[ WP ] A true personal story that makes the reader feel sonder ( the realization that each random passerby ( here , the writer ) is living a life as vivid and complex as your own ( here , the reader ) ) .

At the end of this month, it will have been a year. 
 
 One year since I completely changed my life, and who knows where I might have been otherwise? A year ago I worked in a mall, on a steady track to management. Living in a ghetto, with an out of date Jeep, barely making rent *and* getting groceries in the same month, and dealing with a general manager who seemed intent to make my life Hell... well that is no way to live at all. And besides, at that rate, how was I ever going to make it to the UK and be with my fiance? 
 
 So I grabbed fate by the throat and bent it to my will. My fiance had put an option before me I'd never considered before, and the career choice was risky, sure... but the payoff would be amazing. Do you know how it feels, to go from borderline poverty to living more than comfortably? To being able to take three weeks off from work and travel to another country. Learning a trade that makes me valuable enough to gain work almost anywhere in the world. 
 
 All because I took a risk, and made the choice to be daring. Sail the world, meet all the people in it, and eventually... someday... I might be driving those ships myself. I can hardly even find the words to describe this feeling, having gone from scraping by to being able to support a family fully on my own. This is why I will *always* tell people to take that chance. 
 
 You never know what waits for you on the other side of one year.
