Push It To The Limit

I went for a run today, to start some serious training for a 15k race next week. Being the courageous idiot I am, I did the whole 9 miles after not training for god knows how long. After the fourth mile, it felt like utter SHIT. Let me tell you, the body finds devious ways to try and make you quit running. Why'd I keep going? I had time to build up to that distance, and in all likelihood I was doing more harm to my body than good. I'll tell you why I kept going - because I'm through with quitting. I'm not going to disappoint myself any longer. If I set a goal, I'm going to go through with it no matter the cost.

When I got home, I read most of the ending to "Breaking Night." In it, the main character grows up in the ghetto and loses her mother to AIDS. Her father ends up in a homeless shelter and she's left to fend for herself, skipping the first two years of high school in the process. In the section I read, Elizabeth takes four years of high school in two years' time - resolving to get a solid A average by the end of it. As with anything, this resolution was easier said than done - but she did it. She didn't want to live in the ghetto anymore, not since she saw what life was like in the Suburbs and Downtown Apartments of her wealthy classmates. She chased a dream, and she got it, earning herself admission to Harvard on a full scholarship.

The road she took to get there was hard. She had no permanent home while going through school, and often slept in stairwells or at friends' houses. She had to take part-time jobs in order to buy herself food and clothing, and she took twice the number of classes than what was required, so that she could earn a year's worth of credits in a semester. She was chronically sleep deprived. But even with all that, she found a way to make her dream happen, and today she manages her own company, which is based on helping others to empower themselves.

If she could do it, so can we.

Never give up.

What if

What if you woke up one day and realized that you had a dream to do something entirely impossible?

Would you go for it? Would you give up?

Would you start off on the road to making it happen, realize that it's too much work, and let it go halfway there?

Do you have a talent that you've been wanting to make SHINE and become the best there is at what you do?

Would you be that one-in-a-million person that sticks it out and gets to where they want to go in life?

Today, I've realized that myself and all of my readers have the ability to make theirs happen. You've got resources; your parents, your friends, your teachers, and your relationships with other people. You've got stable homes and relationships that you can draw emotional and material support from. They want to see you succeed! I want to see you all succeed.

What's my dream? To provide food, water, shelter, medicine, and electricity to every person on the PLANET. To acquire the means to do so, to meet the people that'll help me make it happen, and to achieve it before I die. If it takes to the end of the century, so be it. I'll stick around. Do I have this plan fleshed out? Nope, but I'm working towards it all the time.

What's your dream? Let's hear it! I'll do everything In my power, as a friend to all of you - or more ;) - to help you make it.

Above all, live each day for the present and the future. No regrets; take everything one step at a time and enjoy yourself along the way.