"I love her and it is the beginning of everything." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
This story starts with a girl.
A girl that inspired this journey over 7 years ago with a promise I made to her on a park bench while we pretended my flight wasn't in fact leaving in an hour. I remember telling myself that I would treat every moment with her quite literally like it was my last. Little did I know that this nightmare would soon come true.
I have few mementos I can physically hold in my hands the remind me of the time spent with her. Things that quite easily fit into a shoebox I still keep tucked away on the bottom of bookshelf in my old high school room. The most important one of them though is that promise I made as I lost myself in her hard brown eyes.
"I will change this world just to show you much you mean to me."
Words I said with such a conviction I never have once doubted their truth. I arrogantly told her how I would never let mediocrity sink those debilitating claws into my heart and weigh me down. How I would never ever be held back from becoming something great, a person I fully believe that lies inside all of us.
I have directed so much energy to looking inward at my motivations for almost every action since my time with her. I've dissected every emotion she made me feel and simply asked "why keep going?". The answer is never simple and at times I have doubted whether everything was really worth it.
There's been a lot of hardship up until this point, a lot of times I've quite literally been on my knees in exhaustion and wondered if I could keep going. When I take the time to honestly reflect on those moments I'm amazed that no matter what I've been able to put one foot in front of the other. I've been able to keep fighting not just for her anymore, but for the idea that someone like her can be found by each and every one of us.
This is what I dream of bringing to the masses. What I preach to almost every single person I meet, no matter the occasion. Something that I know I have to live fully and completely if I ever want it become reality.