I'll Say This Once:

I signed up quite frankly because it will be hard - because it will be that much harder than what many of the hardiest of souls consider to be hard, and because of this it is exactly hard enough. I can do what I train to do, and I signed up because I know what I am capable of.

I signed up because I said that I would, because I do not litter the sidewalks with the carcasses of premature dreams that have not yet the strength, passion or faith to fly further than my lips. If I speak it life and it flutters weak, I will blow it up from beneath until it grows strong and brave and confident if I have to, but I refuse to let it dive and bone-shatter into the ground and bleed out the once upon a time lifeblood of my potential. It is simply too priceless a thing, and I do not abandon what I create.

I signed up because I have never operated in take-backs or go home-earlies, and that’s why I have come as far as I have in my 31 years, and it is exactly why I will go farther than I could ever imagine trying to explain to you here and now. And of this I am sure because I have been nauseas with fear, but I have persevered in spite of it, and because of all this, time and time again, I know that I have the stomach for it.

I signed up because I had the courage to do it, and because I have the discipline to follow through with it - because I want to foster the patience it will take to survive it, and because I want my children to see that when they are afraid, if they remain passionate, faithful and brave… then anything that they dare create is possible.

Madison, Wisonsin - 2006.