Changes, Challenges, Champions

Many times throughout our lives we will face changes that we did not initiate.
Many times we will initiate changes.

Many times we won't want these changes.
Many times we won't want the consequences of those changes.

Many times we do not have answers for what to do next.
Many times we have the wrong answers.

Many times we, as self sufficient Americans, want to fix our own problems.
Many times we will look for help when we were meant to help ourselves.

As I have read many early immigrants' diaries through the years I see this is a peculiarity of Americans that I guess to a great extent we still embody.

We want our freedom, we want our own way, we want to do it ourselves, we want to be left alone while we do it.
We forget what we want in the struggle to keep our heads above water. 

Many times this just is not possible.
Many times we hinder our own progress. 

Many times we (really I) get our feathers ruffled.
Many times we SHOULD get our feathers ruffled, but do not.

Many times the biggest challenge is to just ask for help.
Many times we don't realize we need help.

We will look and feel weak.
We will have to give up our plan, if there was one. 

We won't garner respect, but pity.
We will be trivialized.

Pity is NOT pretty.
Trivial is not what we are.

The changes have happened.

The challenges have set in.

I am reaching out for champions to my cause.

Many times I have tried to be my own champion, maybe, just maybe, the answer is to NOT be my own champion this time.

I am the big proponent for getting out there and reaching out to community - this was one of those unexpected events that will make me reach out in new ways.

I recognize it is hard to take that leap of faith that things will not fall apart and then one tumbles through the unraveling of unmet promises of others.

I know that feeling all too well.

That is the richness of youth - the lack of that knowledge, and then ensuing fear to hinder your choices.

I have a big Champion that I am going to rely on now.

My Champion and others that live and think the same way will be by my side.

I have a feeling that this will be one of the most real and raw experiences of my life.

I am willing to do it because I am tired of fake and insulated.

None of us begin our first grade papers like this:

I want to be restricted by my fear and stifled by my inability to garner respect and cooperation from those surrounding me.

I want to do what others tell me to because they lack vision, drive, and faith.

I want to lead an unfulfilled life with no purpose realized all my live long days.

Here is my first grade paper if I could write it today:

I want to fulfill my purpose and use my gifts and talents as they were meant to be used.

I want to walk the path I know to be right for me.

I want to never lose my Vision, Drive, and Faith again.

Suzanna