How I Transformed My Life in 5 Steps - Part 5

Part 5 – “Light Bulb” Moment and Beyond

[Continued from Part 4 – From a Law School Student to the “Light Bulb” Moment] Reveling from the excitement of a newly discovered vision, I quickly returned home to Dallas to tell my parents the good news. I shared with them that I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life. When my mom told me that they would no longer financially support me I thanked her and told her that it was my turn now to take care of myself, on my own.

The year 1997 streaked by like a blurry ride on the highway. Because my undergraduate degree was in Philosophy, in order to get into grad school in Psychology, I needed to have 18 hours of Psych classes. This was going to be a long journey towards reaching my vision, but I was determined to succeed and felt a strange calmness that everything was going to work out.

From the fall of 1997 to the spring of 1998, I attended the University of Texas at Tyler. There I met a wonderful classmate named Laurie Berner. I told her my life story and shared how scared I was of not reaching my goal. For my birthday, she got me something I still treasure to this day, a tiny framed artwork of a woman reaching for a star with the caption, “You Will Because You Can.” I still get chills every time I read those words out loud.

After acquiring the necessary prerequisites for grad school, I moved back to Dallas and applied to Texas Woman’s University’s Psychology Graduate Program. I explained in my essay how hard it was to not have a “vision” for my life and of trying to live up to the expectations and dreams of other people.

“Because I did not have a beacon of light to guide me, I was nothing more than a tiny vessel, easily wavered by the winds of influence…In the midst of being tossed about by high expectations, the desire for self-fulfillment, and the pressure to succeed – I got lost.”

One of the most important lessons I have learned is that life is not a spectator sport, you have to jump in and live it. And even though it sounds like something from a success novel, my life is far from being a fairy tale. In fact, it’s been anything but that as it’s been a very long journey and continues to be one. But all of those obstacles and challenges have taught me that simple lesson, “You Will Because You Can.”

For anyone reading this who has ever felt lost academically, socially, emotionally, etc., the human mind is a great and powerful thing. While some might argue that my life’s transformation is due to divine intervention (and on some level I believe this is true), I also truly believe that had I not willed myself to “stop talking and do something” that my life would have been exactly the same as it was 10, 15, 20 years ago. For those suffering and struggling to find their place in this world, I wish you the courage and the strength to take one step at a time, one day at a time towards living the life you’ve imagined for yourself. I find myself walking this road alongside you…one step at a time, one day at a time.

“The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get onto it and the perseverance to follow it.” —Kalpana Chawla, the late Columbia astronaut

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They some how already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” 
—Steve Jobs