Go Get Your Dreams

Yesterday, I posted this as my Facebook status:

Got a new job offer!!! Sorta the same position (Dean of Students/Assistant Principal), more money, more responsibility, different charter school network. One of the best parts? I get to move into a Leadership Residency position within a year, where I'll learn how to run my own school to either take over one of the network's existing schools OR start my own school within the network. Really cool since it's totally what I want to do when I grow up.

Just accepted the offer so I'm feeling pretty good, blessed, and favored right now. Started from the bottom...

(That last sentence was a Drake reference, by the way.)

Education has always been "my thing." For as long as I could remember, I wanted to work in education to help children and families achieve at their highest level. I like seeing people succeed and I'm good at helping them get motivated to do so. And I've always worked in education in some way, shape, or form because I knew it would help me to be highly qualified to eventually do what I've always wanted to do -- become a school principal/head of school.

So when I got a new job last year, I was ecstatic. 

Y'all know some of my story: I was raised in foster care because my parents were drug addicts (very prevalent in the 80's). I "defied" the odds, got a scholarship, went to college, and graduated. Then I got pregnant -- by surprise -- and became a young mother. Then I found myself in an abusive relationship. Then I went to grad school and finished. Now, I'm a single mother and trying to raise a kid the best way I know how.

Not exactly society's recipe for success.

But it's my recipe.

Nothing should deter you from achieving your goals in life. Nothing. Not motherlessness, not fatherlessness, not unexpected pregnancies, not abusive relationships, not young motherhood, not single motherhood.

Nothing. 

Go get your dreams!

If you have goals and hopes and wishes and dreams... figure out a way to achieve them. If something unexpectedly comes up, so be it. That's life. Things happen. We have to learn how to deal with it and move on. If Plan A doesn't work, find a Plan B. Or C. Or D. If what you’re doing isn’t working, do something else. Try a little harder. Work a little smarter.

But... go get your dreams!

I’ve been through a lot in my short little life, but I’ve learned a lot of things and I’ve tried my hardest to stay focused. I’ve gotten off track, yes. I’ve fallen, yes. But, I’ve gotten back up again and kept going.

Resilience... It’s damn near half the battle.

For those of you waiting for the "right time," don't. If not now, then when?

This is your life. Live it. On purpose.

And go get your dreams.