Creativity and artistic ability runs in my family, and even at the age of four I remember having an advanced understanding of this gift. Like most young kids, I had quite the imagination. I was always encouraged to express my ideas using art, ingenuity, and creativity. “You can do anything you set your mind to.”  We probably all remember hearing this at least once in our lives while being encouraged to follow our dreams. This story is not about following your dreams! This story is about the first time I realized anyone who has or will ever quote that tired saying to me, is full of shit.

            It was a hot summer day in Destin Florida. My dad was at work and my mom was home watching us kids until her turn to leave for work. She, like most days, was running around the house cleaning or doing chores of some kind. Earlier in the week the city power maintenance crew had been in our neighborhood clearing trees and low lying limbs that could jeopardize any power lines. They had used part of our front yard for leftover debris they had cut away. This resulted in a pile of limbs that seemed 20ft high. I was four so realistically the brush pile probably only measured five feet or so. To me, that brush pile had potential written all over it. My first course of action, climb on top of it. I used a nearby tree to get a footing that would leverage me to a place where I could easily access the summit. It took a few minutes, but I made it. After conquering that now seemingly easy task, I was bored with this pile just the way it was. Naturally, my next thought was Robot! I just knew if I put my mind to it I could turn this pile of brush into a giant robot that would take me anywhere I wanted to go and do anything I asked it to. I quickly climbed down and ran into the house where I grabbed a pencil and piece of paper to start working on my schematics. In what seemed like no time I had a fully illustrated picture of the brush pile and on the next page a rendition of the robot it was soon to be.

            I remember running to my mom with excitement of the project I was undertaking. “Mom, look… I’m going to build a robot out of the brush pile in the front yard” I told her. In the middle of a task, I’m sure her response was something along the lines of “Great. Don’t go into the road.”  I rushed out the front door and back to the pile. Again we met as it towered over my head. Where to begin, I thought? I looked at my plans with intensity. The legs! I’ll start with the legs. I put my plans on the ground and began moving limbs into new piles. Some of these limbs were quite heavy for me, but the work had to be done. About 20 minutes went by. I stood back looking at the newly formed piles, then back at my plans… then back at the piles, and then at my plans again. They didn’t look anything like my drawing and especially nothing like robot legs. I will never forget the feeling that came over me. It was the sudden realization that it was impossible to make a robot out of piles of tree limbs. It was clear as day. What was I doing? Why did my mom let me attempt this? Surely my mother knew this couldn’t be accomplished. She let me try anyway. Did she think maybe I’d be the person to figure out this impossibility… or was she just full of shit like everyone else? I crumbled up my robot blue prints, tossed the wadded up ball of paper into one of the piles, and walked back into the house carrying the pieces of my broken dreams. I may or may not ever build a robot, I thought, but I will never build one out of tree scraps!

            That was the day I learned that putting your mind to something doesn’t necessarily mean it is possible, and being told “you can do anything you put your mind to” was most likely meant to fall on the ears of kids privileged in ways I was not. I’m sure it was meant to be positive encouragement, but to me this all was a distortion of the truth to deceive kids about the world. Kids, always remember there will come the day when you realize you were born too late to hunt buffalo, too early to fight robots, and everyone older than you has always been full of shit!

The End