reminder to self

there is no wrong way to be alive, actually... you can be wrong a thousand times, and it's all still right... it's all still the right way to be alive... go ahead and screw up a million times... sometimes that's the only way to succeed... the only way to learn... the only way to be inspired... we all want to climb uphill, but better to reach up and fall down than to cling, frozen with terror, to the middle... i've been hanging out in the middle for like five whole years... that's too many years... too many years of hesitation and reluctance and unspoken sorries... too many years of "i can't" when all along, it should've been "i will", because there is no such thing as "can't"... there is only such thing as "later"... i don't want to be too late...

the difference between me and them is that i've built myself a path forward, and that's where i'm going, no exceptions, but their lives look like circles, filled in circles, where they're free to wander about... i don't have to stay on the path... i don't have to go where i'm asked... i don't have to write on the lines of the notebook paper... that's that thing they gave us, isn't it? that thing they call Free Will... i used it to build this path... but i can also put on a blindfold and wander... wander until i find something fresh and new and beautiful... i know there's treasure at the end of my path, but sometimes the best treasure isn't where X marks the spot... sometimes it's just over there, in that abandoned shed you didn't even notice... you should go find it.