“Inspiration Through Tragedy”
Intro: I am experimenting with ways to share inspirational stories of all kinds. If you give the Call To Action page a quick read, you’ll see my prompt to readers and keepers of inspirational stories to share them with the world. The story you will find below is one that has been shared with me – and that I’ve chosen to share with you! Enjoy.
I will admit – after reading this story I had planned on editing it and maybe chopping it down a little bit. I sat down to make some edits and get it published, but realized that if I take out some detail I am changing the integrity of the story – so I decided to leave it as is. It’s clear that this person has found a way to pursue his dreams through some very rough times.
Here is a short story involving personal tragedy, motivation, challenge and a whole lot of inspiration.
The last few years have been filled with death and tragedy for me. I can specifically recall a time in my life, about 3 years ago, when 11 people I knew (including a best friend and a teacher) had all passed away in a span of 6 months. This is a story of how I found the spark that started my passion, and how I used one of the most upsetting tragedies (my best friends death) that had occurred in my life as motivation to chase a dream, and then finally achieve that dream.
Here’s a little background. Growing up I was the typical slacker. Remember that kid that sat in the back of the class and barely even turned in their assignments? Yep, that was me. In high school I did everything at the bare minimum just to get the passing grade. In all honesty, I just wasn’t interested in learning about chemistry or math (which I later found out that I had to use chemistry in my first automotive job to help explain things to customer’s haha). As my high school years went on my class rank dropped lower and lower. I went from 24th in the class to probably somewhere in the lower 1/3rd. The motivation to do well was non existent. The only thing I ever excelled at in high school was playing varsity tennis and golf. For me, high school was all about having fun and getting into trouble (only a little).
What is it that changed that allowed me to become more motivated in life and school?
Four years ago my cousin came over for one of those summer holidays. When I heard him pull up, I was wondering what kind of car can make such a wonderful sound. I asked him what kind of car it was, and he told me it was a Subaru Impreza WRX; a 2003 model and it was sonic yellow which is one of the rare colors Subaru put out that year. We started talking about the car and he told me it was a 2.0L engine with a turbo, and was generating about 350whp (he had done quite a bit of work to the engine). At that time I just knew I had to drive it! I asked my cousin if I could drive it for a little, and he said that I could as long as I replaced the gas that I used. I ended up driving it for about 4 hours! LOL I stopped by a friends house to show him the car, and he was just about to leave for a mutual friends graduation party, and asked if I was going to go. I decided that I’d go, and he said for me to hold up while he got the keys to his dads brand new Maserati GT. On the way to my friends house (driving down back roads) we started to mess around with the cars. To my amazement, this little 2.0L turbo’d Subaru was keeping pace with the Maserati GT. It was at that exact moment I became absolutely addicted to Subaru’s. After I got home and my cousin had left, I looked up everything there was to know about the Subaru Impreza WRX, and after reading everything I just knew I had to get one. To make a long story short, about a year and a half later I was talking to my dad about it and he said that I could get one because of the AWD system and I’d be going away to school (Ball State University), so it seemed like a logical choice. I ended up finding one in Indianapolis, Indiana which is about 2.5 hours from my home town in NW Indiana. We went down there on a Saturday, which was two days after I found it. My dad asked me if this was really what I wanted. I told him I’ve never been so enthusiastic about a car before, and he won’t regret getting it for me. Besides, it already had rims, a nice exhaust, and window tint on it! Thinking back on it now, I think somewhere deep down inside him, he regrets getting the WRX for me just a little bit because of all the time and money I put into it. LOL Anyways, that’s just a short story of how my passion of cars came to fruition.
The following summer after I had gotten my Subaru, I landed a job working at a Toyota dealership in my area. Even though there wasn’t a job opening, the service manager saw how enthusiastic I was about being able to work on cars and getting my foot in the automotive world that he asked me one question. He asked me “Where do you see yourself in five (5) years?” It took me a second or two to think about what I was going to say. I replied “I see myself working in the motorsport industry doing something I love.” I guess I answered it correctly because he then offered me the job (which really wasn’t available). It was the first automotive job I had, so I made sure I gave it my all. That summer I ended up working about 40+ hours at the dealership, and on my day off I would go intern at a local performance shop. To be quite honest, the internship at the performance shop fell into my lap. I showed up looking for a part for a friend of mine, and once again the owner saw my ambition to get into the field after talking for awhile, so he offered me an internship. Anyways, I would work 40+ hours at the dealership per week and then intern on my only day off at the performance shop. I ended up working close to 60+ hours a week that summer between the job at Toyota and the performance shop (which also ran the local drag strip). That summer was extremely difficult for me. If I wasn’t working, interning, sleeping, or eating, I was at the drag strip racing (which I did for free since I interned for the performance shop and where my addiction to motorsports developed). To be quite honest, it was one of the best choices I ever made. You can see the definite pro’s for working my butt off all summer, but what I neglected to think about was spending time with family and friends. I lost quite a few close friendships that summer, and no one really understood why I was doing what I was doing. To this day, I’m still struggling to mend the friendships that were put on hold that summer while I worked extremely hard to get a single step closer to my dream.
