Walking Your Individual Path as an Online Nurse Educator

This week I came across a TED Talk by Ethan Hawke and it sparked so much joy in me. It also filled me with lots of questions and ideas that I want to share with you all in today's blog post.

In this TED Talk by Ethan Hawke entitled "Give yourself permission to be creative" he discusses the courage it takes to be creative and authentic to yourself. I've never really struggled with giving myself permission to be creative, but I did struggle with believing that I was a creative person.

My sister is an extremely creative and artistic person. She's a fashion designer, interior decorator, graphic designer, jewelry maker and MORE! I tend to be more of a Type A person and I like organization, checkboxes and schedules. Because of this, I have never thought of myself as a particularly creative person because I saw creativity as more of a free-flowing, spontaneous way of thinking. However, after several years of trying new things like developing newsletters at work, developing different teaching strategies and trying new things in the classroom (and many colleagues telling me how creative I am), I started to think of creativity in a new way and started to consider that maybe I am creative, just in a different way than an artist might be. In the TED Talk Ethan Hawke says, "If you get close to what you love, who you are is revealed to you and it expands". Over time, I realized that as I got closer to teaching and trying out different teaching strategies I discovered that I am indeed a creative person and, more than that, I LOVE being creative!

I could also relate to what Hawke shared about his world expanding when he gave his life over to his passions and how his profession continues to give back to him. I have seen my world expand infinitely once I gave in to my passion for teaching and online learning and considering ways to bring concepts to life for students. And my profession continues to give back to me through the comments I receive from students and educators and also through the energy I get when I learn form others, attend conferences and workshops, and explore new techniques and tools.

A last point I'll highlight that Hawke made in the TED Talk that I really enjoyed was that "there is no path until you walk it." He encourages us to pursue our dreams authentically and "don't read the book you should read, read the book you want to read". With that said, how can you walk your individual path as an online educator today? What are the teaching strategies you want to try? What new technology do you want to explore? What new and different way do you want to make an impact on your students? How can you express yourself in a way that is true to yourself?

Share your thoughts, experiences and ideas in the The Online Nurse Educator Facebook group!