I’m sure everyone remembers when they were in grade school being asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  I felt like I was the only child in the room who didn’t have a clue.  In high school I remember the kids talking about going to college.  They would ask each other, “What’s your major going to be?”  I wouldn’t be going to college, I had enough of school.

After graduating I started working in retail earning a low wage.  I still wasn’t sure what I wanted out of life.  I continued working at this job even though I was struggling to get by.  I didn’t have the motivation to push myself to do anything better.  I didn’t have a plan.  I thought that this was what life would be like for me.  I was coasting through life with no clear focus about what was important to me or what I should be doing.  I was letting life kick me around.

It wasn’t until I had my life turned upside down that I realized that my “plan” wasn’t working for me.  I found myself completely broke with a low paying job, drowning in consumer debt.  I felt that I would be stuck in low paying retail work for the rest of my life, always struggling to pay the bills and make rent.  I needed a change.

I enrolled in community college and began my education.  I quit my retail job for a higher paying job.  I was on my way to better things.  I was at the beginning of my journey and though I still wasn’t sure where it would lead, I knew that I had to start somewhere. 

Sometimes we find ourselves in bad situations.  We feel like we are stuck.  We think that there is nothing that we can do to change our stations in life.  Had I not had my “comfortable” life turned upside down, I might still be doing the same thing that I was doing back then, even though it wasn’t working for me.  I knew it wasn’t working for me, but I was complacent.  I felt like this was the hand that life had dealt to me.  I didn’t realize that the life I had was the life I chose for myself.  Every choice I made had lead me to that point and it wasn’t anyone else’s fault.  I also didn’t realize that I was the only person who could change my life.

The journey of life isn’t always a walk in the park, sometimes it can feel more like a walking in a dark cave.  Remember this, life is whatever you make it.  You have all of the control to be rich or poor, healthy or sick, fat or slim.  Life is the result of your actions or inactions and of the choices you make.  Don’t settle for less than your true potential.