My Quest for Courage...

In the 1979 production of Manhattan, Isaac Davis, played by Woody Allen said:

“Talent is luck. The important thing in life is courage.” 

Those few words recently changed my perspective on Life, in general.

First of all, why courage? Why not confidence, or Education, or even Health?

And if you think about it, what is courage anyway? How do you define it? Is it taking risks? Or is it facing your fears? And do I really need to jump out of an airplane to prove I’m brave? No thank you, I like the view better from the surface.

But I can’t seem to get rid of the echoes in my head! Am I crazy? Or have I lost my mind? Or is it the absence of courage in my life that is causing all this stress?

I demand an answer, and I won’t leave until I earn it.

Will I be a working actor? Hopefully.

Will I be better at writing? Perhaps.

Will I pursue production instead? It’s possible.

It’s certainly hard to decide when you truly love it ALL. And even though I can’t determine my life in the future, I can direct it. And if ‘courage’ is the most important thing in life, I want to unlock its true meaning.

Is it quitting a secure job I’ve had for 8 years? Or is it leaving a happy home behind to ‘follow my dreams?’

It takes guts to do that. But I’m not the first one here, nor am I the last.

I believe that the biggest atrocity of all is to indoctrinate our children into a system that does not value their creative expression, nor encourage their unique abilities.

And as heartbreaking as it was to leave my mother, our eyes made their peace in difficulties, with anguished lips and salted cheeks, understanding that success is a staircase, not a doorway.

So I faced minor obstacles, and I accepted major criticism, but when I was ready for the next chapter, I seized the moment.

Moreover, I was driven to move to Los Angeles, California.  

Is that courage?

I cried when I arrived. I got scared. Overwhelmed.

It seemed like I traded a perfectly furnished bedroom with a king-sized bed, to an inflatable mattress. Minus the ‘inflate’. It’s more like a plastic carpet. Certainly, I can’t deny how blessed I am to still have a roof above my head.

Nonetheless, this city is far beyond magical. Happiness is around the corner; success is down the street. So I continue to push past the fear of not succeeding in life, because doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.

I’m not your typical 23-year old girl. I’m the girl the guys call ‘dude.’ It hurts, I know. But I can’t help choosing a basketball court over a mall. I like to have fun, and a little competition never hurt anyone. Besides, whenever I do feel spontaneous and adventurous, my bank account reminds me to calm the hell down.

Life is too short to be serious all the time; therefore, I live mine professionally. I might as well mention that I am a workaholic. I got my first job right before my 15^th birthday, and shortly after; I had several part-time jobs. I finally put it all aside, and I realized that I am ready to start ‘working,’ and I thrive to do so with desire, and some humor. 

And just because opportunity hasn’t knocked at my door yet, it didn’t stop me from building a door. I played around with my camera and I made an amateur portfolio I called ‘TheNancyZone,’ where I’ve been teaching myself the crafts of productions. With social media taking over, I upload my files on Youtube and Instagram:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheNancyZone

https://www.instagram.com/thenancyzone/

(Please feel free to view them).

           

Obviously, I wouldn’t be writing about it if I weren’t passionate about this industry. I say ‘industry’ because it takes crews of equal importance to create the art to entertain, and I would be honored to belong in any of its fields.

I’ve been staring at this blank page for over a year now: not because I can’t find the right words to say; It’s the fact that actions speak louder than words. I thought I made a huge mistake a few years ago when I agreed to major in Business and psychology. Sometime, I feel like I gave in because I lacked the courage to follow my dreams, but I will use my knowledge to make a difference in the world.

And since I am responsible for my choices, it is never too late to start over.

I don’t stress the ‘could haves.’ If it should have, it would have. Now that I am older, I see things differently, and it makes me appreciate the setbacks I’ve faced. I learned that I can rise above them and that’s how we’re meant to live our lives. When life knocks us down, it’s never too late to get back up. I might not have all the degrees to prove it, but I have a passion for this art.

And courage, is following my dreams, but also realizing that my dreams won’t work, unless I do! It’s allowing my dreams to be bigger than my fears, my actions louder than my words, and my faith stronger than my feelings. Risks make life worth living.

