This decision is casually concerning.
I am not going to college this year.
Well, that’s one way to kick off this whole newsletter thing, haha.
In society today, eighteen-year-olds are expected to go to an institution for (minimally) four years to get a piece of paper. While college is absolutely the right choice for many kids and necessary for specific areas of study (medicine, law, etc.), for me, it would be going into debt to get a piece of paper telling me I'm qualified for things I already get paid to do on a daily basis.
If I’m being honest, I wholeheartedly wanted to get into Stanford University. I believed it was the place that would facilitate the most growth and development for me and my company. Despite spending 117 days perfecting my application, and earnestly hoping and praying that I would get in, I got rejected. While I was sad for a brief moment, I knew that rejection is just a redirection, and I was redirected to a beautiful place.
My prayer in the Fall, when I was spending hours every day on college applications and pondering my future, was, "God, close the wrong doors and open the right ones." He certainly did that.
I am excited to move to Austin, Texas, and go full-time with The Running Effect to build out what I started as a fifteen-year-old. This is what truly brings me to life and what I'm most passionate about. I'm blessed to be paid to do what I love most.
A quote I came across a few months ago rings true "I don't want a normal life; therefore, I don't do normal things." You only get one life to live. Do the things that bring you the most joy and bring others value in the process. You are in control of your life and the outcomes that happen within it. As the saying goes, you hold the pen to write your story.
Through this decision and my future, I hope to inspire you to take action within your own life to go after what you truly want. You only have one life to live; make the most of it.
This next part of my memoir gets interesting... I'm excited to write it.
Ad Astra Per Aspera.