blindsided

[Sunflyer]

Do or do not, there is no try.

One of my favorite pieces of advice for success, and it comes from Yoda!

I remember being twelve years old when the first Star Wars movie came out. I was the perfect, impressionable age for that story. And I remember seeing it for the first time and being immediately hooked. As in the first five minutes. It turned my adolescent world upside down.

A few years later, my fifteen year-old self heard Yoda say those words, and they struck me like a lightning bolt. Little did I know how important they would be at some of the most challenging times of my life. I keep recalling them over and over. I have come through other major challenges when I stopped trying and started doing.

The loss of my parents. The time and sacrifice spent earning a doctorate. Needing to leave a job I had great hopes for and start building my future all over again. I came through all of these and not only survived, but thrived.

And I will do it again.

And so will you, aphexx. I know the wounds are fresh. They sting. Mine stung too, horribly. Now, after almost a year of self-reflection and work, I am seeing the path forward. It is there. You will find yours as well. Keep posting and striving.