            And fortunately, I have great work ethics! 

Thank you for reading,

  

Nancy Habib

Is the Internet bad for you?

            Is the Internet bad for you?

             The Internet is very useful. We use it for research, banking, shopping, and social networking. I also use it to gather and store information, but mostly to stay in touch with people all around the world. Social Media is the number one activity on the web. And since I can access the Internet very easily from my mobile devices, I rely on it for almost everything. I can’t remember the last time my smart phone wasn’t next to me. The Internet is established as a very important medium in our lives. I am a big user of computers and I am a huge fan of technology. And luckily, technology is no longer for a small minority. Various social networks appeal to different parts of the population. Almost every member of my family has a Facebook account, from the youngest of them to the oldest. It is a great way for all of us to stay in touch, especially that we live on different continents. I choose to keep my profile private even though I sense that privacy is lost in social networking. I tend to refuse requests from strangers and I don’t request friends I do not know. Nevertheless, I enjoy participating in family affairs, even if it is virtually.

            Lately, I began to realize that I am having a lot of trouble concentrating. I noticed it particularly when I’d sit down to study. Throughout my life, reading a book came naturally to me, but now I notice that after a couple of paragraphs or pages, I begin to have this overwhelming urge to get up and check the net. I start checking my email and clicking on links to all kinds of things. There is a correspondence between my increasing use of the web and the use of digital media. Over the last few years, the Internet expanded with the introduction of all these powerful networking applications. I have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and so on (Follow me). And there are hundreds of million other active users on a global basis. My inability to focus on one thing for more than a few minutes concerns me the most. Apparently, there is too much of an attachment to surf the web and it has become addictive. Our intellectual technologies influence the way that we think. For example, years ago, we needed a map to travel, and now we a have a Global Positioning System that provides “location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth.” 

Nowadays, looking for a map is an endless process; bookstores have scaled back in their selection in recent years. Some stores have stopped selling maps altogether. They claim that maps are pointless today. I consider printed maps a fun experience when travelling because it requires the travelers to work together and become a team. It tests our ability to get along and solve problems while the GPS removes that entire interpersonal dynamic. Driving by map engages us actively in our surroundings while the GPS encourages a passive form of journeying.  Up until the map was invented, the only way to perceive location was through direct sensory, and that’s how people got around. Suddenly, we replaced our direct sensory apprehension of the world with an abstract representation of the world. On one hand, it allowed us to do a whole lot more of practical things like going to places we’ve never gone to before with certainty. On the other hand, more broadly, it gave us a more abstract way of thinking in general, and there are some deep cognitive and intellectual consequences. We are hooked up to every form of communication, but we’re not actually engaging and interacting with people. We have the social skills of a microwave dinner and the more time we are spending online the more we are getting incompetent at the area of sociability and social dynamics. How we receive and deal with people is a skill that we are losing. Real world social interactions diminished drastically.

            Because the majority of our time is spent online, it definitely has some effect on the way we think and act. We have become too dependent on it that we can’t go a day without disconnecting from reality to check the Internet. We live in incredibly information-rich environment and we want to know everything that is going on around us; therefore, it is promoting a compulsive behavior in which we constantly check our smart phones. Moreover, we’re living in this perpetual state of distraction and interruptions that is blocking our abilities to learn properly. Thus, we are not building knowledge. Nicholas Carr wrote that the Internet is making us “superficial thinkers,” in his book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Our humanity is at stake because we lack the ability to pay attention and control our mind.

            There is no doubt that the Internet offers a variety of benefits to anyone who is willing to effectively use it. There is more to it than social networking and watching silly videos. It undoubtedly offers a powerful educational source through the enormous amount of information available. It has been my electronic library.  However, the fact remains that too much of anything is never good for you and the best thing we can do for our mind is to find time everyday to unplug, calm down and focus on one thing at a time, especially that all the information will still be there when we get back. The solution is to have more purpose in our communication. We have to set ourselves the challenge of not having the Internet in the palms of our hands all-day and everyday.