ONE OF A MILLION VS ONE IN A MILLION
If you're aiming to be one in a million, you'll have to resist a lot of people and things seeking to sand you down into merely one of a million.
There's nearly 30,000 #1 high school valedictorians every year in the USA alone. There's the same number of star quarterbacks. There's the same number of prom queens and prom kings, double if you count in a gender neutral way. Even being #1 in a small pond can seem bigger than it is. The highest honors some are told to seek wouldn't even have them take one step out of their little pond, and most won't even reach that.
Most people do what most people do, and mostly the whole outer world pushes them to.
Those good-hearted people who care about you most will tend to be the ones who most encourage you to keep your ship in harbor, where it's safe. That's not what ships are made for. That's not what you are made for.
Everyone dies, but not everyone really lives.
If you want to really live, you not only have to usually sail off on your own all alone, you have to do it while good kind-hearted people earnestly scream at you to not go, and tell you that, "for your own good", you need to come back to shore, and stay with them and the rest of the crowds huddled on shore worshiping at the idols of safety, comfort, conformity, and longevity.
Your ship will sink one day no matter what you do. But many ships are still at shore when they sink, having never sailed even once.
Sail free, my friends! Sail free!
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My book, In It Together, is available for purchase from all major book retailers in both ebook and hardcover format.
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