To My Ideal Reader,

Team USA from The Star Tribune

Dear those who don't have it all figured out...


As an assignment, we are supposed to write to our ideal reader, somebody famous. Originally, I was going to write to Jessie Diggins or Therese Johaug, somebody fast and admirable. I've been putting it off because, to be honest, I don't know what I would say to them. I'm not really writing to the famous, I'm not writing to the champions or prize winners, to the people with wikipedia pages and news articles filed in their name, or to the people you watch and say "someday." I am not writing to the people I admire. I read their blogs, not write to them.



I am writing to the people who have absolutely no idea what they are doing. I'm writing to people who still have a heck of a lot to figure out. To the people who have high goals and ambitions but who are still mapping out the road to get to them.


I'm writing to people like me. So here it is.


To the rest of us,

You're not famous. You google yourself and the profile pictures of thousands of other people named "Mohammed" or "Jessica" across the world pop up instead. Sometimes you feel like one in a million, just a face in the crowd. But you're not. 

Maybe you go through life, day to day, doing the same thing as all the rest of them before and after. Maybe you get average grades, or play on a soccer team that wins just as many games as it loses or spend most of your time scrolling through social media and watching others' lives, just like everyone else.

That doesn't make you uninteresting or unoriginal, that doesn't make you average and in no way does it make you unimportant. People like you, are the people that make the world beautiful. 

You are the person somebody remembers at the end of the day and smiles because of. You are the person somebody looks up to and aspires to be like. The conversation you had with somebody is the conversation they are replaying in their head over and over because they liked it. You are somebody's goal, somebody's equal, and yeah, somebody's inferior. 

I've really only got one thing to say to you (besides this blog.) Never settle. 

Don't settle for living with things the way they are. Maybe you have a great life, but what does that mean if you don't really do anything with it. Maybe your life sucks, dealing with it is only the beginning, make it better.

Maybe you failed that test. Maybe you didn't play your best in that game. Maybe you messed it up with that person. So?! So what. Get back up and do it again. Go back to the drawing board and come up with a better plan. Do it again, over and over, until you succeed. Because that's what's really important. 

Just keep trying. Who cares if you're not on top, if you're not always on the podium, if you're not always top in your class. Are you trying? Good. Then keep going.

Sincerely,

Someone like you