Impossible

I woke up this morning thinking about impossible things that have happened in my life.  The best things that have happened in the past several years are the things that somebody at one point told me were impossible.  Here are some examples:  My sophomore chemical engineering professor told us that if we felt our classes were a struggle then, we should drop out because they were going to get so much more difficult.  Thank goodness for my mom who told me, "He's not talking about you.  Stick with it.  You can do it."  I graduated in chemical engineering and actually did pretty well.

The law journals panel during the first year of law school told us how competitive it would be to get on main journal and that it would be wise to consider applying to one of the lower ranked journals if you didn't have "x" GPA.  I didn't have "x" GPA and almost didn't bother applying to the main journal or trying very hard in the application process.  I'm glad I didn't listen because I worked my tail off on the application and made it onto the staff of The Georgetown Law Journal.

My career counselor told me that it would be impossible for me to get a job with a top firm.  She was wrong.

Two and a half years ago I tried training for a half-marathon and thought it was impossible.  I just ran my fourth half-marathon on Saturday.

My dad told me that associates at law firms don't get married until their 30's.  (Cue the tears...)  I pled with my Heavenly Father to help me with dating and progressing toward marriage.  When He told me to "move to New York" I responded "that's impossible.  I'll never be able to leave the office or have any sort of social life there."  Well, I'm not married yet, nor am I engaged (thanks for asking), but I moved to New York (reluctantly) and started dating my boyfriend the very first day I moved to the city.  This relationship has the greatest potential of any relationship I've been in, by far, so who am I to say it's impossible?

For the past six months I've been guilty of buying into the "that's impossible" mentality.  It's impossible to work where I do and have a life.  It's impossible to build lasting relationships.  It's impossible to have hobbies.  It's impossible to stay physically fit.  It's impossible to have any sort of balance in life.  It's impossible to be an active member of my church.  It's impossible to pursue a career that will be intellectually satisfying.  Do you feel drained after reading all that?  Those are draining thoughts.  But what I realized this morning is that when someone else says, or when we tell ourselves, "that's impossible," we are really just saying "that is going to be challenging, but the reward will be that much more satisfying because the task seemed impossible."