Daring Greatly

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt - "Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

We Did It!

We did it! I was able to reach my Charity Water goal of providing clean water to 41 people for my 41^st birthday. Thank you to the following kind and generous people who helped make this happen.

Adriana

Annie

Anonymous

Bob

Caroline
Emily

Emma

Janessa

Jenni

Joe

Katherine

Lynn & Trudy

Mandira

Nancy

Nicci

Nick

Susan

Tristan

My sister and her family

My parents

Honestly, going into this I didn’t know if I would reach my goal of getting $820 in donations. However, someone once told me that if you don’t ask, it’s like you are getting a “no” anyway.  So, I asked. I asked on Facebook (several times) and I asked on Twitter and people donated. 

In addition to donations, people shared in the enthusiasm of the project, told their friends and served as cheerleaders, which was equally as awesome. In the end, my total was $961, more than $100 above my original goal. 

So, now it’s time to get on with being 41 years old, whatever that means. Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate it!