I’m not going to lie to you: I don’t know anything about clothing or fashion.  I invite you to check out my closet.  I even follow GQ Magazine on Instagram and still don’t know anything about it.  But I do know a lot about friendship.  And I like to think that I know a little bit about writing.

So when my really good friend Kevin asked me to write for Always True’s blog, I was beyond grateful to have a place to have a voice (not including my Facebook rants and nonsensical Instagram posts) especially because it was Kevin who asked me to write some pieces for the Always True blog.

Initially I was very excited that Kev (Kevin’s nickname) asked me to write.  After thinking of some ideas though, I began to worry.  That creep of doubt we all know showed up.  “What if nobody reads it, Jeremiah?”  “What if it doesn’t make sense to what AT is preaching?” “What if people leave mean comments?”

And so on and so forth.  What if after what if began to run like wild fire through my mind.  I overthink. A lot.  As I’m sure all of us do.  But you have to put that doubt in the back of your mind.

What is stopping you from doing what you love?

Well, first thing to do is to figure out what you love.

Before I do a lot of things, I ask myself, “What is my passion?”  I also ask a lot of people what their passion is.  Surprisingly, and unfortunately for the world, people don’t know what their answer is to that very basic question.

This past semester, I had an amazing teacher (his name is Benny, creativity and life guru, p.h.d) teach me a lot of things in my copy and visualization class.  One of the best life lessons I took from him was during a writing session.  After showing us that there is no such thing as writer’s block, (which is easily defeated by cussing each time you ran out of something to write as he explained).  “Just start writing, what are you waiting for” was the premise of the lesson.  You can’t create anything beautiful without trying. You can make up some excuse, but at the end of the day, it’s only you that is stopping you.  This lesson can be applied to every aspect of our lives, whether it’s in our work, school, friendships, love, or passion projects.

I love the movie Titanic.  I love it so much that when I’m bored, I’ll watch random clips from the movie on YouTube just because.  I love Titanic so much that I tie everything back to the movie.  Everything.  Go look at my Facebook. I would bet that more than half of my posts say something about or reference Titanic.  Every paper for school that I wrote this year also referenced it.  That’s not an exaggeration.  I wrote a lot of papers this past semester. Even my first “case study” for my copy and viz class was all about Titanic.

By the way, happy 20^th anniversary to the film.  Shoutout to James Cameron and Leo.

So naturally, my first blog post for Always True has to mention Titanic to paint a picture.

Near the beginning of Titanic, Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) is seen gambling his life savings for a chance to win a trip across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the grandest ship in the world.

As fate would have it, he won that very lucky hand and boarded the S.S. Titanic.  Shooters shoot.

There’s a scene in the movie that I love so much that I’ve probably watched it on YouTube more than 100 times.  That’s not an exaggeration.  100 times.  It’s the “First Class Dinner” scene.  I just type in the search bar, “titanic toast scene” though.  Anyways.  The scene is mostly just Jack telling the dinner guests his view on life.

“… I mean, I love waking up in the morning not knowing what's gonna happen or, who I'm gonna meet, where I'm gonna wind up… I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it. You don't know what hand you're gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you... to make each day count.”

It’s a deep thought, to be sure.  Even with the conceited folks of first class giving Jack attitude, he remained genuine to himself.  He lived and he loved like each day was his last.

So take a chance, do something that may make you uncomfortable.  If you fail, get back up and try again.  Do what you love.  That’s what Always True is about.  Don’t trade in your happiness for anything. And always remain true to yourself.  That is what Jack Dawson would do.

Here’s a toast to doing what you love and taking chances.

To making each day count.

Jeremiah Ordos