I've spent the last year

I've spent the last year incredibly focused, building, creating.

In fact, I've spent my whole life building, putting countless hours into something

that I believe wholeheartedly will allow me to leave this place a little better than I've found it.

And I'm not unique in this way, right? We all have ambitions. We all work toward positive change in our lives.

It's essential. But like everything in our world, there is more there than meets the eye.

Last weekend, I decided to head over to the beach.

Summer's turned to fall. I wanted to get one last trip in.

Kind of bring closure to an amazing summer.

And I was walking around and came across a sandcastle,

standing in beautiful detail, seemingly untouched by human hands after being completed, yet slowly deteriorating

from the elements.

And seeing this was a little disconcerting, right?

You have this natural tendency to want to preserve it in the effort that went into building it. But the more and more I've thought about it,

the more it occurred to me that the true beauty of it all

is not in the sand castle.

It's not in the towers sculpted to perfection

where the meticulously carved out doors, windows, and bridges, they're only symbolic.

We don't live for the final product. We live for the journey, the adventure, the joy of the process,

tackling the unknown, and turning it into something of beauty. That's why we get up

every day. That's why landscapes, oceans, and skylines run away with our imagination. They're

representative of what makes us feel alive.

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