Parents

It seems a lot of people blame shortcomings in their life on some thing their parents either did to them or didn't do for them. Fortunately, I have never been able to blame my parents for anything except possibly, making me think I could do anything. They would always say, "you can do anything you want, as long as it doesn't hurt other people; but remember that whatever you do, the important thing is to do your best at it." So I grew up with the idea that I could actually accomplish anything I wanted to if I worked hard enough --- mostly, this is not a bad thing.

Though I have mostly been able to accomplish most anything I set out to do, there are those times when I haven't. It's at those times when I start to think something is wrong with me and this is a dangerous road to go down, because of course---there's no cheese at the end of that tunnel.

At the end of the day it comes down to a simple quote from none other than Yoda:

"Do or do not; there is no trying". Or from Virgil's Aeneid, "They can because they think they can". So here's to the wisdom of my parents, teaching me to be responsible for everything I create, and for the knowing that "it's all up to me".