Give Yourself Permission | Erin’s Story
My youngest sister sheepishly pulled me into her room and gestured at the wall next to her desk. It was completely covered in post-it notes. Apparently she’s taken the question, “what do you want to do?” as seriously as I’d intended it.
Her eyes darted between me, the wall, and the floor. “I want to go into virtual reality,” she said. Her eyes betrayed her underlying question: she wanted to know if this was ok.
I immediately responded, “This makes perfect sense for you.”
She walked me through her process. She adores telling stories and creating entire worlds for people to experience. She wanted to bring these worlds to life in a way that is both interactive and transformative. The more she talked, the more excited she got. “This girl is serious,” I thought, “I’m going to help her make this happen.”
The next day I sent her a list of what she needed to get in to VR. I’d gone straight to a friend of mine who works in the industry to make sure she had the information she’s need to succeed. She might have amazing talent, but I knew she’d never make it to her goal of being the Stan Lee of VR without two things:
1. A road map to get there.
2. The self assurance to weather the road she’s decided to travel.
Some people wouldn’t consider a job in VR as a real job. She’s have a tough time getting access to the hardware and software she’d need. She’s looking at at least another decade before the VR industry breaks in to the normal household goods market. The specific sector she wants to get into barely exists, and she’ll have to create her team to make it all happen.
But she’s also got a big sister who happens to specialize in lifestyle design.
Fast forward to today.
My sister is creating a VR game for the Occulus Go in her free time after college. She’s the environmental designer for the team, and she’s only a sophomore. This girl is going to have a full blown VR game under her belt before she even has an internship, and it’s only been a month since she started taking action.
My sister isn’t special. She doesn’t have some crazy hidden superpower. She just decided where she wants to be and is working her butt off for it. And I couldn’t be more proud of her.
If you have something you want to make happen, but you’re stuck asking, “is this ok for me to want?”, remember that the only person you need a “yes” from is yourself.
What’s a dream you’ve said “yes” to and are working toward right now?
