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Ambition is a powerful thing. It's what drives people. It's the thing that gets you up in the
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morning and what allows you to push through the long days. But what if I told you that ambition
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can be dangerous? That if you aren't careful, you may find yourself doubting the very thing
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that you believe in. And on today's episode, I'll be going over the one character who went from
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unshakable confidence in herself and her purpose to questioning if she was even needed in the world
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anymore. And I'm talking about the main character of the Legend of Korra, Avatar Korra.
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Hey, what's going on guys? My name is Nate and you're listening to the Otaku Liberation,
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a show where we help you break the chains that hold you back in your life by connecting biblical
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principles with themes from your favorite anime. Without further ado, let's get right on into it.
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So I'm going to start this episode off with understanding Korra's motives. So Korra's motives
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for being the Avatar were adventure, excitement, and a sense of duty. So as anyone who's seen this
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show knows, Korra's whole ambition was being the Avatar. I mean, she was gung-ho about it. She was
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ready to be the Avatar since the day she was born. Like literally, I mean, she was the Avatar when
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she was born, but also her personality, right? She was ready for it even though she wasn't.
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And it's kind of funny because once it was discovered that she was the Avatar, Korra just
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reveled in the power that it brought. Now I'm not saying that she was power hungry, but she did take
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pride in being the Avatar and what it represents. And this is completely unlike Aang's initial reaction
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when he found out he was the Avatar. I mean, when he found out Aang was born under press, then he
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ran away because he didn't want to be the Avatar. He didn't want the responsibility of essentially
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saving the world. But in Korra's case, she was like, yeah, bring it on. I'm ready for this.
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And she was like, five. She was already fire and earthbending as well as waterbending. So she was
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really ready. And this kind of drove her to strive to be the best Avatar that she could be,
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even though she wasn't entirely sure on what that meant. Because when it comes to Korra, she
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was excited to be the Avatar, but she didn't really understand what all came with that.
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I think like I said a lot for a lot of us, we want these goals in mind, or we have these goals in
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mind, we want these things to happen for us. But we don't truly understand the amount of work it
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takes to get there and to maintain it and all these different things. We see all the
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bells and whistles, but we don't understand the amount of work and grind that it takes to
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get to that level. Or maybe you do, and it's still something that's hard to kind of cope with.
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And I know I'm guilty of being so on fire for my dreams that I don't exactly think everything
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through. I just kind of, I'm either one or the other, right? Either I think things
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to death, like I just never take any action, I'm overthinking, and I'm just paralyzed. Or,
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for me trying to compensate for that, I don't think about it at all and say, yeah, we're doing
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this. And then down the road, maybe that wasn't the best idea or decision to make.
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But it's something that I initially struggled with. But then I found this verse
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in the Bible, and it kind of set me straight. And that's Proverbs chapter 19, verse two.
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And it says, even zeal is not good without knowledge. And the one who acts hard on hastily
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sins. So essentially it means slow down, slow down, think things through, don't be so gung-ho
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about things that you are ignoring your preparations. And I think that's the biggest
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thing. And it really comes from having just the proper knowledge in the proper direction.
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Because without those things, even something good can turn out bad or twisted because we
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weren't being careful. And I'm sure most of us have had some pretty big visions about the future,
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right? Who we're going to be, we're going to make a difference in the world, what kind of impact
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we're going to have on it, how we're going to leave our mark. And maybe you don't have
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any specific ideas, but the grand sense of what am I going to do, what am I doing with my life is,
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I believe, the same for all of us in various different levels, right? And again, our mentions
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may be well and good, but they can easily lead us astray if we're not careful.
