On the day of my college graduation, I felt a grand sense of having my whole life ahead of me. I had a dream to change the way schools were run, and an instinct read through my journals. Soon, I was compiling years of various entries to form a draft of The Barefoot Warrior.

I was not the only one to experience a sense of freedom and enthusiasm. In watching my path to purpose as it unfolded, my mom too seemed to experience a great sense of liberation. The more responsibility that I was willing to take in fulfilling my own destiny, the less she had to worry about  that.

What if I’d always recognized that I had my whole life ahead of me? What if I had recognized that my feet had been traveling the path of my purpose since the moment I came out of the womb? What if I had appreciated how fortunate I was to have a loving mother, father and sister, and the privileged access to fine schools. How might this increased level of consciousness have influenced the steps that I had taken? How might I have touched the lives of others?

From the moment of my college graduation forward, I vowed to be as conscious as possible with my choices and actions. I vowed to make the best of all that had been given to me, and to contribute those gifts back to the world.

Of course, a funny thing happened. I started over-thinking things, forgetting that every step for better or worse was a step forward. My very intent to define my path soon led me to lose sight of it…