’m called to.