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In the chorus case, she had some genuinely good intentions about being the Avatar. Again,
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she didn't strive to use her power or position to rule the world or something like that. She just
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took pride in her role and made sure everyone knew it. I mean, go back to all the way back to Episode
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One, when she shows up in Republic City, she's like, yeah, I'm the Avatar. And people are like,
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oh, okay. And it's interesting seeing her journey from, again, Season One all the way through Season
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Four. And of course, any good character development, some things are going to change,
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some things are going to stay the same, but seeing her attitude about being the Avatar
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specifically change and the different ups and downs she goes through, it really humanizes her
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as a character and honestly makes her just as likable for me as Aang was. And it's funny
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seeing the parallel between the two, right? Because again, Aang initially didn't want to be
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the Avatar. He wanted nothing to do with it. He even ran away from his duty. But through his
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trials and adventures and stuff with his teen Avatar, he not only accepted his role, but he
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grew into it. And he took responsibility for it. And of course, it goes from being so excited to
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be the Avatar to, like I said in the intro, to doubting if the Avatar is even needed. And then
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eventually coming full circle to understanding what the title really means and what she needs to do to
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uphold it. So now we know Cora's motivation. Again, her motivation for being the Avatar was
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pretty innocent, but her impulsiveness and headstrong nature got her into situations she
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didn't need to be in. And unfortunately, that was her method for being the Avatar, right? She was
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just impulsive and hotheaded and just ready to charge into things head first. And she was
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a very timid person who wanted to avoid conflict at all times, right? That's that airbender,
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air nomad in him. Of course, like, no, we're just, she's not about that. And I like it. But
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again, that does get her into a lot of trouble and a lot of
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unnecessary conflict that she either she didn't need to get into at all, or it could have been
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handled differently. One example was her first showdown with Amon, the main villain from season
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one. Now Cora feared Amon because of his ability to remove big, big, big, big, big, big, big,
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big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big,
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big, big, big, big, big, big move bending from a person. And that was an ability initially thought
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to only belong to the Avatar. Because before that, Avatar Aang was the only person known to be able
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to take away someone's bending. But here we are with Amon doing these, the exact same thing.
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And instead of sharing those fears that she had with those around her, like Mako, Bolin or Tenzin,
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they had chose to hide from her feelings
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and even lashed out against them by challenging them on.
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And that kind of, well, one, we are,
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those who've seen it know that, of course,
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that backfired, right?
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But it really highlights the fact that
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when we're unsure or afraid of something,
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our judgment can become impaired.
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We aren't really thinking clearly,
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and oftentimes we make decisions based off of our emotions.
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And that barely really, if at all, ever works out.
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And it really causes us to,
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it also takes a couple of steps back
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from what we're even trying to accomplish in the first place.
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I mean, because Cora wanted to put an end to Amon
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and the whole equalist movement, things like that.
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And she thought she could do that by challenging him
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in her own way.
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She thought she was actually confronting her fears,
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but in reality, she was running away from them.
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And it, but in the backfire.
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And I know for me, if I'm acting on my emotions,
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if I don't take the proper time to think about things
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and to really think through what I want to say,
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instead of just saying it, then yeah,
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there are some repercussions to that.
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There's some backlash.
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It may not always be getting beat up like Cora did
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with Amon, but some relationships can be hurt.
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Progress you're making can be taken aback
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and all these different things.
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And so that kind of brings me to this verse.
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That's Proverbs chapter 14, verse 29.
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It says, a patient person shows great understanding,
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but a quick-tempered one promotes foolishness.
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And again, this verse just points out the downsides
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of acting too fast or acting without proper guidance.
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And basically says that, hey, being a hothead
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and just going, charging into things
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is not really the sign of a wise person, right?
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It's a quick way to derail you,
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and sometimes to put you in even more danger.
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So if we allow our emotions to control us,
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then a life of struggle just awaits us,
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just like it did for Cora.
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And man, granted we've only been with two avatars.
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I guess the tendency if you've,
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guess you've looked into the novels about Kyoshi
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and three avatars, but Cora as an avatar
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has suffered countless trauma
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that no other avatar before her has ever had to deal with.
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And these things are integral to her as a character,
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but also just shows how much she really had to go through.
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So for starters, she had her bending taken away from Aman,
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and then she had her connection to the past avatars
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severed by Unalok, and then she was poisoned by Zaheer,
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which left her unable to enter the avatar state for years.
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And all of those traumas stayed with her
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throughout her life.
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Like it made her job that much harder to do.
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And just when she thinks she's over one hump,
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the next one comes, it's just to hit her right in the mouth.
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And all of these events tainted the initial ideal
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that Cora sought out.
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She sought out to be the best avatar,
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but crisis after crisis, trauma after trauma,
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battle after battle left her filled with doubts,
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doubts that the world even needs the avatar.
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And a lot of these come to the forefront
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after her battle with Zaheer.
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She's been poisoned by the metal, she has to recover,
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and really just to even try to get back to normal.
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She's getting a letter from Mako, Bolin, Asami,
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and they're doing these great things of protecting
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the city, the world.
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Asami's rebuilding her company and making leaps and bounds
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in the industrial field.
