Don't Just Shoot For The Moon, Land On It.

How many times in our lives have we been asked where we want to be in say 10 years from now, or 20 years or so on? Probably at least a few hundred times. We get asked by our teachers, our parents, our friends, our peers and our answer usually changes through out the years. I personally have known what I want to do since before I was in high school. I want to work with young children, and I want to do this because no matter how frustrated I may get with them or if they do something bad, minutes later I find myself laughing. They always keep a smile on my face, and in my heart. I love how children question everything and see no reason not to question it. I love how everything is exciting and they're always having fun. So, back to my original point, I know what I want to do career wise, and have for a long time. I also know how I'm going to get there which would be applying to colleges for the ECE program, going through the program for the 2 years and then hopefully finding a career in that field shortly after. But, recently I had to do an assignment about goals for an elective college credit that I'm taking (to get ahead of the game before I get to college). When I first skimmed through the assignment I figured "huh, easy enough, I know exactly where I want to be!" but it's harder than that because it required so much detail. For example, for the short-term goal part of the assignment (the instructions were to pick one of the mid-term goals I had came up with and make short-term goals in order to achieve the mid-term one, yo dawg I heard you like goals) and one of my short term goals was this  "I will obtain my OSSD by July 2013 by completing the 3 necessary credits I have left in order to graduate." When I got my mark back I got asked to be more specific on that. I had no idea how to be more specific, I was thinking "I just wanna graduate so that I can go to college so that I can have a career, come on now!" That's when I realized that I know where I want to be and sort of how I am going to get there but I did not now the exact steps I was going to take, I was just going to end up "winging it". I then sat down and really thought hard and came up with this. "I will obtain my OSSD with a grade average of at least 75% by July 2013 by completing the 3 necessary credits I have left in order to graduate and gain at least 2 college credits through the program at the high school that I am already enrolled in so I can get a head start on my postsecondary education and get a feel for what college is like." 

The point is that once I sat down and was forced to think of exactly where I want to be and exactly how I am going to get there (not want, am) I was more determined and excited to get there and it made me want to work harder to achieve my goal in the present. I'm not sure about everyone else but I realized that I often had no clue what was going to come next and I would just wait for life to throw something at me and figure out a way to deal with it. Now, I feel like I am in control of my life. I am aware that I have options to choose from and many choices to make and the only way I'll get to where I want to be is if I grab hold of the wheel and steer myself in the right direction. Now, I'm looking back and wondering "what was I waiting for? Everything I want has been within my reach I just never tried to grab it." But now I've got a firm grip and I'm ready to get going. 

The reason why I'm sharing this story is because I hope that maybe someone reading this might learn something or it may give someone the motivation to reach for their futures too, I would love to know that something I said has changed someone else's life positively. But also, I am sharing this so that maybe one day when I feel like losing hope I will come across this, and it will restore my motivation, my inspiration and my drive and I can get back up and try again. 

There's a saying that goes "shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll still land among the stars". But why stop at just the stars? It will be worth it to push that extra mile to get to the moon and you'll feel one hundred percent better. Just never give up.