Define Your Legacy

And did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
- "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd

Are you comfortable with conformity? If not, are you willing to accept that you might not get anywhere by living outside the norm?

I'm not comfortable with conformity. I have to accept that everything I'm doing in hopes of realizing my dreams might all be for naught, but I will not sit by and do nothing. I have to accept that by not choosing the easy road I might be setting myself up for disappointment. All I know is that I owe it to myself to fight for what I want. If at some point I come to the conclusion that my dream may not come true I'll at least be able to say I gave it my best shot. It doesn't matter that playing the lead role has limitations. I believe that we each define our limitations. I might end up in a cage, but I intend to define the size of the cage.
I choose the lead role. I can be a team player in academia and my career, but I have to play the lead in living my life. I will not wait for someone to tell me what to do with it.
I choose to be extraordinary and remarkable in spite of the limitations the world may create for me. They are not insurmountable.

I may not have a perfect résumé or grade point average, but surrendering because of my imperfections would make me a coward. Those imperfections make me more qualified than most.

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
- Samuel Smiles

While others may see my breaking free from the crowd negatively, they may not hold such an assertion once they see what I am capable of. I cannot give up, nor will I.