It is not every day that you get the chance to meet someone
that will change your life. It is also not every day that you get to plan on
meeting someone that will have a huge impact on you. Sometimes people just run
into your lives and from that moment, your life wasn’t the same as it was
before. Life is full of these wondrous unexpected moments that make the
connections between people so rich and beautiful. Where one person shares her
life to inspire the life of another. Today was one of those inspiring moments.
Inspiring to me because I got to see someone do what I have always wanted to do
my whole life: make a change. Make a difference. Use my talents to help benefit
those living in the rest of the world. Today I saw that! And I wasn’t expecting
it either. When you meet an individual like that, that has such a powerful
effect on you that it stirs the embers within you, that makes you gaze out at
that individual like nothing else in the world matters because what you see
before your eyes is exactly what you want to be doing. And what you see before
your eyes is having the effect you want to be causing. And that effect is
happening right in front of you and you are being affected by it too. You look
at this person and you say, why aren’t there more people like you? Why aren’t
there more people seeing what I am seeing? Why can’t the world be ruled by people
like this individual? Where has this individual been hiding from me in this
society and why are they so rare to find? Why haven’t we met earlier?
Erin Gruwell came to my school campus this evening. An event
that I had no idea of the significance behind it. I had no knowledge of this
person. No idea of her past, what she has done, and how her story is going to
be the one that is going to give me an extra boost and a vision to be more and
do more than I can do because I am capable of doing more. Because nothing is
impossible. Because when people see other people with a dream, and when they
see them crying about that dream because they want it so much and because it
matters so much to them. Because they want to do something that no one else will
do or believe they can do. I met someone tonight who possesses the utmost
internal strength and direction. That makes the driving fire within me burn so
hard and forcefully that I am burning my insides to black charcoal because I am
so filled with inspiration and the willingness to succeed. To make my vision
true and to go after everything I have ever wanted in life. She gave
individuals the chance to change, that wouldn’t have believed that they could
do it. She showed them the way and has changed their lives permanently. Even
though I don’t come from the ghetto or have experienced situations as hard as
the Freedom Writers that she has inspired and many others, she has inspired me
because this type of life, to be driven from within and accomplish your dreams
is everything I’ve wanted to promote through Furnace Level. And this
inspiration and this fire that she has sparked in everyone that she has ever
met, has carried on to give the individuals she has been in contact with to
change their lives and change the world. What we can learn from her applies to
everyone because it is a force of life, that we are capable of anything we want
to do. That the source of making change in our lives and with ourselves comes
from within. And I hope you are all fired up because I am over-venting with
fiery drive! I am here to spread the fire to all of you. To get you all to
realize your full potential and to make that incredible individual that exists
inside of you to come out. To change the world. Thank you Erin Gruwell. Thank
you world. Thank you life and everyone who has inspired me on this mission. The
Furnace isn’t done yet… Keep the heat going and spread the fire!
The Furnace
