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I have always been afraid to fail. I have always wanted to impress people. Failure was huge for me. So much that I wouldn’t even try.
I guess my motto of “do what scares you” really started when I met a friend who is an ultra-runner. She ran trails and did 50Ks and 50 milers. She was an incredible inspiration to me. I was always amazed at what she could get her body to do. She was getting ready to move and I had run my first marathon and my first trail race months before when she encouraged me to run a 50K ultra she was organizing from her house on base. It was going be small, just several of her ultra friends getting together to 'party' and run.
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This exam had algebra and junior high grammar rules. I won’t age myself by saying how long it has been since I had done these things, but let’s just say it’s been a long time. So, I spent the entire summer studying by the pool while the kids played. The day of the exam I was nervous, but I just knew this was the right path. Let me just say I bombed it. I mean I failed 2 out of 4 of the exams. It was devastating. I couldn’t understand how I had failed this badly after missing out on fun memories with my kids and studying so hard. That failure was hard! I had a few pity party days and then decided I needed a new plan. It turns out, that failure was the best thing for me. Because of that failure I found my way to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and have never been happier.