Just before beginning Visual Latin, I interviewed with a construction company and a property management company.

Above all else, I wanted out of education.  I wanted out of the classroom.  I considered giving up.  But, I just couldn’t do it.  I wanted to give teaching one last try.

This sums up how I feel about those dark days.  I hope it encourages you.

“When the moment comes to show others your Offering, they will be amazed and will say to one another: “There is a successful man, because everyone wants the fruits of his labors.”

No one will ask what it cost to produce those fruits because anyone who does his work with love fills his creation with such intensity that it cannot be perceived by the eyes. Just as an acrobat flies easily through the air with no apparent effort, success, when it comes, seems the most natural thing in the world.

Meanwhile, if anyone did dare to ask, the answer would be: I considered giving up. I thought God was no longer listening to me, I often had to change direction, and, on other occasions, I lost my way. Despite everything, though, I found it again and carried on, because I was convinced there was no other way to live my life.

I learned which bridges should be crossed and which should be burned.”

– Paulo Coelho, in Manuscript Found in Accra.