Motivation
Motivation, it is the force that drives everybody. Motivation is Determination's older sibling. Without motivation, people would fall into a state of laziness. Which, in moderation is good but you can have too much of a good thing.
What motivates me? My friends, family and society to an extent do. Why society only to an extent? What I am going to share are some deep and somewhat painful events. So I ask if you want to judge me, don't say anything to me.
For starters, I'm no average guy. I say that because I have been affected by hydrocephalus, a form of epilepsy. No, it's not contagious. But doctors don't know how you get it either. It affects about 1 in 900 people. People have attached a negative outlook to those of us with epilepsy.
I was having seizures for about a year before my neighbors had a child. While she was not affected by epilepsy, she was battling asthma attacks. It became a kind of sick (no pun intended) game of tug-of-war. Where one month I would have a seizure go to the hospital and then the next month she would go to the hospital because of an asthma attack, and vice-versa.
Then after my second grade ended I stopped having seizures. I credit God with saving my life time and time again. At the same time, my family and I moved to Germany for my dad's work. Unfortunately, my neighbor was still at war with Asthma. So while I was enjoying a seizure-free life in Germany, my friend was suffering.
After three and a half years, my family returns home. I enter my second semester of sixth grade. A little over six months past when my mother breaks the bad news that my friend died in the middle of the night during an attack. As one might expect, I went through a flurry of emotions. I did not show them to others because they would just pass it off. I considered some dark options in the months after my friend's death. But after I went to my church camp that summer, I realized there were other options.
It wasn't until the second semester of tenth grade when my thoughts returned to my friend. I was barely keeping a C average. After a heated debate with my folks, I decided that to heck with it, I won't graduate for me. I'll graduate in my friend's memory.
Junior year comes around, chemistry, oh boy. My entire year I struggled through chemistry. I just barely passed the dang class. Senior year came and went without any such difficulties. And on June 4, 2009, I graduated as a member of the Class of 2009. Seeing as my friend was supposed to graduate in 2010, I went to the 2010 graduation, as a tribute to my friend. Yes, I'm a symbolic guy, so sue me.
Now I'm in my third year of college working toward a Business Administration degree. So come graduation, I won't graduate for one, I'll graduate for two. And hopefully by the end of my life I hope to donate some $19 million to charities to combat epilepsy and asthma and the stigmas that go with them!
THAT'S MY MOTIVATION! WHAT YOUR MOTIVATION FOR LIVING?