Our Grit University interns are just over halfway through their internship this summer, so we've asked them each to write about their experience up to this point. Today we hear from Kevin Butler (keep reading below).
Also, we had another amazing week at Grit Camp with 17 counselors and 32 campers for our fifth week at Jacksonville University. We enjoyed the Florida weather, played plenty of sports and activities, completed the Grit Combine, were inspired by the movie 'The Miracle Season', and heard from college gymnast star Todd Bishop and 2 time Olympic gold medalist Shannon Miller.
Kevin Butler mid-summer review, titled "Opportunity and Choice":
Life is full of change. We live in a world that is constantly evolving, growing and sometimes you feel stuck. Perhaps it is your long hours at work, or your same old routine of waking up, getting ready for your day, and looking at the clock, watching time go by. Then you go to sleep and start it all over again. This summer I decided that I wanted to be stuck no longer. I chose to pursue being an intern at Grit University. Most would say no to an opportunity like this because it is not your typical internship. Waking up at 5am to take a cold shower, workout, run a business, and actively work on yourself for a full ten weeks. Being a Grit Intern has been an intense process of learning about my capabilities and constantly pushing myself to be a better me. I want to introduce my favorite poem of all time, from which I truly draw inspiration from, called The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. It goes as follows:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
The world we live in is full of opportunity and choice,and each one of those opportunities and choices impacts us. I have made many choices and had plenty of opportunities throughout my twenty year life, but I found that the choices “less traveled by” truly have made all the difference. Whether it be choosing to dedicate myself to football in highschool and college, putting hours of blood, and tears into pursuing what I wanted, while others may have chosen something different. I have found that I enjoy the process of choosing the choice that may not be the easy choice but choosing the one that could possibly make me a better me.
When we dive into the questions of finding yourself and who you truly are, the common question is; what is your why? Why do you keep doing what you do despite things getting tough? My answer to that is something a mentor of mine taught me. That is being a man built for others and having a cause greater than myself. Everyday I choose to dedicate my choices to doing those two things. This summer it happens to be mentoring kids at Grit Camp, developing their mental, physical and emotional resilience. Each day comes with a new opportunity to change a kid’s life and I could not be more happy.