Sometimes it is hard to see the connection between life's challenges and life's opportunities. 

The challenge: acquire funding for college studies.
The opportunity: acquiring funding for college studies/going to college.

It's funny: I've been working toward this for the past seventeen, almost eighteen years of my life and still I feel like I haven't done everything I need to do.  I probably haven't.  But within that incomplete preparation I will learn an important lesson, I suppose. 

And everything works out for the best in the end.

Doesn't it?

Of course it does.  What a silly question to ask.

I really cannot wait until the fall.  I am embarking on the next great adventure of my life.  It's definitely going to take me by the collar and throw me out into the mainstream of existence.  It's definitely going to be an experience.  And I am going to keep in mind and make it the best experience that it possibly can be.

That doesn't stop me from being afraid.  But I cannot let my fear control me.  I cannot let it grip my heart and deter me from my goal.  My ultimate goal.  I'm going to change the world.

And this is just getting me one step closer to achieving that goal.

Spend your days in misery and that is where you will remain: spend your time merely staring towards the light and it will ever stay a thought-form on the edges of reality.

Stop and think: what can I do today that will make it the best day of my life? Then set out and do just that.

Your dreams only end when you stop running towards them.

Instead of looking for the end of the rainbow, let’s find the beginning and use it as the path we guide our lives by.

What choices do you have? Why stay in the gray are between those choices; why not choose and make the best of the results?

If you hide away from life long enough, life stops looking for you.

Plunge head first into your fears, let them become a part of you, know what they feel like and how the effect you and then you will be able to move away from them.

Ever wonder why we have so many problems in our life? Well, would it be worth living if there weren’t challenges to overcome?

Boredom is the mark of a soul that is not growing.

My first childhood memory...is taking a cross-state camping trip with my family.  We were learning about the expeditions of Luis and Clark (I was homeschooled up until High School), so we took a two week adventure in our old VW Bus, staying at a different state park every night.  My parents and I made a flag for our expedition, and by far it was the most memorable vacation I think we ever took. 

The funniest thing that happened was when we were staying in the Florida panhandle (this trip took place across the state of Florida).  We were sitting at our table, eating breakfast, and some raccoons came up to our table in broad daylight, while we were sitting there, and stole my baby brother's formula, a loaf of bread, and some of our cereal bowls.  Needless to say, that night the woods were full of the sounds of raccoons laughing.