At some point, we look back at what we have accomplished thus far and, hopefully, we like what we see.  We see the work, effort, exertion, strain, and heartache that got us to the spot from where we are looking.  So..., what if you look back and decide you don't like it?  Not much can be done.  The only way to look is ahead, down the road - straight in the face of the future, your future.

I am not starry-eyed enough to believe that each of us has a destiny for greatness, but I do believe we each have opportunity and too many of us miss it.  It could be because we lack self-assurance, confidence is lagging.  It could also be because we are afraid, we fear that the effort that we put in will be ignored or deemed less than.  Whatever the reasons,  missed opportunities are missed.  That one was missed. 

Just because you didn't make it to business school the first time around doesn't mean you can't make it this time.  Let me tell you a story.  I, me - Rayanne, took the easy way out once.  And because I did that, the next time I went that way, it was long and tedious but it was the way I had to go, in order to achieve what I had always wanted, of which I had always dreamed.  I graduated from high school in the middle of May and by the first week in June, I was in a dental assisting program at Indiana University.  It was a three-semester program, which meant I would be working - making money by the same time the following year.  I just needed to complete three long semesters (summer, fall and spring, 8-hour days) take a four-hour long exam - pass it and I would be a working stiff...  It was the easy way out.  Then.

Several years later, when I discovered that I wanted a new career, I went back to school.  None of the fifty+ units I had were transferrable because they had been achieved while part of a specialized program.   I had to start completely from scratch.  By this time, I had four children and a marriage that was in severe trouble.  I worked full-time, went to school part-time, and was soon a single mom.   But I never stopped going to school or dreaming of my degree.  It took me eleven years.  Eleven.  I was exhausted.  As I walked to the podium to accept my degree from the Dean, I burst into tears.  I had never worked so hard for anything.  He shook my hand, then grabbed me and hugged me enthusiastically and whispered that he was proud of me.

I was proud of me.  I will never forget that moment, it is one that I look back on and know that if I was able to survive that, do that - then I could do anything.  Hard work is good for the soul.  It teaches us gratitude and how to understand true value.  It is easy to get lost in our day-to-day and just perform mindless tasks to get by, to make it to tomorrow.  The benefit of remembering achievement from yesterday is the arrow it points toward the successes waiting in your future.  No fear can reside in the heart that has already faced it and won. 

Cue:  Rocky Theme Song 

by rayannethorn