Aspire

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given then to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."


I read in a paper once that Michelle Obama was never one to give out compliments in law school because she had a "That's what you're supposed to do" attitude. I definitely feel that same way about things. This can be seen as good or bad. It takes a lot to impress me, I don't like models or celebrities or even pictures sometimes because makeup can make anyone look good. Getting good grades is always a good thing, but can someone apply that knowledge or did they just cram? I'm a bit ciritical at times and it's because: I have friends who I've seen at morning practice at 6am and right after a swim meet who look gorgeous, no makeup, no photoshopping or good lighting. I have friends that get stellar grades and couldn't get a job because of lack of experiance and friends who got good grades and have an awesome job because they could apply what they knew.


Great people didn't become great because they were told they're doing awesome all the time. They had hardship and pain, but they also had something they wanted to aspire to. The worst and best example is Adolf Hitler. He got rejected by a girl, art school and almost was killed in WWI. He is part of an inept government and is able to raise Germany up from the ashes of the past...and then become one of the most evil men ever to live. On a more politically correct note (Also, I'm not saying in anyway what Hitler did was good because genocide of any group of people is wrong and I'm glad that the allies prevaild...go America!) take Albert Einstien. He failed fourth grade math and everyone called him stupid when he was little...Megan Quann 2000 Olympic swimmer. When she first started swimming she could barely make it one lap of the pool and needed to stop every few yards to rest. She was forced to swim with six and seven year olds.

So aspiring to something wheather is be a goal or status isn't about how many compliments you get or how much support you get along the way, but how you see challenges. It's that reason that I have a hard time communicating with people younger than me. As stated in my last post, a lot of people in my generation and younger don't understand that if you want to do something do it on your own terms. If you need money, get a job, if you want to be on a sports team, practice until you're so weak you're shaking and can't see in front of your face because it's so dark.

I feel alot of people expect to have help along the way, and sometimes you have to go it by yourself. I'm lucky enough to have parents who have taught me to think and be myself. I'd like to say they possess a lof of Southern values, even if they aren't from the South. For example, if I wanted to do something like swimming, I did it with their help because they saw I had talent and it was a passion. But if I wanted to go somewhere, I paid for it because being self sufficient is also something they wanted me to learn.

So I did get help along the way, as did a lot of my college classmates. But, maybe going to school in the South, we all learned to aspire. I have debutants as friends and sorority sisters. They have trust funds, an entire wardrobe of Lilly, Polo, Lacoste and REAL Louis bags. Yet, they went to college and have jobs in something they love doing and part of that is that they love being on their own. Freedom is more important to them than having money.

And so, it is a surprise that I like teaching because most kids and teenagers and even my generation don't really choose to aspire and it's depressing. But, when you have those kids who do want to do something special, then it's all worth it.