What you are not, you can never be, until and unless you do something about it.

The thought of only being a creature of the present and the past was troubling. I longed for a future, too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to speak.

You don’t just luck into things as much as you’d like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities.