Within Reach: Started from the bottom now we're here

The other night it was about 12pm. I was sitting in the basement chilling with my dad. We started talking about some people we know who are struggling with their marriage and then we started talking about my parents divorces and then we started talking about my dads ex father in law and his successful life and how he got there and then other people's successful lives and how they got there. (I feel like you just learned a lot about my life in that once sentence but you didn't.)

It really sparked something in me.

So my dad knew (because he is now deceased) the guy who started the Orange County, California garbage company. An incredible entrepreneur and billionaire. Basically. He wasn't rich growing up and at 13, he and his older brother left home. They started a business by charging people to pick up their garbage in the back of their truck, and it grew to this multi-billion dollar company that collects all of Orange County's garbage and uses highly advanced technology.

How the heck did he get there?! That's what I wanted to know.

Steve Jobs dropped out of school. Bill Gates dropped out of school. Etc.

How come some of the most successful people in the world didn't even get much of an education!?

My dad went on to tell me stories of the richest people in the world and how they got there. He told me a story of a girl he knew in high school who grew up in a shack with an outhouse in a really really messed up family who was befriended by a girl who helped her to realize her true potential, and later became a doctor.

I kept saying, "Hoooow?" Because I really wanted to know. How does that work. How can someone go from nothing to so much.

My dad told me something really profound I guess. He said that those people like the garbage guy in Orange County, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc, are TOO creative for the system. The system being the public schooling system, limitations of the world, etc. They are SMARTER than everyone else. Their IDEAS far out weigh the system. That's kind of crazy. They broke through the limitations of the world and reached for dreams.

But what about people like that girl who grew up in a shack with an outhouse? Someone took her under their wing and loved her, and helped her to realize her TRUE potential and helped her to reach for her dreams.

None of these people started out with much. In fact some might say that what they did was impossible. They started from the bottom and made it to the top.

I sorta wondered why I couldn't be like those people, but you know the great thing about living? ANYTHING. Absolutely anything that you want is within your reach.

Within reach....does that not blow your mind or what even?

Those people got to the top, made their dreams come true, overcame their obstacles, realized their true potential, and other stuff.

My voca/grammar is really strong right now, can you tell? MY THOUGHTS ARE STARS I CANNOT FATHOM INTO CONSTELLATIONS OKAY.

Anyways. I said it sparked something in me right? Well it really did. It REALLY really did.

Life has been really hard, I mean it's always hard. I have a lot of problems in my life and I'm learning to to not think of them as obstacles that I have to struggle over but more like mini trampolines that will only make me go higher. Holla for great analogies.

So yeah life is hard but it's SO GOOD. I have hard days/times that make me question why I want to be here....then I have those really wonderful moments where I remember how much I love life and how worth it is.

You know it seems like hard times are followed by really good times. Thus the mini trampoline analogy ;)

I've come to embrace my struggles and not let them drag me down, instead I am reaching for my dreams and realizing how achievable they are.

My life lately has gone something like this: midnight longboarding sesh/learning how to longboard, filling the back of my truck with blankets and pillows and stargazing, random hikes, tan lines, and ups and downs, bike rides, and successful runs, and good music, and laughs, and climbing, and life is good okay. It's just really hard but really good and it feels so good to go out and makes dreams come true.

Nothing is impossible.

And lately I've just really been realizing that everything I want is within my reach. And that feels good.