Guest Post: Determination

Hi there!!! I’m J over at It’s a Dog Tag Wife Life. I’m a fairly new military bride, we were married on 1/1/11, cool huh? The hunny (my husband) is active duty and a busy, busy fella, so I spend a lot of time with the other Dog Tags in my life, Little D & Little Girl, our crazy black lab mutt pups. I write about recipes (on Tasty Tuesday, although recently I’ve been slacking), my experimentations with creating bath & body products, life as a newlywed, and anything else that comes along.
Recently, I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen. And not with food. I’ve always wanted to make something with my hands, but I’m not super creative, or artistically gifted. I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler. So recently, I decided to experiment with bath & body products. You can read all about it over at my blog, I won’t bore you with it here.
What I WILL bore you with is how determination has to go into anything you want to do. I’ve been trying to find something I’m good at for a long. I’m a fairly good baker, but I just like to give that away. I’m ok at sewing, but it takes forever! I’ve tried drawing, painting, quilting, crocheting, writing music, writing poetry, writing stories, and the list goes on and on. The point is, I haven’t given up on finding my craft. I may fail at some things, but at least I tried.
I was determined to find something I was good at and I wasn’t going to quit. While some may call it hard-headed, I like to call it determined. I don’t like to settle. You shouldn’t either. If there’s something you want to do, go after it! Look at all the amazing women and men who have put their mind to something and achieved because they wouldn’t give up. To name a few who failed or who rose from a meager beginning before succeeding: Oprah (born into poverty), Edison (thousands of lightbulbs before one worked), Stephen Hawking (Motor Neurone Disease), Nancy Brinker, Founder of Susan G. Komen (Susan was her sister who she lost to cancer), Susan B Anthony (civil rights leader) and many more.
If there’s something you want, go after it (well, unless it’s terribly illegal or unethical or harmful, ya know). But if you want to sew a whole quilt by hand do it. You want to get a story published, write something that you’re proud of and get your name out there. Want to have the best marriage on the block, first make sure your hubby is on board, and do everything you can to make it be that way. There will always be someone cheering you on. And for those that said you couldn’t do it, smile triumphantly when you’ve achieved your goal.
To finish, I want to tell you a story. There’s a girl. She has dyslexia and dyscalculia (number dyslexia). Growing up, there were always people who told her she wouldn’t be able to achieve much. If she graduated high school, it would be a big feat. Well, she graduated high school, she even earned college credits by taking night courses. When she got to college, because of the disability, she was unable to pass the teachers exam. There was nothing more that she wanted than to be a teacher. So she moved to social work to help kids who’ve been told “they’d never make it”. She graduated college. She got her master’s degree. Landed a job and has been promoted at least 4 times since taking that job and is now the Autism director at her school and soon is about to be the Autism Director for her whole company (many private schools). No, this is not me. This is my best friend. She went from being told she can’t to being able to speak for all those kids. Her story amazes and inspires me. She was told she can’t and she achieved more than anyone ever thought she would. Just remember that next time you want to give up after a failure.

As Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”