Blast From the Past

Emily and I

When I was a junior in high school, a teacher of mine gave an interesting assignment:  write your life's mission statement.  This little piece of homework somehow captured my imagination.  So I cobbled together a bunch of quotes and sayings that had inspired me, added some personal flair, liked it, and then mostly forgot about it.  

Four or five years later, I walked into my little sister's bathroom, and she had that same familiar piece of paper taped to her mirror for inspiration.  I was shocked - where did she find that?  She was shocked - you wrote that?  I was pretty proud that I had written something that appealed to someone other than myself!  Anyway, I finally got her to get me a copy of it, since I lost the file long ago. I thought it might be funny to reprint it here in all its original glory - font and creative type sizes included!

I will live each day as if it were my last –

it might be.

 

I am only one, but still I am one.  I cannot do

everything, but still I can do something.  I will not

refuse to do the something I can do.

 

I will choose to be happy, remembering that

earth is crammed with heaven.

 

I will keep going, especially when the going gets

rough, remembering that in the battle between the stream and the rock, it is always the stream that wins – not by strength, but by perseverance.

 

I will accept what is inevitable,

realizing that if you can’t change the direction of the wind, adjust your sails.

 

I will not complain of trials that comfort me, knowing as I do that the strongest steel is molded under the hottest fire.

 

I will enjoy the people I love and tell them so; I will be a fountain, not a drain.

 

I will take risks, keeping in mind the turtle, who makes

progress only when he sticks his neck out.

 

I will keep my sense of humor – aside from rare life and death instances, nothing is as serious as it first seems. 

Lighten up.  Life is funny.

 

I will strive to become a woman of excellence in

everything I do – for if I reach for the moon, even if miss

I will land among the stars.