Car Problems... and a metaphor for my life.

So heres the story... driving around town today takin care of a bunch of random business that I had to take care of and I decided that maybe it would be a good idea to actually eat some food. So I stopped for lunch, ate some tasty sushi and jumped back in the car. Lo-and-behold, the car didn't want to start. Now I am not going to lie, being broke like no other, I drive the tank pretty close to E most of the time. Well I thought that it bit me in the butt and that I was out of gas. So I walk on down to the nearest gas station, swallow my pride and ask for the spare gas can cuz I was dumb and ran out of gas. Take it back to my car, proceed to drop in the gallon or so that would take me to the gas station. Jump in the car, try to start it up... no such luck. Now to fully appreiciate this story, I have to tell you that is was a BEAUTIFUL day when I started on this trek around most of the extended portland area. Clear blue skies. Wonderful. Now as I am sitting in my car wondering what the hell I am gonna do, it literally went from what a wonderful day to hard down pour with lovely little chunks of icy snow like material. Not making this up at all. So I am sitting there in a car that doesn't run with the sky opening up on me.

Pause.

How is this a metaphor for my life you may be wondering from the title? Well, life has been REALLY tough lately... I have been getting my ass kicked on pretty much everything I have been attempting. Its not easy being out here in Oregon on my own. And while Mike (my coach) has been like a surrogate parent for me, its still tough when I have to fight for every dream I have. Not to sound whiney, but just once, I would like things to go like I picture things in my head. So anyway the car and my life... life just seems to want to make my car die and leave me in the freezing rain.

Play.

Now I had a couple of choices sitting in that car... the most obvious one was to slink back to the gas station, drop off the gas can and walk back to my fencing club. I could have sat in the car pissed off, called someone to pick me up (possibly... everybody who would pick me up was already at the fencing club). I didn't go for either of those... I went with the I am gonna make this car run. Now, I don't know anything about cars. But I do know that I am one stubborn and willful SOB that when it comes down to it, is gonna make things happen. I can't tell you exactly what happened, but I can tell you that if it were a Mexican stand off, the car blinked first. I kept trying to start it, pumpin the gas pedal, doing everything that I could think of to get some gas into that thing and, for just a quarter of a second, there was life. Thats when I knew the car had lost. 15 minutes later, I was back on the road.

Epilogue.

Metaphor for Adam's life: I have dreams, and though the car is gonna stall, and life is gonna pour down on me like a 20 pound sledge hammer, I will not quit. I will not back down. Nothing in this life will stop me from obtaining my goals.