The Seven Simple Complicated Impossible Things to Achieve are a guideline by which to live one's life. They are simple in design, as the name implies, and yet in many ways, extremely difficult, for they are not tangible things nor are they states of being. They are conditions, and like all conditions they have to be continuously met.

The first is Love. The capacity for love in this world is perhaps one of the most important things one could have. It is both for yourself and the people around you. It is unconditional and final, for often the heart wants what the brain denies.

The second is Family. A result that comes out of Love, by its very definition a family is a small tight group of people, initially related by marriage, that live in one household. In the real world, outside of dictionaries and classrooms, family is a looser term. Sometimes a family is the people you choose to surround yourself with, which is just as good as anything else.

The third is Responsibility. This comes often as a result of Family due to the need to provide. However, to say that this is the only thing would be a drastic understatement. Responsibility in this sense, means taking ownership of your actions, taking care of yourself and those around to the best of your ability. This also means knowing when you are wrong and being able to ask for help should the need arise.

Vices and Virtues make up the fourth and fifth respectively. Getting back on the more personal side, instead of the board picture, these are interchangeable and different for every person. It is knowing your strengths, your weaknesses, the difference between what is right and what is easy, and having the courage to stand up for your beliefs even in the face of adversity.

Faith is the sixth. Lacking personal experience in this area, I can only tell you what my father told me. Faith is the unconditional, unbreakable, and unrelenting belief in something, a Higher Power. But it is also reflecting your beliefs into your actions, and your actions into your beliefs. It is something greater than yourself.

The final thing is Acceptance, both of yourself and who you are as a person as well as the idea that not everyone is going to like you.

The Seven are more than just attributes or characteristics, they are a way of living. A way of living that has cost me everything I have, to obtain things I never lost.

My name is Brian Griffin and my story begins in the Mediterranean Sea, ten miles off the coast of Italy.