PLEASE indulge me as I have a personal joy that I want to share with you.
One of my paintings was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York recently. The digital exhibit, titled "In The Studio: Art from the MoMA Learning Community" ran in one of their galleries from January 5 to January 22, 2018 and an image of my painting was in it! I was invited and I attended the welcome reception and it was such an amazing experience that I am still pinching myself and wondering if it really happened to me! It has been three weeks since I attended the event and I still look back at it like I was having an out-of-body experience? Who would have thought I would make it there, right? Certainly not me! I am really having trouble processing it as a fact!
The reason for this is simply because having one of my paintings exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art In New York (yes, it had to be New York) belongs to my wildcard bucket list, along with meeting Keanu Reeves! Yup! That is how far-fetched, no, seemingly impossible it is for me! I am pretty sure that most of us have our in-my-life to-do list right? We all have a set of things we want to achieve within a year and even in our lifetime. Well, I am pretty realistic when it comes to mine, that’s why the MoMA thing is numero uno on my wildcard list! You have these wish-you-can-achieve things that float in your head as daydreams. When you think about it coming true, you get that smile on your face and then reality hits you and that a raised eyebrow replaces the smile! True? Asa pa di ba? Somehow you know you have a next to nil chance of achieving it so you dismiss it as wishful thinking.
That’s exactly how I thought. It was something I actually believed in! I believed that there are things you can hope for but never expect to get and I was okay with that. I was comfortable with it! We can always dream right? It allows us to look forward to tomorrow with hope! It gives us reason to get up and try to do the best that we can in everything! It also gives us something to giggle about when we entertain the thought of possibilities! I was really happy just giggling about the thought of it, really. Imagine my shock when the dream actually came true!!
And I am still in shock. Like I said, it has been almost three weeks since the digital exhibit opened and a week after it ended. And yet when I think about it, even as I write this article, I cannot quite wrap my head around the fact that I had been to New York, witnessed and experienced the exhibit! How does one deal with unexpected happy events in life like this? Well, with much gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to experience a once-in-a-lifetime experience! I am truly humbled by what had happened to me. I have no words to describe that abysmal swirl of happiness that has gone on and on inside me since I got word of my selection last December 23. It was indeed a special Christmas and New Year. It was a great way to start 2018 and it makes me want to think that being born on the year of the Dog really worked out well for me!
But what I really wanted to say, what I really learned from this experience is that we should never think of any wish or dream as impossible. We may think that there are some things we can only hope for, but really, we never know! What I had was a dream so far-fetched that I had no expectations at all about achieving my goal. Even when I had been given the opportunity to participate, I still had my doubts. I was laboring over actually submitting my painting because I did not think it was good enough! In the last hour of submission (I kid you not, I really submitted at the last hour), I had to convince myself to just let all go and send in the image of my painting. And the rest, is history. Good feeling? Nope. Great feeling!
Just keep wishing and dreaming but also try to work towards it when you are given the opportunity to do so. When you are filled with doubt, acknowledge it but do not let it stop you. Do as much as you can, the best that you can and be happy knowing that you did your part because sometimes destiny plays along with you and when that happens, it will knock your socks off! Even when you do not get what you wish for, continue doing what you love because the happiness and satisfaction you get out of it is infinite! Just go on and keep doing what you love to do! It feeds our souls the good vibe it needs and that makes our lives definitely more colorful and much, much worth living!
Happy Sunday Everyone! :)