Free 52 Cups of Coffee: Inspiring and insightful stories for navigating life’s uncertainties by Megan Gebhart

time—and with the support of his classmates and a small fan club—he became more comfortable.
    It had reached a point where you couldn’t get him off the field. And while he loved the rush of being out on the field doing something he loved, the real motivation for his efforts wasn’t to score goals or win games. He was trying to change perceptions. He wanted to normalize disabilities and help people see that people with disabilities were just regular college students facing unique challenges.
    Piotr ha d an incredible perspective on life and his condition. I asked him how he did it.
    He said it hadn ’t always been easy. For a long time he asked the “why” questions: Why me? Why did this happen? Why can’t I be like everyone else?
    When he had exhausted all possible questions, he realized that his condition wasn ’t going to change; he was stuck with cerebral palsy for life, and he needed to accept that. At the same time, he recognized he wasn’t the only one asking those questions. As Piotr put it, everyone had something: some obstacle or challenge they had to fight. Some people had visible obstacles, while others were fighting a silent battle; life was an uphill battle for everyone. That was when he decided he wasn’t going to let his disability stop him from living an incredible life.
    And that was what he was doing. When he saw an opportunity to travel abroad, he took it. He was passionate about soccer, so he signed up. He could have used his condition as an excuse both times, but he didn’t.
    * * *
    This is the lesson from Cup 17: Our limitations only stop us if we let them. You can sit back and wait for the conditions to be perfect—make a hundred excuses why you can’t do something—or you can say, “screw it!” and find a way to make it happen.
    We all have lists of things we want to do: travel abroad, run a marathon, go to law school, skydive, start a business, learn a new language. And so we say someday we ’ll get around to doing these. Why not today? Well, I’m too busy; I don’t have the money; I have this “thing” that’s stopping me.
    Those are just excuses we use so we don ’t have to face the fact we are scared to go outside of our comfort zone where we might fail or face ridicule. We decide that “someday” we’ll do it. But the truth is, starting new things never gets easier—in 20 years, there will be whole new set of excuses that prevent us from following our passions. And if our dreams never come true, we can just blame our “thing.”
    That is, unless we spend an hour with someone like Piotr, after which we realize our thoughts are the only thing holding us back.
    He knew it was a cliché to say, but he said if he could achieve his dreams, anyone could. Piotr is a guy with so much stacked against him, and yet he is one of the happiest people I have ever met. He is living an incredible life that he loves.
    All b ecause he decided he wasn’t going to use his limitations as an excuse. I’d say he made the right choice.

Vince Foster
    Starbucks in East Lansing, Michigan
    Grande Americano

    Surround yourself with good people.
    Academic advisors are supposed to provide support for students working toward their goals. That wasn’t the case for Vince Foster. It was an advisor, who told him he couldn’t achieve his goals that motivated his career as an accountant.
    During Vince’s undergraduate career, accounting was considered the toughest major within the business college. When it came time to declare his major, Vince decided on accounting to challenge himself.
    His academic advisor thought otherwise. This was back when the drinking age was 18 and, well, let’s just say he had enjoyed his first few semesters of college. The advisor wasn’t afraid to tell Vince exactly how he felt. He took one look at his transcript and concluded he didn’t have the grades to be accepted, let alone survive the program. That wasn’t what Vince wanted to hear. He left the meeting with a