Hours and hours of hard work, but you have to continue; you’re so far in. Even if you wanted to quit you couldn’t. There's no going back now. Imagine doing it all alone too. Wow. That would be torture to me. Well this torturous event is what my grandpa had to go through day after night, over and over again for six months. This just screams bravery. 

        Bravery takes a lot of courage, and yes, it is hard, but everyone has it in them. Maybe some people have it more than others, or maybe they just need to dig deeper and find their true self. As mentioned before, my grandpa had to do this, and you may ask how, why, and what did he even do? Well, he was a very smart and devoted farm boy. He had dreams that he thought he could never accomplish because of money. He didn’t even know where to start. But once he got the chance to make his dreams possible he had to take it, no matter how hard he would have to work for it. 

        My grandpa was born and raised in Thailand with big dreams to go to a good college in America. Having only enough money to put food on the table is really hard. It makes your dreams seem impossible, but nothing is impossible. When you are brave enough to reach your limits, push through, especially if you're not scared of failing. 

        When my grandpa was 16 he received news that all the dreams he thought were impossible could come true. On a fair day a soldier from the US needed help with directions. My grandpa went out of his way to help him out. After helping him, they got close as friends. After a while the soldier told him that he could have a spot in a college in America, but the only thing is, he had to find a way to get there. Thailand is located in the heart of Southeast Asia and is about a 24 hour plane ride to get there. He didn’t have a lot of money though. But after a lot of hard decisions he decided that he was going to bike across the world.

        Biking has always been my grandpa’s hobby, so he was pretty experienced. He started training right away, just biking day after day, getting ready for the big trip. He planned to leave on his 21st birthday. After a lot of competitions, he won a really good bike, the perfect bike to go across the world with. 

        On his 21st birthday my grandpa was ready. He had not planned on where to sleep or anything. He just had to go for it.

        After a while people started to recognize what he was doing, and they wrote about him in newspapers to spread the word. People did hear about him and were willing to help him out.

        On his journey he faced multiple challenges. A challenge that he constantly faced was the weather. Back then there wasn’t any technology; he wouldn’t know if there was a storm coming his way. If the storm rained it would delay his trip, and he could not have a stable shelter nearby. Another constant challenge was about direction; sometimes the map wouldn’t have detailed roads. Oftentimes he talked to the locals who were willing to help out. One of the strangers who helped him with the directions in Switzerland became good friends with him still to this day. 

        He started his journey from central Thailand and biked south. Once he was in Malaysia he took a boat to India. From there he biked to Europe and so on until he arrived in Holland. He stayed in Holland for a few weeks, making some money for another boat. Since he was a hard worker and was well loved, a lot of families donated money too, and that was enough to get a plane ticket from Holland to New York City.

        My grandpa spent six years after his first arrival on October 9, 1969. He graduated from San Jose State University. He worked for money to pay it off (himself); it took him 6 years to complete his undergraduate and master's degrees.

        He then went back to Thailand by plane and started working as a professor at a university. After a couple of years he returned to the U.S, this time by plane. He completed his Ph.d from Ohio State University and returned to teach at the university. He worked there until he retired a few years ago. He held high administrative positions including a dean and university vice president. He is now an influence for many young people including my mom and myself. 

        My grandpa had this saying:  “Thinking without action is nothing, action without thinking is a waste of time, but thinking with action, you could accomplish anything.” I really do live by those words. But thinking back to that saying, there should be one more thing you need to do. You need to be brave, because when you're brave you can overcome anything. 

-Talize Z.