2018 - What a Year!

Charles Dickens sums up my life in 2018 perfectly with the first line from his book, A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . ”

The year started out with me taking the last class I needed to get my degree in sociology. The instructor told us it might be the hardest class we ever take even at a university. Academic logic is a bit like math word problems – I’m not good at math, and I’m certainly not good at math word problems. The goal was to comprehend the material, memorize it, and then apply it. The subject matter was so difficult for me that, instead of just going to my Tuesday/Thursday class, I started attending the professor’s other class on Monday and Wednesdays, so I could hear the lecture twice. Many days, I just wanted to quit and go to the pound and get a dog!

One day, after my Monday class, I headed home on Highway 101. A car hit me that afternoon; and, as my automobile spun around on the freeway, I had no idea if I would live or die. I closed my eyes and gripped the steering wheel. When my car came to a stop, I opened my eyes, and I was facing traffic on the middle shoulder. I felt thrilled to be alive. I thought none of this would have even happened if I hadn’t been going to the lecture to hear it for a second time. Yet, this experience was one of the best in my life because it caused me to realize how fragile and precious life is.

I spent nearly thirty hours a week studying to pass that logic class. I did graduate in May, but life didn’t get any easier. Once I completed school, I had to finish working on the website I had started a year earlier to help publish my books. There was also the Kickstarter Campaign I had also begun two years before to raise money to get my hardbound, full-color book in print. Then there were the books I had to format on Amazon. All of this required computer tech-stuff, which I understood about as much as I understood the logic class. Just as with school, there were many days I wanted to give up and just throw my computer out the window and go to the pound and get a dog.

I didn’t give up, and the Kickstarter launched four months late. The exciting news is – the Kickstarter was a success – my book was going to live in the real world, instead of just in my head!

Wayne Dyer, who has written numerous best sellers, wrote a book called, When You Believe it, You’ll See it. I’m a big fan of Dyer’s, but I have to say, I think this time he was wrong. After going on and off to school for forty years, I never believed I would graduate. And even though I worked really hard on the Kickstarter, I didn’t think enough of my family and friends would put in the $5000 I needed to get the book in print. But they did! My book is at the printer right now!

Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” I don’t think my getting my degree, and getting my book published had anything to do with my believing these things would happen. It had to do with perseverance; it had to do with just doing it! I didn’t give up, I worked really hard, and I saw the fruits of my labor.

If I had died during the automobile accident in March that would have been a tragic thing because I don’t feel I had completed what I’ve come here to do. With my three books now in print, I can say with all my heart, I have done what I wanted to do with my life.

I wonder what you may dream of doing with your life, and have you done it? If not, I strongly urge you not to sit around believing it will eventually happen. Instead, follow Disney’s and Nike’s idea and just do it! I can honestly say following your dream to the end of the rainbow and seeing it glowing in that pot of gold is the best – it doesn’t get any better than this.