Life: It's What You Make It/It's All About the Journey

I don't know if it's all the college and high school commencement speeches being written and delivered this time of year or what, but Spring brings more than flowers and sunshine.  With the dawning of summer it seems that every year some really compelling, truthful and inspirational thoughts start popping up all over the place.

I am not talking about some soft-core Green Day song that pisses off all of their "hardcore" fans.

I am talking about stuff like this guy's commencement speech in which he essentially tells all the graduates of the H.S. he works at: big f'in' deal, you're not special.  everyone is.  the "pursuit" of happiness is what it's all about so forget the happiness part and start relentlessly pursuing.

What's this got to do with running?  This post does a good job linking all this happiness and pusuit talk with the idea that we are Born to Run.  Those of us who have chosen to run, or take advantage of our "born" ability/talent/god-given right, (depending on how you look at) know that setting a goal is the easiest part--it's the "going for it" that can be tough.  But it's the "going for it", or the pursuit, that makes the eventual achievement so glorious and enriching.

To an extent both articles touch on modern Americans increasingly becoming accolade mongers who merely jump from one gig to the next in order to scratch it off the list and show the world what they can do; all without passionately devoting themselves to the moment and really proving to themselves what excellence they are capable of accomplishing. 

Culture/society: Please don't lower the bar so we can all win a trophy.  We'd all be a lot more "special" if we spent all of our lives busting our humps to raise the bar.

On a lighter note the king of "You're Special" gets a digital remix:

I actually took alot of this guys messages to heart as a kid, even if I am not really all that special.