There once was a boy who had hopes. He dreamt daily, knowing that his hopes could and would become reality.

The boy dreamt in class, in bed, and while he worked. Everything he knew was his dream.

To achieve his dream meant he took risks. Not wild gambles, but openings that arrose from being completely naked to the world. He opened his soul up to failure, and failure did not shy away.

He jumped up and busted his lip. He climbed high and fell to the Earth. When failure mocked him, he shed tears. But then he remembered his dream, and a smile crept onto his face.

After that, all the failures in the world could not deter his determination. They only strengthened his resolve. He was laughed at, criticized, and ignored. Yet he did not anger nor retreat. He did what he always did:

He took the challenge and went for it.

He had many weaknesses for sure, but he made excuses for none. He grew wiser by taking chances, stronger by leaping harder, and more resolute through failure. The bar was always moving higher for him, as if goading him on towards destiny.

One day the boy awoke. He felt the same, but there was something else. He walked out of bed and put on his clothes. They no longer fit him. He stood up and walked around his room, but his room seemed small around him. Then he looked in the bathroom mirror. A lean, handsome face stared back at him. He walked to his door, and as he opened it he saw something.

It was the world, waiting on his doorstep.

It was then that the boy acknowledged that he had become a man. Not through age alone. The boy was a man because he never quit trying and never stopped believing in himself. The boy was a man, not because of his height or tan.

He was a man, because he first was a boy who said “I can.”

Turning to the world and embracing it, he calmly spoke.

“I can. So can you.”

Your friend,

-Tie