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Today, I want to ask you:


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what does it mean to live free?

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Here in America we all live free. Right?

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We have the freedom of speech,
freedom of religion,

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right to a fair trial,

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but is that all that really exists
to living free?

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For me, it's not.
There's a whole lot more to it.

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It means living your life
pursuing your passion.

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It means living a life
that makes you truly happy,

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Not one that makes your friends happy,

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the celebrities happy,

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one that makes you happy.

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It means not letting the small setbacks


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that are bound to happen

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get in the way of your day-to-day life.

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It means not wishing your days away

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just to get to the weekend.

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I think that a lot of us
aren't living free.

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We let the day-to-day negativities

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get in the way of pursuing
our dreams and our happiness.

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I was fortunate enough just recently

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to be pushed into
the lifestyle of living free.

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It was a very roundabout manner,


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it was a very inopportune situation,

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but I'm grateful for it.

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And I want to share
with you today the story

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of how I was able to break down
internal boundaries

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and build connections with people
who supported me

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and wanted to see me reach my dreams,

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in order to start living free.

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It's January 21st 2013,

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and I've just successfully defended
my Ph.D. in chemistry,

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at Duke University
to a roomful of people.

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As you can imagine I was pretty much
on cloud nine then.

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5 years of 6.5 day workweeks,

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long hours, and I will admit,

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a few tears along the way,
were finally over.

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And not only were they over,
but I was proud.

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I was proud of the work
that I had completed,

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I felt like I had made a contribution


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to the scientific community.

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Also, I had a job lined up,

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which is becoming more and more 
rare these days

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with an advanced degree,

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but that's another topic for another day.

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In mid-February, I was starting a job


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at Redstone Arsenal with the army.

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And I was excited.

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I was going to be pursuing
what I thought was my dream

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in helping our nation defend itself.

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I had everything set for my transition


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from graduate school to the real world.

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We sold our house in North Carolina,

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and my husband, Taylor, 
was able to find a new job,

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here in Huntsville, 
with a financial institution.

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We made the move,
we got settled in

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in our little rental house
here in Huntsville.

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Now it's Friday, and I'm set to start work


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first thing early Monday morning.

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Now, mind you, this is mid-February,


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you guys know what was going on,

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when an email pops up and it reads,

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"We're sorry, your start date
has been delayed.

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and at this time, we are unsure

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as to when we'll be able to hire you."

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Wait a minute, you're kidding, right?

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The job that brought us to Huntsville,

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the only reason that we moved here,


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has now fallen through.

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And I'm left unemployed.

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What do we do?

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We could go back to North Carolina,


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we have our friends there.

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But we have no house, we have no jobs,

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wherever we go, we have to start over.

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In our short amount of time
here in Huntsville,

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we realized that we liked the city,

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and we thought that
we could really enjoy it here

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and make this a home.

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So, we decided, "We're young,

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why not stay, give it a try?"

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Fortunately, Taylor had a job here


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and so we had some income coming in

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to support us for a while,


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until I figured out 
what I was going to do.

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I enjoyed, initially, staying at home,

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the house was clean,
dinner was on the table every night.

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It was very different
from graduate school life.

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I enjoyed relaxing --
for about two weeks.

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I found out that staying at home


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does not suit my personality very well.

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I needed to have a purpose.

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I needed to be challenged.

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I needed to be happy,
and I needed to be free.

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So, what did I do?

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I started a business.

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Now, if you ask any of our friends
back in North Carolina

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if I was the type of person

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to ever launch out 
and start my own business,

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they would laugh,
probably pretty hysterically.

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Not that I'm not creative or driven;

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I am not a risk taker.

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I have a huge fear of the unknown,

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and I like to micromanage,


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I like to have everything planned out,

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know all the steps along the way.


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I am a chemist, after all.

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Launching a new business
requires substantial risk,

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and this just wasn't any business --

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I wanted to open
a dedicated gluten-free bakery,

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here in Huntsville, Alabama,

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in the South, home of fried food.

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Hmm, let's see, that might not
go over so well.

