Do you know how it feels when you’re starting a marathon? You’re all pumped up and ready to go, and yet you unconsciously wince at the challenges that lie ahead.

You see, a full length marathon — 42.2 km is not a piece of cake even to the best of us.

Though Taipei will hold one this late March, the start of a marathon mostly describes my life right now, and how demanding my life will be in the coming months.

And yet, you see the prize up ahead. If I work hard and do everything right, immense rewards lie in the future for me. That’s it, I’m pretty much set for life, and there’s no need to even depend on mom and dad for any financial support.

So I breathe in and out deep and contemplative.

Finally, it’s coming together.

The race won’t be easy, but I’m up to the challenge.

Frankly, I really have no choice.

In life, you can work your ass off and be on the top of your game, or be complacent and swim in mediocrity.

One thing about me is that I don’t care about winning, but I just hate, just hate to be ordinary.

Call it ambition if you wish, but I wouldn’t want to look back and say, “Wow, I really wasted my life there.”

I’ve had my fun and games. These past few years has been all about clubbing, partying, going out with friends and it’s been fun. But I’m retiring from tireless and senseless partying, heck, I don’t think I’m young enough to go out till 6:00 am and have breakfast afterwards.

Partying gets old after a while. Really.

So I roll up my sleeves and take one last breath before starting the race.

I just hope to God that I have the stamina and competency to finish it to the finish line.

Ready, get set…. GO!