By Alexandra Sims

Using metaphors without bracketed clarification 

Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning a reason for being, or rather, ‘a reason to get up in the morning’. An indication of our values and the actions not forced upon us but the processes undertaken to allow our best possible self’s to flourish.

I haven’t found my ikigai yet but I’m working on it. Discovering one takes time and requires extensive introspection.

First stop:

The building books

These are the founding knowledge on which my advertising future will stand. There’s a lot to tackle on the SCA reading list and if I didn’t get up in the morning how would I make it through them all?

The bridge:

A brief over troubled water

Trying to find work I am both fitted to and want to be doing has been similar to traveling for years with what feels like half a map. It’s a lot of guesswork and succumbing to fatigue, wondering whether or not to settle in the many plain but comfortable spots that emerge along the way.

Finally though, I have my sights on the revered edifice and that which holds my answers (SCA). Now my only concern is finding the best way across the ravine that divides us (no money).

I’m about to dive straight in when I notice it, a precarious walkway hanging above me (the announcement of the scholarship competition). Knowing how to swim won’t be enough. I’d much rather climb and attempt to tread the bridge across than risk the current (loan) and wash-up exhausted by the bank (exhausted by the bank); even if I am scared of heights or in this case failure.

So from now at least till September I will have a couple of good reasons to get out of bed. As for the rule of three, see title.