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Having a severe 
gluten sensitivity myself,


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I was surprised with how little awareness,

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and how many baked goods there were

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available here in Huntsville.

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I've always loved to bake,

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and my husband's always
dreamed of owning a business.

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Now a bakery, probably,
had never crossed his mind --

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but the things you do
for the people you love, right?

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So, I knew that in order
to launch this business,

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I needed to take a risk.

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Sometimes I think that 
the biggest boundaries that we face

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are the ones that we set for ourselves.

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We build up walls that limit us,

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and they're completely self-imposed.

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Since I like to micromanage,

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Taylor and I sat down and started
looking at all the numbers.

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We looked at, you know,
the sales that we would have to do

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to simply pay rent
on a commercial kitchen,

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let alone equipment, utilities,
insurance, all of the other stuff.

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I said, "There's no way.

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There can't be 
that many people in Huntsville

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that either need to be gluten-free 


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or are interested in a cleaner lifestyle."

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I wanted to throw in the towel.

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I said, "There's no way, it won't work."

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My fear of the unknown
was getting in the way.

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I wasn't willing to take that risk.

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One of the other crucial pieces
to living free,

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besides breaking your own boundaries,

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is building connections with people

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who support you and help build you up.

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Taylor, my husband,

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he knew that this would make me happy,

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he knew that it was one of my dreams.

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He said, "Let's do it."

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I resisted, I resisted for a long time.

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He said, "No, let's do it.
Let's give it a shot.

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If it fails, it fails.
We can say that we tried."

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And so we did.

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We started out small,


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within the means that I was comfortable,

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started out the farmers' markets,

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to kind of gauge the interest in the area,

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before we launched a full storefront.

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We got great feedback,

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everything was going well,

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we were planning for the opening
of our storefront,

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when I get a phone call:

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"Your job has become re-available,

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and you're required to take it."

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I was under a service
for scholarship contract,

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and, even though I have been left
unemployed for 6 months,

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I was required to come back
and take the job.

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We're at a crossroads again.
What do we do?

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I'm happy, I'm loving the bakery,
I've found my passion,

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I am living my dream,
I am living free.

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I didn't know what to do.
I thought we had to walk away.

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How can I run a bakery and work full-time?

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At the time, my husband,
he wasn't really happy with his job.

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It wasn't fulfilling him.
He wasn't living free.

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Here comes Superman again,
saving the day.

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He says, "I'll quit my job,

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I'll run the bakery."

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"You, baking cupcakes!?"

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You're Superman at home, you wear a cape.

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But wearing an apron,
that's a whole nother thing.

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He says, "I know it makes you happy.

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I'm not happy right now.

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Maybe I can find
the same passion that you have.

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Maybe I can start living free."

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So, he quits his job.

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Me, not being a risk taker,

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it's a lot of sleepless nights.

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Now, for six months in to the business,

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things are going great.

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Taylor's running the bakery
during the day.

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I work the early shift on the Arsenal,

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and then go and bake in the evenings.

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We're happy.

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Are we where we thought we would be?

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If you would have asked us this
a year ago, well, no.

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Are we making the money

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that we had planned on making
here in Huntsville?

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Oh, by no means, no.

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But does that matter?
Because we're happy,

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and we're living free.

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Taylor will tell you he gets up


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every morning over two hours earlier,

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but he's excited to start his day.

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That passion, that excitement,
that's how we should live

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every day of our life.

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So, I want to ask you:

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Are you living free?

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A lot of the speakers 
that have been up here today,

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I can tell that they are.

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You can see the passion,

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you can feel the joy of what they do,

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and that joy is contagious.

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So, if you are living free, I commend you,

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keep up the good work
and continue spreading the joy.

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But if you're not, I challenge you.

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It's going to require breaking
some of your boundaries.

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You have to find your passion,


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and it might require taking a risk.

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But build connections with those
that build you up,

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and that support your dreams,

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and start living free.

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Tomorrow is almost here.

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Do you want to waste another day?

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Thank you.

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(Applause)