I love writing stories. It is something that I have always loved to do. When I first started this blog, all I wanted to do was write peoples’ stories. It was something that inspired me to the point where I was determined to keep on going, even when I wasn’t feeling like writing.
This month we have been talking about determination and I have been able to write stories of people you probably haven’t even heard of before.
From the man who moved a mountain to the woman who spent 10 days in a mental asylum it seems as if people in history are the only ones who are determined.
But then last week I interviewed my friend Katie who showed me that people that we see every day have the ability to be determined. She not only figured out what she wants to do in life but she is now working towards her dream of being a veterinarian technician.
So, I thought that it would be good today to talk about the three things I learned about determination this month.
Determination Is Hard to Find Within Yourself
I started college about three years ago. It seems hard to believe that it’s been that long since I started but it hasn’t been easy to find what I want to do in life.
When I first started college I was planning on being an English teacher. I decided that I wanted to take this Shakespeare class that would have us looking more in depth at the different works. I started this class feeling excited. I finished and almost decided that I hated Shakespeare.
The class was awful! Every week we had to write a three paged essay about the play we had read during the week. The more essays I wrote, the more I hated writing.
The end of the semester I decided that maybe English wasn’t for me since I now hated writing essays so I started looking for other majors.
I remember talking to my mom about doing communications. We looked through the different classes and it seemed like every single one was made for me.
I looked through doing an emphasis in journalism and knew instantly that that is what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to tell stories about people for a living.
A year later, a newspaper laid off a bunch of people and I started questioning if what I wanted to do was what I really wanted to do.
I became confused at ever single opportunity and decided that it would be best if I didn’t think about it and just waited to figure out what I really wanted to do.
Then, about two months ago, I realized that I needed to find an internship. I needed to know what I wanted to do, and I needed to know now.
I felt confused. How was I suppose to know? I have only been living for about 21 years. Have I had enough life to be able to decide something like this?
And then it hit me.
A week ago I realized that all I wanted to do in this world is be a journalist. A person who writes about daily life and would tell stories along the way. It seemed like I had finally found my way again and I knew that what I was feeling, I never wanted to slip away again.
This is the determination that I have found within myself.
And it wasn’t easy. I doubted myself and told myself that it would never work, that all I would be doing is setting myself up for failure. But I know now that this is what I want to be and I am not letting it go.
The End Goal Means Hard Work
For this month, I have been writing about determination. Mostly, I have been writing about people with determination.
The first week I wrote about Dashrath Manjhi and how he worked for 22 years against a mountain to make a passage for those who needed medical help.
The second week, I wrote about Nellie Bly. She is someone who I personally look up to because she put herself in harms way and ended up changing mental asylums as we know it.
Then I interviewed my friend Katie. Katie has been through some tough times but I consider her to be one of the strongest people I know. She not only pushed her way through high school, but she is now pushing her way through college too. And I think she is going to be amazing.
A common part in each of these stories is not that they have done amazing things, but it is that they worked hard to get their goals.
Dashrath was able to move a mountain, but he had to endure many days of pounding through rock in order to do so. Nellie changed they way that mentally ill people are treated, but she had to endure torture to do it. Katie knows what she wants to do but she had to deal with being a little lost in order to make it to where she is now.
Determination isn’t without hard work. If anyone wants their dream, they’re going to have to work for it.
It Makes You Feel Amazing
But that brings us to the last point.
When you have busted your butt working to make something a reality and you finally get to see it happen, you feel amazing.
In fact, I know that Nellie Bly felt this. She says in her book, “I have at least the satisfaction of knowing that the poor unfortunates will be the better cared for because of my work.” She not only felt happy, but she was comforted knowing that her work did something for others less fortunate than her.
I know that when I have done something I deemed impossible to myself that I feel proud. For the most part I can’t believe I have made it so far.
And this is what I feel about my blog.
I know I am still going to keep on writing, I’m not sure that I will ever stop. But I feel proud to have written for the past eight months and I can’t wait to keep on writing.
My determination for this blog matches the determination that all people feel when faced with their dreams. When we reach the end of that dream, it feels amazing. We feel that all we have worked for has finally paid off and that we can be proud.
And then we get to do it again.
We make our lives better by making our dreams and following them. And who knows if history will remember us, but knowing that we did what we thought impossible will make us proud that we lived and we created a world that we loved.
That makes all the difference.
