If I wanna fly, I'll find a way to fly

Dwayne: You know what? Fuck beauty contests. Life is one fucking beauty contest after another. You know, school, then college, then work, fuck that. And fuck the air force academy. If I wanna fly, I'll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and fuck the rest.

Although repeatedly swearing, Dwayne from the film ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ definitely gets the message across. In contemporary society, human beings are brought down by many controlling factors which prevent them from achieving their dreams. Determinants such as family heritage, social expectations and the way we view ourselves all contribute to how we live our lives. We are never completely aware of how much man-kind has developed and evolved; the evidence of what we have achieved.

I have a color-blind grandfather who in the 1960s wanted to join the Chinese army. After continuously failing the vision test, he was close to a mental breakdown. ‘At the worst of times’, he would tell me, ‘I wanted to give up.’ He had all the reasons in the world to bail out and pursue a goal more realistic. Instead, he went home, memorized all of the answers to the color vision test. The next day, he sat through the test again and passed. The same color-blind man would go on to do many great things.

Let me tell you a story more widely known. A little girl growing up into poverty  becomes one of television’s most well known personalities. If I told you this could happen, would you believe me? You may say this is one of those lucky rags to riches story, but trust me, it isn’t. Oprah Winfrey grew up with almost nothing, not even a proper family. She was raped, abused and discriminated. Yet, somehow, she outlived her past and is now the richest African American of the 20th century. Pure luck or undermining strength? If we were living her childhood, all the traumas and hardships she had to go through, would we thrive, or would we wither away and give up?

There isn’t much to this article except my thoughts at the present moment. There is no point saying we can’t do something because of who we are or what we don’t have. Many notable people have defied against all of the odds to conclude that anything is possible.

 If you really want to fly, you'll find a way to fly.