The road to this moment wasn't an easy one.

There were times where you thought you knew, but simply didn't.

There were plans made that drastically differed from the one's fate had prepared.

There were days that made you question yourself, your beliefs, that made you ask, what is my purpose?

Look, to live is to have felt these things. that made you ask, what is my purpose?

Look, to live is to have felt these things,

asked these questions,

to have seen firsthand the discrepancy between what we draw up and how life unfolds.

And I think about this discrepancy often.

The swings and misses, they hurt.

You know, that quick shiver you feel down your spine

when thinking about the wrong turns made.

The tugging at your heartstrings when reflecting back on things said or perhaps worse left unsaid.

It's easy to get lost in that feedback loop.

Letting the past dictate the present, letting yesterday define today.

But here's what I've come to see as the truth.

To experience the things that make life beautiful,

we have to be vulnerable in a way we otherwise wouldn't.

Open ourselves up to an unknown that, you know, we could have skipped altogether if we really wanted to.

All that pain, all that hurt the past provided could skipped altogether if we really wanted to.

All that pain, all that hurt the past provided,

could very easily be the reason you shut down,

...