Following your Dreams

Let me tell you something, following your dreams is NOT something that is easily achieved. It takes time, effort, persistence and most importantly, it takes faith in yourself.

Ever since I was a little girl I loved to write, I would write about anything and everything that I could. If it could be imagined, I had written about it. I remember going through my closet not that long ago and finding a piece of work that I had written back in I think it was fifth grade, I read the story and it was horrible, ha ha. It was about aliens playing baseball, which is cool, but there wasn't really anything catchy or interesting about it! I'll cut myself some slack though because like I said, I was in fifth grade. I don't remember ever being criticized for that particular piece of work, but I do remember others that I had been critiqued on and not all of them had been good.

Here I am though, years later, at the age of thirty-two an officially published author! How? Because I didn't give up. Because I believed in myself. Because I had family and friends that believed in me and helped push me to succeed. Because I knew that one day I would be able to make it. Because I wanted to reach people with my words all across the globe. It wasn't easy, it took years and honestly, I took a break and considered tossing in the towel on more then one occasion, but at the end of the day.... I MADE IT! I have two published books and I don't plan on stopping there!

You can make it too. You can follow your dreams. You can keep going. You can achieve greatness. You could reach the top of that mountain that you want to climb. Trust me. I believe in you and you should believe in yourself. No matter what the obstacles in your way, there IS a way to overcome. You climb over those obstacles, you burst through them, you go around them, you do whatever it takes to keep moving forward.

I used to feel sorry for myself for a lot of reasons and each of those reasons are based around one thing.. Epilepsy.. I have it. I've had it since I was nine years old and even though people say that things get better or easier with time, it's a lie. My epilepsy never got better, it still hasn't. It never got easier to deal with and I know it never will. I just get stronger with each seizure. I spend nights wallowing in self pity, feeling sorry for myself because I'm unable to drive, I'm unable to hold a job, I'm unable to keep friends or boyfriends because they run... They see me have a seizure or hear about it and they run for the hills and it hurts... Every time that it happens it hurts a little more.. I'll create a different post about my epilepsy in time, but I wanted to throw it out there that, that was my biggest obstacle and some days, it still is. I pushed past it though and you can push past whatever obstacle is preventing you from following your dreams.

Don't just dream it. Don't just lie in bed and think to yourself that you really wish you could make it. Do it. Put in the effort. Do the homework (yuck) and research what it will take to get you to where you want to go. Don't get upset if you fail, be proud of yourself for trying and TRY AGAIN. You can do this. Go do it. Chase that dream and make it a reality. Show people that never thought that you could make it, that they were wrong. Prove to yourself that you can achieve great things. And once you get there, find another dream to chase. I may already have two books published and I'm currently working on a Trilogy, but I have another dream that I'm chasing at the same time. Why? Because you can never have too many dreams.

My newest dream is to become a Black Belt in Taekwondo. I'm almost there! I need four stripes on my current belt, I need to pass my next belt and I need to pass a huge physical test before I can complete my Black Belt test. It's going to take time, but I can do it. I will do it. I've failed test before to achieve my next colored belt, but I persisted, I studied harder, I disciplined myself and I tried again. The second time around I passed :)

You can too. You can pass the test and trials and obstacles in your way and when you do, it'll be great! Good luck!