Vision Board & Discussion Board: Defining Aspirations & Career Plan

This essay reflects on a vision board created to represent future goals, primarily focusing on writing and traveling. The author discusses the distinction between being a traveler versus a tourist, emphasizing the importance of learning and cultural assimilation. The essay also highlights the author's interest in calligraphy, fountain pens, and admiration for writers like Peter Carey and Virginia Woolf. The vision board activity served as an opportunity to connect past experiences and aspirations, leading to the formulation of a strategic career plan to support future artistic endeavors. The author intends to initially pursue a job related to their current education to gain financial stability for future travel and writing projects, showcasing a practical approach to achieving long-term goals.

Running head: VISION BOARD AND DISCUSSION BOARD
VISION BOARD AND DISCUSSION BOARD
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Photo Collage Representing Vision Board
Francis Bacon, in his essays, explains travelling as a means of learning experience
(Adamo, 2014). My future goals, as implied in the collage, are pretty much the same.
Irrespective of other professions which I take up, I would primarily want to be regarded as a
writer, and travelling across different countries and cultures would provide me food for
thought and introspection. There are two particular writers whom I look up to as role models
– Peter Carey and Virginia Woolf. I have grown up reading their novels, which has
immensely nourished my intellect and aesthetics. My love for fountain pens and calligraphy
is also worth mentioning.
The primary themes highlighted in the activity are ‘Writing’ and ‘Travelling’ which
has nuanced implications in the context of my future goals.

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Travelling: - Firstly, I would begin by clarifying one common mistake made by a lot of
people. There is a marked distinction between a traveller and a tourist, more so in the modern
context of their usage. A tourist is a person who visits a places with the primary objective of
relaxation from a hectic schedule (Doran, Larsen & Wolff, 2015). The tourist is motivated by
a consumerist approach, who has hardly any intention of learning something new from a
different experience. Many a people visit places with the purpose of clicking photos and
showing them to others, especially through social media. The unrealized motivation behind
such actions and such visits is often the satisfaction of one’s ego of having visited a particular
place, and bragging about it (Scopelliti, Loewenstein, & Vosgerau, 2015). Such people are
often seen visiting a lot of places within a very short span of time, going through a very
hectic schedule. Conversely, a traveller has a more learning approach. A traveller intends to
learn the nuances of a different cultures and assimilates those experiences and treasures them
all by himself (Streimikiene & Bilan, 2015). He/she spends a considerable amount of time at
one particular place for that purpose. Therefore, I intend to be a traveller and not a tourist.
Before stepping beyond our national border, I would however, like to explore the beauties of
my own country. I have a unique habit of bringing back home a small stone or pebble
belonging distinctly to that particular place.
Writing:- My travelling would provide me psychological nourishment for materials for my
writing. Initially I may try my hand at travelogues. However, the knowledge of new cultures
and societies, and their comparison and assimilation with those of my own, would gradually
help me to write. They would help me to form my own distinct language. In my writing I
would largely want to execute the form of a novella. Although it is not hinted in the activity,
George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ are also two pieces of literature
which I look up to. However, Peter Carey and Virginia Woolf are my favourites. I like to go
back to the various novels of these two writers time and again. Even now, wherever I travel, I

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usually carry a notebook and pen with me. I usually do not maintain a diary, except when I
am travelling. During my travels I write down points about new things which I have learnt.
Calligraphy and Fountain Pens:- I have a particular interest in calligraphy and good quality
of fountain pens, and love to write with them, or read hand-written documents which display
a uniquely beautiful form of calligraphy. I am extremely passionate about having a huge
collection of some of the best brands of fountain pens. Currently I have a ‘Mont Blanc’, a
‘Sheaffer’ and three ‘Waterman’ pens to my possession. In this context, it must be mentioned
that I am a connoisseur of Persian and Urdu hand-written manuscripts. Although I don’t
understand the language, I like viewing online videos where such documents are being
written, for the sheer love of calligraphy.
Peter Carey:- Australia has produced some of the best literary figures, and Peter Carey
happens to be one of them. He has received several accolades worldwide. This modern
Australian writer has won the Miles Franklin Award thrice, and is one of the four writers in
the world who has won the Booker Prize twice, for Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and True
History of the Kelly Gang in 2001 (Císlerová, 2018). In spite of being involved in
controversies for some of his radical viewpoints, he happens to be one of the best writers
Australia has ever produced. ‘True History of Kelly Gang’ is one of my favourite novels.
Virginia Woolf: - This radically modern novelist is another favourite of me. Her writings
portray her intellect to be way ahead of her time. Writing in the early 21st century, she, along
with authors like T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound brought a new era in the history of
English literature. Her novels like To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, Jacob’s Room and
Orlando finely depicts the modern dystopia and psychological complications (Duarte, 2018).
The character of Lily Briscoe in To the Lighthouse is my favourite. It presents the character
of a painter, who is in search of her ideal artistic vision which she comes across at the end of

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the novel (Marshall, 2017). Although Woolf’s life ended on a tragic note with her suicide, her
works continue to influence aspiring writers (Mishra, & Tiwari, 2018).
In conclusion, it may well be said that the whole activity and this article was a
thoroughly enjoyable experience for me. It helped me look back in retrospect to many of my
own earlier actions, aspirations and experiences, and thereby connect the dots, all leading to
the artistic journey which I expect to embark upon in the near future. However, in the initial
phases, I must be involved in a different profession which would provide me with financial
back-up for my travelling and literary ventures. For that, I would prefer a job that would be
related to my present area of education. I would save money from there, which, I would later
use in carrying out my future goals. This realization helped me to create a career plan, or life
choices, in a strategic manner.

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Reference List
Adamo, C. (2014). Traveling in Utopias: Francis Bacon's New Atlantis and HG Wells' A
Modern Utopia.
Císlerová, M. (2018). Blurring the Lines between Reality and Fiction: Peter Carey's
Engagement with Australian History and Identity.
de Deus Duarte, M. (2018). “What a wonderful piece of work is a woman!”: Orlando and The
Enigma of the Sexes. Via Panorâmica: Revista de Estudos Anglo-Americanos, (3),
21-42.
Doran, R., Larsen, S., & Wolff, K. (2015). Different but similar: Social comparison of travel
motives among tourists. International Journal of Tourism Research, 17(6), 555-563.
Marshall, S. C. (2017). Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse and the Medieval Mystical
Tradition of Pseudo-Dionysius. Literature & Aesthetics, 27(1).
Mishra, V., & Tiwari, A. K. (2018). The Gerascophobic Treatment of Clarissa Dalloway in
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway: A Semantic Analysis. International Journal of
English Literature and Social Sciences, 3(3), 327-329.
Scopelliti, I., Loewenstein, G., & Vosgerau, J. (2015). You Call It “Self-Exuberance”; I Call
It “Bragging” Miscalibrated Predictions of Emotional Responses to Self-
Promotion. Psychological science, 26(6), 903-914.
Streimikiene, D., & Bilan, Y. (2015). Review of rural tourism development
theories. Transformations in Business & Economics, 14(2), 21-34.