Start Here

My story is different from your story, just as your story is different from your roommate’s story, your classmate’s story, your lab partner’s story, or your best friend’s story. We all come to the same challenges with our own set of experiences, beliefs, abilities, dreams, and limitations. This variety and diversity make life interesting and help us to recognize that there are many paths which can all lead to success – each path just as valid as the others.

When we try to compare ourselves to others or to compare ourselves to our idea of an ideal student, friend, employee, son, daughter, partner… we invariably fall short of the standard. You aren’t perfect – nobody is. But you are good enough just as you are right now. By good enough, I don’t mean that you are not still a work in progress. We all have work to do. I mean that, as Gary Moreland said, “Wherever you are is a good and important place: start there.”

When you start with the mindset that you are a valuable human being just as you are, it becomes significantly easier to move forward to become an even better person. If you do not succeed completely at your new endeavor, it doesn’t mean that you are a failure. You are still good enough - just as you were when you started. If you happened to learn a few things along the way, then now you are more than good enough.

If you want to learn and grow, you need to start somewhere. Where you are right now is the only choice of starting point you have. Start here and take the first step.