You Worked Through the Fourth of July

Dear Younger Me,

You just worked through the Fourth of July. Yep, you can read that again. Worked right through a major American holiday. Do not worry, it was not a political thing. America is amazing, but I digress.

You worked through it because you are building something you believe in. And when you believe in something big, you not only want to make it happen, but you will soon understand that the build comes with hurt.

Not the physical hurt. I mean I guess it could be physical if you are literally building something like a house or a car or legos or whatever else people build these days.

I’m talking about the sacrificial hurt.

The hurt of watching your friends out of your window as you stay inside building away at that big idea. That idea so big that you know it will change your life. That you believe in more than anything else you’ve ever believed in before.

That idea that your community may laugh at as they wheel away drinking and watching the fireworks. Wheeling away with smiles on their face. Smiles hiding the dread of knowing they have to go back to the monotony. Their ordinary life. Their normal life.

It is the fear of being “normal” that will continue to drive you. The thing that you are running from. The gas that keeps your motor rolling. That fear is what must keep you going during the seasons of sacrificial hurt. It will hurt. Trust me when I say that where the hurt is, so too does the temptation come.

Temptation loves to hang with hurt. Their combination is fierce and brutal. Not overtly, though. They bring about harm in a subtle way. In a monotonous way. In a normal way.

You’ve felt it before already, younger me. You won’t stop feeling their feelings. It’s the feeling of settling. The feeling of complacency. The feeling of just conforming to what is easy. Conforming to what is safe. Conforming to what everyone else is doing.

BUT YOU WERE NOT BORN FOR THAT! We were not made to be normal. On the other side of this discomfort is the glory you will soon realize that you were born to live into. The potential you know you can live up. Live up to it.

Don’t waste that feeling. Don’t waste your future glory. Don’t waste all that potential.

Keep pushing,

Older You