Six.

Six.

People who have scoffed at my goals and dreams.

Six.

People who don't believe I can do it.

Six.

People who told me, 'that's nice, but so does everyone else.'

Six.

People who laughed and said 'good luck.'

Six.

People who have lost faith in their dreams and think I will, too.

Six.

People and counting.

Six.

People I refuse to listen to.

You see, I've grown up in small towns. Dover. Silver City. Morenci. Deming. Globe-Miami. Sheridan.

We've moved from town to town and if there's one thing they've all had in common, it's dead ends. Dead end jobs. Dead end people. Dead end lives. Don't get me wrong, I love small towns. And I respect the people who are content with their lives. But I've always longed for so, so much more.
I'm a small town girl with big city dreams.

Ever since I was little I've wanted to live in the city. New York City. Not Los Angeles. Not Dallas. Not Chicago. Not Atlanta. Not Philadelphia. New York City. And I believe with all my heart that someday I'm going to get there.

The older I've gotten, the more people have asked me what I wanted to do with my life. These days, it's learnin' about cool things, writing about those cool things, and telling the public about those cool things. And what a better place to do those things, to be a journalist, than New York? Lately I've been telling people A) I want to be a journalist, B) I want to write about sports and C) I want to live in New York. And the majority of people I interact with say, 'you go girl!'

But then there were those six. Those six people bothered me. This blog post is for those six people.

I don't know that I'm ever going to make it to New York. I don't know that I'm ever going to make it to the big time. What I do know is I'll be damned if I don't try my hardest to get there. I'll be damned if I let that snide comment, "Well, yeah, but everybody wants to go to New York" get me down. I'll be damned if I don't work my butt off doing everything I can to make my dreams come true.

And you, if you've been affected by one of those six people, always remember that you have the world at your feet and the power to make your biggest dreams come true at your fingertips.

See you at the top, y'all.