What's It All About: Indiana Jones and Apple Pies

Ever since I was young, I can remember wanting to be an author.

Well, an author or Indiana Jones.

Ok, mostly Indiana Jones, but I don't mind trying an author on for size. I think trying to achieve one's greatest ambition is one of the greatest and most worthwhile challenges in life. There's always that nagging thought, "what if I fail," that is so hard to live down, but then again, there's always that carrot out in front, just outside of reach, "what if I don't?"

Life's not about doing what comes most easy but, rather, attempting, and possibly failing at, what doesn't but is what you feel most drawn to. And I feel drawn to writing. I'm scared, but who wasn't scared that eventually ended up doing something, if not really impressive, at least pretty cool.

We have to try those really hard frustrating things that are our greatest dreams. If we don't, what are we, really? I could be the greatest athlete or most winning politician or most critically acclaimed writer in the world. Yet, if my real ambition was making the world's best apple pie, I don't think I will have really succeeded until I got in the kitchen and really wrestled with perfecting grandma's worn and loved recipe.

Success is found in the journey, but only the journey worth taking.

Maybe, in the end, I wouldn't be able to make the world's best pie, but hitting home runs just cause it was easy or winning elections just because I possessed an above average winning smile could never mean as much as attempting and, even perhaps failing at, what I really desired most. As long as that pie idea floated out there just outside my grasp, and, "what could have been" haunted my nights, I don't think I would have succeeded at really much of anything at all.

I don't want to be the greatest author, but I want to see if I could be. If I just end up being a student of writing, I think I will still have discovered a little bit more about my defining purpose in this life.

So, in short, who I am is a student. I want to know what the world has to teach me. Let the learning begin...