About a year later (two years ago), I lost my best friend, Paul, to drug overdose. He was the type of guy that would give you the shirt off his back, even if it meant he would suffer. Paul was the guy you knew would have your back even if you were in the wrong. Reflecting on the loss of my best friend Paul, I soon began to ponder why God had to take him away from me. His death made me take a hard look at who I was, and where I was going in life. It was soon apparent enough why He did it. I decided that what I was doing and where I was going wasn’t the place I intended. It was almost like God saying to me in His own way “Hey Alex, you’ve got bigger and better things to do.” Who was I to question God right?
Just about a year ago, I got accepted into a school in Charlotte, NC that offered me a chance to pursue my passion in life. That passion is motorsports. Since moving here to Charlotte, NC, which could be referred to as the motorsports capital of the USA, I became truly motivated about passionate about pursuing my passion, dreams, and goals. I started to study hard and pursued every opportunity I could that would possibly lead me to my goal of working in the motorsports industry. This semester I landed a wonderful internship (once again it fell into my lap) at a local Subaru/Evo shop here in Charlotte. I’m actually getting the opportunity to do something I’ve always wanted to do, and I couldn’t be happier. Through the school, I’ve met some very well known people in the NASCAR community, such as Humpy Wheeler (who is seriously one of the funniest people I’ve ever met) and his daughter, which can potentially lead me to other contacts. For the first time in my life I feel like I can achieve anything I want. Not only did I land a dream internship, I’m getting the good grades I want (which is odd for me since I’ve never been one to do well) too. Even though I’m a full time college student and I intern everyday…I come home extremely tired, but with a huge smile on because I think I’m on my way to doing something great!
A few weeks ago I got a phone call from my mom on Thursday (Feb. 25th) night saying that my dog, who has been battling bone cancer since October, has taken a major turn for the worse. On Friday (Feb. 26th) afternoon, my mom called me again and told me that her and my dad were going to take my dog, Lexie, to the vet to see if there was anything else they could do for her, and that they would let me know what the outcome was. I received a txt message from my mom later that evening that said “Lexie is now at peace.” It’s still an on-going battle to stay strong while dealing with this, but I’m taking it a day at a time.
As if my weekend hadn’t been off to a horrible start, on Saturday (Feb. 27th) I blew my engine up in my Subaru, so I’ve been having a hard time getting things done and trying to make the best of the situations that happened. On a positive note, through this misfortune I’m finally being able to do something I’ve always wanted to do with my car. It’s being fully rebuilt to make my dream car a reality. Here is what’s going in it: STi short block, machined cylinder heads, Walboro 255 fuel pump, oil pump upgrade, Competition Clutch Stage 2, FP 68HTA turbo (Super 16g), and pro-tune by Motion Lab Tuning. This setup should be able to exceed 400 whp, but will be tuned to about 350 whp with peak boost at 26 psi tapering to 19 psi at redline. Can’t wait!
Okay, so I’ve been taking all the tragedies in my life and have been refocusing my efforts on pursuing my dreams. To top everything off, I just got “promoted” the other week at my job too! I’m now in charge of all marketing and sales for our Subaru side of the business Instead of letting everything bring me down, I used it as motivation to do something for myself. All it takes is a spark to start the fire and some motivation, and you can truly start achieving things you never thought were possible!
Here’s what I’ve learned along the way:
1) If you are truly passionate about something, and you work hard enough towards attaining it…you will find a way to get there.
2) BIG rewards require BIG ambitions. (For me, I’ve always wanted to do something in the motorsports field, and my ambition to attain it was large enough to have it pay off)
3) If things don’t work out as planned, don’t get down and think it’ll never happen. (It took me a year and a half of relentless studying to get the grades needed to get into this college.)
4) This might not be true for everyone, but for me I needed to find that burning desire that would motivate me. That one single dream or goal that I had such a fixation on (motorsports) was my motivation.
5) Don’t be scared or embarrassed to dream big. (I never thought I’d be doing what I’m doing right now)
6) Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes happen, but its what you learn from it that will help you in the long run.
What up!
Thanks Mike for posting my story! You are truly a gentleman and a scholar
Let me know if you need anything else…
Alex,
Anytime man! Thanks for sharing your story with me. You’ve got tons of passion for what you are doing and will no doubt be successful.
Mike
my dream car is the Ford GT. that car is truly a muscle car with lots of horsepower;;.
my dream car is a Ferarri, Ferarris are the best cars in the world “
~;: I am really thankful to this topic because it really gives great information ‘*;
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