I worry that I am settling instead of striving. I worry that this is indicative of laziness, or of letting fear get the better of me, or of lack of courage. I keep reducing my small "successes" to nothingness and thinking too much of that damn "potential" that everyone talks about. And what if I should never move beyond this stasis? The thought is too much to bear.

"The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others – who we are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation, which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is something people with courage can do without."

- Joan Didion

I lost my self-respect a while ago. But I think I found it again. I was looking for validation in all the wrong places, but I'm learning.

Life is good.