The Brick Wall

Randy Pausch was a great example of someone who learned early what interested him and then had a big dream based on that interest and wouldn’t let anything stand in his way from achieving that dream. He really did live like when he saw an obstacle “brick wall” in front of him it just drove him to break through it.  

I have that same mentality when it comes to my children. If there is something I want for them I will stop at nothing to make it happen and then it does. For example there are two great girls and boys high schools here that are very difficult to get into especially since we are only here on a short term visa and have had no family previously attend. However, I knew those schools were where I wanted my 15 year old son and 13 year old daughter to go because it would prepare them the most for transferring back to the USA in the future.  I called and met with everyone I could think of and got letters of recommendation etc and eventually did get both of them in.

When it comes to dreams for myself I have given up way easier in the past. I get overwhelmed easily and have learned more recently to break up large tasks and goals into smaller achievable steps. When I was young I wanted to be a professional ballerina. I absolutely loved ballet. Then as I got older I had one teacher that told me I did not have the right body type to make it happen and then I gave up. Instead of looking at that comment as a challenge I just hit the “brick wall” and stopped.

On the positive side; my husband and I always had a dream since we were first married that we wanted to live overseas with our family and live outside the USA. We were just finalizing plans to go to Tonga for six months when I found out I was pregnant with my fourth child and that stalled our plans. Five years later we still wanted to move so we reevaluated our plans and decided we could go for longer if we found a job and we did. I then prepped and sold our home while my husband was away or busy preparing to leave his business and sold our belongings and with the help of my sister moved everything else into storage. I got passports and we did the long visa process where I took the children to many dr visits. We achieved our big dream and it has been one of the best experiences of my life.