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Mako's back to being a detective
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and keeping Republic City safe from gang threats
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and things like that.
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Bolin joins, Bolin joins essentially an uprising
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that he doesn't know about yet,
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but they're reuniting the Earth Kingdom
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after Zaheer's, his nonsense, right?
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So they're all making a difference.
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And Cora feels ashamed of that.
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She feels ashamed that she's not out there doing it as well.
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And because she feels like they are doing the job
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that she needs to be doing.
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And all of these things just really putting it down
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in her mind, like, man,
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does the world even need me anymore?
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And I know when it comes from your ideal,
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you know, your ambition,
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the thing that you're striving so hard for,
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but you're taking your loss after loss,
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you know, hit after hit.
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And it's like, why am I even doing this, you know?
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Why am I taking the time out to work on these goals
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to really grind away?
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And I just wanna say those questions are normal
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for I'm sure you can ask anyone
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who's actually made it out there, right?
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Really successful, whether it's in your job,
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a career, their business, things like that.
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I'm sure you can ask any one of them
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and they'll tell you, yeah, those doubts come.
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Those late nights, early mornings,
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when you're up before everybody else,
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you go to bed later than everybody else, you know,
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this is after working a full-time job
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or whatever the case may be.
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And when you put so much time and effort into something,
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but you're not seeing the benefits or the fruits,
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I should say, then yeah, those doubts are gonna come.
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You're like, okay, why am I even doing this?
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What's the point?
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Why am I essentially wasting my time?
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And you don't have to be the avatar
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to feel that type of pressure
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to really doubt why am I even doing this?
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But I will say, just like Cora,
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I mean, we're always gonna bounce back
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because we have to get through those different things
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and you don't have to do it by yourself.
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You know, I'm a firm believer in having a strong community,
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a strong team, whether it's actual family or friends,
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Joe down the street,
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whoever it is that you feel comfortable with
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to share these things with
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and who can encourage and lift you up,
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or even just help you get through it,
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kind of brainstorm.
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I know that helps me a lot.
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Sometimes if I have a mental block or something like that,
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I'll talk to one of my buddies,
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not even about this,
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not even about the podcast or the YouTube channel,
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maybe this stuff, just talking to him in general,
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see what's going on with him and just chopping it up.
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And sometimes like a light bulb will go off
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about the thing I'm thinking about,
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the doubts I'm having.
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I'm like, oh, okay, maybe it's not so bad.
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Maybe I should try it this way instead.
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And that's just what works for me.
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It can be different for you.
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But it is important to figure those types of things out
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and to really sit down and confront those thoughts,
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and confront those doubts.
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Because if we don't, they'll just sit there
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and it'll get worse.
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And then next thing you know, you've given up.
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And we never know how close we are to really succeeding.
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And honestly, for Cora,
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watching her kind of go through this whole process,
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like in real time,
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and it's impressive because despite all of these things
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happening to her,
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Cora was still able to prove herself as the avatar.
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And which is just amazing.
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Cause think about all the trauma I just listed all the day
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that she had to go through.
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Because as much trauma as she went through,
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she always came out on top on the other side, right?
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Cause I guess it'd be a pretty bad story
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if the hero loses hope and just loses, right?
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And her journey wasn't easy, but it wasn't for not either.
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Cause after each trauma,
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she gained something valuable that actually helped her
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become the best avatar that she could be.
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So for instance, even though Amon took away her bending,
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that was the catalyst she needed to unlock airbending
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and to connect to her past lives.
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Cause before then, Cora was super focused
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on the physical side of bending.
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And she was pretty much a master at fire, earth,
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and water bending,
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but she couldn't airbend to save her life.
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Like literally, she just couldn't.
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And she couldn't connect to Aang or any of the past avatars.
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She couldn't even enter the avatar state at will.
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But after Amon took away the rest of her bending,
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she finally was, I guess, low enough,
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desperate enough to connect to the spiritual side of her
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to unlock her airbending and be able to connect to Aang
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and all the other avatars.
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And honestly, just me recording this episode now,
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I mean, think about, that's exactly how God works.
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When we're, sometimes we can get so focused
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on the physical, on what's here on earth, what we see,
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the things like that, that we can't hear him properly.
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And sometimes it does take us being at the lowest
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of the low, to our breaking point,
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to where everything else is taken away from us.
