(I wrestled with the posting of this article, even though this is the story of one of the most defining moments in my life. I hope his wisdom will spark your ambition also.)

I’ll begin with who I used to be. I was a geeky kid who had a hard time socially, who was slowly devoured by his pain. His pain led him into a world that was self-centered and effortlessly anti-social. He desperately wanted to be like the other kids, but feared giving a bit of himself away and of rejection. So for years he stayed in his head and remained seperated from the people in the physical world that surrounded him.

This all changed with an inspirational story about someone close to me. It was the telling of my cousin’s life, he died at the age of five, yet he held the wisdom and heart of a man. He was born with a disorder that caused deformation of the majority of his organs, extreme pressure on his brain, and an enlarged tongue. Even facing such hardships, he was always filled with hope, happiness and courage. When people told him he couldn’t do something, either because they felt he wasn’t capable or just worried about his safety; he would prove them wrong by atleast attempting to accomplish that which they said he could not. The boy understood more about life than most people ever do.

Knowing that someone this young and in his state had the courage and hope to take what people told him and go in the face of it, changed my life for the better. I found that trying to open up to others was better than not trying at all, that the world doesn’t revolve around me (or you), but by people caring for others. I realized I was a nobody that was currently headed to nowhere and I needed to change. i found the person I am seeking to be today, the person I wish I would have known so long ago. I found the person who is helpful to those who seek it and even those who do not. I found a person who no longer fears his emotions and rejection, but lives with what he gets. A person who knows he finds happiness by helping others. A person who lets others get know him and who he is as that person. A person who will try his best to get were he plans to be and plans to be trying his best once he gets there. Thus,  my life as it is now can be defined by my cousin’s death, an event I will never forget.