You Guide Your Own Path

When I was in 4^th grade I had a really bad speech problem. I didn’t speak properly and I couldn’t pronounce letters and words in the right way. So, my mother introduced me to a friend of hers that she thought would help, well, at least that’s what she told me. Little did I know there was a lesson coming.

We got in the car and drove, then pulled up behind a sanitation truck. My mom introduced me to Joe Smith, a sanitation worker that had been doing it for about 15 years, a hard worker. My mom says, “Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a sanitation worker,“ but my mother’s message, and a hard one at that, was if I don’t want to learn how to speak properly and put that effort in, then a sanitation worker was a completely feasible career option for me. (And that’s the road she thought I was heading down if I continued to speak like I did).

The real lesson is that sometimes you have to make adjustments even when it doesn’t seem natural or easy.

I think we are all flawed on some level, but in some cases those flaws are easily fixable and we should not be afraid to fix the flaws; to make adjustments.

In my particular case, I had to make a choice. Did I want to be a sanitation worker? Again, totally respectable, but I knew that wasn’t for me. So, I had to make the first of what was many adjustments.

It wasn’t the first time my mother had to sit me down and change something. When someone that is close to you, that you trust and love, tells you to make an adjustment, don’t be afraid to take some of that feedback.