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And then that's when we can hear God's voice
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and follow his direction and guidance, right?
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And get to that next level.
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But sometimes it takes us,
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getting our bending taken away, right?
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And that leads on to what Unuaq did,
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even though he severed her connection to Aang
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and all the past avatars,
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Korra was actually able to let go of the illusion
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that her self-worth was defined by her position
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as the avatar.
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And it really understand that her self-worth
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really came from who she is as a person.
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Because up until that point,
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again, her whole identity was being the avatar
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and the title and all the different things
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and what that meant.
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But after she lost the connection to Aang
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and all the other avatars,
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all the way back to Avatar Wan, the first one,
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she was on her own essentially.
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And she had to figure out how she needed to deal
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with this situation now by herself.
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I mean, of course she had to help from her friends
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and things like that, but as an avatar, it was up to her.
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And from that point onward, it was only up to her.
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I mean, the avatar after her
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is only gonna have Korra to look at, right?
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So she, it really broke down her sense of self
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and she realized, okay,
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I may not make the best decisions all the time,
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but ultimately I'm the avatar
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and I'm gonna do what I need to do
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and not get wrapped up into how did Aang do it,
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how did Roku do it, how did Kyoshi do it,
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how did Wan do it, all these different things.
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And that really shows that we can't compare ourselves
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to other people and where they are,
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how successful they are in the thing
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that we wanna be successful in.
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And really this is just more a message to myself
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and honestly is just to not compare myself to other people,
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the other podcasts or other YouTubers,
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to other people in my field and for my day job, right?
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And to really stay in my own lane
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and work on the things that God told me to work on now
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and let everything else come later
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and just know that my own self-worth,
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my own sense of self isn't tied up
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into how successful I am at something.
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Is my self-worth and who I am is all defined by God, right?
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He loves me, he knows who I am,
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he's made me for a reason, for a purpose.
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And that is where my strength needs to come from
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and my self-worth, not how many views I get on YouTube,
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how many downloads I get for the podcast
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and things like that.
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I know you're me wrong, those things are good.
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So if you're listening, share it with a friend.
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But again, it's not what defines me.
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And Cora then let the fact that her being the avatar
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define her from that point on either.
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And that kind of leads to the last trauma
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that she suffered from Zaheer, right?
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She was poisoned and unable to answer the avatar state
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and was essentially scarred for years after this.
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But recovering from that trauma
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allowed Cora to become more empathetic
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to the point that she was able to forgive Kuvira,
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who was a dictator at the time, despite her many, many crimes.
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Now, that may not seem like much, but if you know Cora,
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especially from the beginning of the series,
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she wasn't the most in touch with her feelings
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type of person.
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She was, like I said, early in the episode,
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she was very gung-ho, headstrong,
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ready to punch first, ask questions later.
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But all of her trials, again,
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especially with the one with Zaheer at the end,
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she became more, again, just more empathetic,
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more understanding of different viewpoints
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in different situations,
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the different way people were thinking,
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and also how she needed to handle these things.
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And all of these trials, so difficult,
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ultimately helped Cora realize her dream
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of being the best avatar she can be.
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She became a full-fledged, wise and spiritual avatar,
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and ultimately the one that Republic City
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and the world needed at that time.
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But they didn't need Aang, they didn't need Roku,
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they didn't need Kyoshi, they needed Cora.
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And whether they knew it or not,
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whether Cora knew it or not,
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that's what they needed.
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They needed a modern avatar who was able to think
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progressively while also keeping the roots
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of what the job meant.
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And so I'll leave you with this.
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Your ambition, whatever it may be,
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is something that should be cherished and pursued,
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but we can't let ourselves be blinded by that ambition.
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Remember why you started and how far you've come.
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Don't place your self-worth on something
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that is only temporary.
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And don't compare your journey to others
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and just keep moving forward.
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So, did you like this episode?
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Let me know in the comment or even a review,
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and please share with whoever you think
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really needs to hear this message.
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And next week, I'll be going over someone
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who I honestly think can solo the entire Avatar universe.
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Okay, maybe except for fully realized avatars,
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but even then I think it would be close.
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But he is someone who sought equality
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and was even willing to destroy
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the balance of the world to get it.
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Can you guess who it is?
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Well, whether you can or not,
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I want you to always remember this.
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You are the main character of your story,
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and that story doesn't end until he says so.
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All right, be blessed.
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I'll see you next time.
