Sorry for the lack of writing, it’s been a minute. I’ve been traveling and decided to just enjoy my holiday and not worry about anything, but I did want to write about this.

There’s been these three words that I promised myself a long time ago I would have a life without. Stupidity. Vapidity. Mediocrity.

I told someone the other day about these three words and he had an issue with the last one. Mediocrity, he said, wasn’t a choice and some people were just mediocre by nature or by the hand they were dealt in life.

Mediocrity (adj.): only of moderate quality, not very good, ordinary, average, uninspired, indifferent, forgettable.

I understand that there may be some things in life you can’t change, like the shape of your face, the color of your skin, or the texture of your hair. But I do believe that most things in life you can have an impact on, no matter how insignificant that impact may seem.

They say when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. What that means, is to not only be proactive to the obstacles you are faced with in life, but to also create solutions. The people who see these obstacles as challenges and not absolute rules are the ones that will climb to the top. If you don’t think you are smart enough, read. If you aren’t athletic enough, train. If you aren’t talented enough, practice. Ignorance is a choice. Quitting is a choice. And so is mediocrity.

Mediocrity is synonyms with words like uninspired, indifferent, and forgettable. These are all words that are completely changeable. So what I’m really saying when I say that I don’t want mediocrity in my life, I mean that I want an abundance of the opposite - passion.

I want a life driven by passion and the belief that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to. I can overcome and achieve anything that I put my all into. I don’t want to be indifferent to life. Nor uninspired. And definitely not forgettable. If possible, I would hope that everyone could live a life without mediocrity.

Of course, mediocrity means different things to different people. The Olympics may not ever have been possible for me, but at a point, I believed it could be and that possibility drove me to my limits and further than I could’ve ever reached on my own. That passion got me there, so I would never see that as a failure. It ignited the passion I have in the environment, and now a passion for policy. I don’t see that as mediocrity. I haven’t found my calling in life yet, but I’m searching. When I do find it, I will give it everything. Because a life being indifferent isn’t enough.

So I stand by my last word. Everyone has a love for something. Everyone has a choice, however small. Just do it.

Don’t settle.