“Brooke, this is a good argument for your research project, but I fear you’re too emotionally invested in this book to set aside your feelings and write based on your research.”
This was a comment made in an email I received from my English professor critiquing my proposal for my semester research project. And as much as I want to fight her and keep my book…She Right.
I am too emotionally invested in this particular book right now for a research methods course that commands you prove everything you argue, follow the writing formula, and then cite your sources in MLA format. Darn-it. My professor is right, I need to know the rules of the writing handbook before I can gain credibility as a writer. There is a place for structure and rules. There is a place for citations and a page full of references. So I’ll try and detach some of my heart from my words for her for my next few papers, but only because I’m emotionally invested in earning an English degree. I’ll change my book, and follow the rules of keeping my emotions at bay but only for situations like this.
Because being emotionally invested in things is GOOD. It means we’re ALL IN!
I want to show my children the importance of embracing every success and every failure. Investing in your emotions means you have heart and soul and fire and passion and you feel all the things good and bad in order to learn, grow, and change into the person God’s designed you to be. I never want to lose my fight for others or myself.
This year I’ve tried to focus on investing in others while still making time to invest in myself. It’s been hard and holy emotional. I’ve been trimming the excess busy things that take up my time and made some extra room to have harder conversations, take longer pauses to process situations, and to make deeper connections with the people I love. What I love about being emotionally invested in things is that there is no magic formula you have to prove, the reasons don’t have to make sense, and the facts don’t all have to line up. You just have to go love the heck out of people and maybe change their lives.
Fit Grit & Grace 