100 Words Per Mile: What Do I Owe Them?

Where's the line between modeling ambition and accepting sacrifice?

October 6, 2020
10.15 miles
1:20:48

I’ve been thinking a lot about dreams and our responsibility to pursue them. My wife and I are spending a good deal of money on this process, which means we have to be mindful of other spending habits, and perhaps put other decisions on hold for now. We’ve started the refinancing process on the house to try and lower our monthly mortgage payment, and if the transfer works, we’ll be starting a chapter of sacrifice—and I’m trying my best to be as mindful of that as I can.

Writing isn’t my only aspiration. Neither is running. I have other dreams and other goals I’d like to accomplish. More specifically, I really want to open a small sports bar that specializes in gourmet hot dogs. I want to call it the Dugout. I want to always have the big game on, and I always want the sound of that big game to be on. To make it work, I’d have to invest a large portion of the money I have. I feel like I have a responsibility to pursue this, to be a man that chases his dreams and his goals, so that my children will have an example to follow as they grow older—but like I said, if this does work, won’t I be agreeing to put those aspirations aside to focus on my child instead?