“I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.” – Whoopi Goldberg
The right attitude can lead to many beautiful possibilities. Sometimes, it is true that some people are luckier or more fortunate than others; however, not many people use their opportunities and get the best out of them. What makes the difference are our decisions and attitude toward the situation and people we face. Once we start making our own decisions, we’ll have the power over our future, and we’ll open doors to the endless possibilities.
The lifestyle we have and who we become are the results of the decisions we make, the books we read, and the people we meet during our life time. Of course, our parents play a huge role in our early lives, but once we are old enough to make our decisions, we should be responsible for our lives. For example, my parents are quite realistic, materialistic, and logical. They paid for our college as long as we chose the occupations they approved. I’m happy to be an engineer; however, the only reason I became an engineer was to be able to find a job easily, have a decent life, and make my parents feel proud. For the most part, I was not raised in a ‘follow your dreams’ or ‘do what makes you happy’ type of supportive environment. My luck was reading positive psychology at age 13. I can’t remember why and how I started to read, but I still own some of the books I read 20 years ago. So, at an early age, I became a dreamer despite my parents’ and sisters’ disbelief. I did not let them influence me. I started to believe that who we are and where we are in our life don’t define our future. I didn’t know where to start, but I took the right steps which led me to my dream life. I guess I had a hope and expectation that something magical would happen. The books said that nothing is impossible, and if we believe and work hard for what we want we could achieve it. It was a great piece of advice, which came to my life at right time.
The key is seeing everything as a possibility without limiting ourselves and taking the right small steps for our goals. I learned that things take time, and we can’t multitask the events to be able to achieve more. The actions we take and the incidents we experience always lead to a new path. That’s how we learn the meaning of the life. Once we accept that the failures and disappointments are inevitable, it will be easy to stay positive and keep looking forward. So, everything has to be done step by step, and finally when we look back, we will see that one event leads to another and gets us to the point we are.
I had many beautiful achievements in my life which I accomplished with big delays. My plans did not happen when I hoped, but finally, I got what I wanted. So, I learned in a hard way to be patient and stay positive and give it a try again and again.
My first accomplishment was getting into a school, which selects its students according to a nationwide standardized test score. It was a public school which offers an elementary and high school combination with an extensive English education. Most of the students in my year group came from very wealthy families and they were taking private tutors and after school lessons. So, preparing for the exam on my own and taking only 3 months of after school prep was a setback. However, instead of saying why bother, I said why not and had a chance of getting into the best school in town. In total, 108 students were accepted and I was 47th.
The last unexpected event was meeting my husband four years ago at a workshop in a small town in Tennessee. He was from Britain and living in Birmingham. I was living in Tennessee. Several months later, he helped with my six-sigma black belt project. He was very pleasant to work with and helpful. We became friends and chatted to each other once in a while. Later on, he visited me in Tennessee and we made our relationship possible. As Dale Carnegie says, “We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.”
He visited me in November, and then in December, February, and March. Another beautiful opportunity was being able to meet him in Poland for another workshop in April. Then we planned our visits to each other’s families in Turkey and England in July. After a year in a long-distance relationship and so many more trips, he found a job in the USA and moved to Michigan in November. In 2 months, I also found a job in Michigan. The most amazing thing was that a year ago we were 4000 miles from each other and now we were together and planning our future. The decisions we made and the actions we took made our relationship and marriage possible.
My childhood and the life I have created are evidence that nothing is impossible. I worked and lived in China and then moved to the USA. I traveled to so many beautiful countries. Finally, we created a beautiful home and are expanding our family. There will always be a chance, if we try; but if we don’t try, we may never get an opportunity. I hope that we all dream big and try hard to see what is possible for us. We don’t need a rich family or to know someone important to get ahead; we just need to stay positive and not limit our possibilities.
I’m a Project Manager with a deep passion for both professional and personal growth. Designing and building the next generation of vehicles is incredibly rewarding, but it comes with its challenges—especially for someone as emotionally invested as I am!